In Honor of Marti: the Suffragist Movement, Labor Unions and a Little Brown Dog

This blog entry is dedicated to the memory of my dear friend and Food Empowerment Project supporter Marti Kheel, who passed away late last year. Marti and I were both passionate about the importance of the interconnections between the issues of animal exploitation and the rights of women and workers, especially knowing that their combination truly made history.

For those of you who support Food Empowerment Project, one of the reasons you probably do so is because of the connections we make between various causes for justice. A number of years ago, I was able to spend time with a long-time animal rights activist who has been active both in England and in the US. He told me about an important episode in the anti-vivisection movement. (Vivisection is the live experimentation on animals, and anti-vivisectionists are those of us who oppose this practice.)

The reason why I love this story is the mix of people who were involved. Many might have had their own reasons for acting – but the power of their passions is why this is now a part of history.

This is a much longer and more detailed and important story than I am giving space to. My main goal is to make sure people know of it and understand its importance.

The story begins in 1902 in England. Louise Lind-af-Hageby and Leisa Schartau enrolled at the London School of Medicine for Women with the intent of learning about what went on in vivisection laboratories. Though the college itself did not allow vivisection, guest speakers would occasionally lecture on the subject and demonstrate animal experimentation.

During a guest lecture, the two women witnessed the vivisection of a brown dog and noticed that the dog had “an unhealed wound” on his side, which indicated he had recently been used for another experiment. They marked this in their diaries. They eventually chose not to pursue a degree and took their information about the multiple experiments on the same dog to the head of the National Anti-Vivisection Society, who determined it was in violation of the Cruelty to Animals Act of 1876, which specified that “a vivisected animal could not be revived after one experiment and used for another.”

The vivisector was angry about this accusation and sued for libel. There was a court case and it was decided the vivisector had been defamed. But after the trial, the public had not only been educated about vivisection, but had been awakened by this case, and in 1906 a memorial in honor of the brown dog was erected at a park in the London neighborhood of Battersea. One of the cool things about the Battersea area is that Battersea General Hospital did not support or engage in any vivisection. How many hospitals do we have like that today? It makes me wonder if the anti-vivisection movement has moved forward or regressed.

Additionally, it's important to note that Battersea was considered to be a very progressive area. Many of the people in support of the efforts for the brown dog were unionists (workers supporting labor unions) and suffragists (mostly women advocating for a woman's right to vote).

On November 20, 1907, a group of thirty students from University College and Middlesex Hospital purchased a massive hammer and crow bar and set out to destroy the statute of the brown dog. They were stopped by the police, who were tipped off. These students also started to attend suffragette meetings in an attempt to disrupt them – even though not all the people in attendance were opposed to vivisection. It is believed that the students started to view the anti-vivisectionists and the suffragist’s movement as one and the same.

The male medical students, known as "Brown Doggers" and who supported using animals for experimentation, began once again to turn their aggression against the statue of the brown dog, which to many represented a victim – their victim.

They began organizing demonstrations, one of which was in Trafalgar Square, but they were pushed back by “groups of workingmen.”

These protests involving those who were against the brown dog statue and those striving to protect him went down in history as riots. Yes, riots in order to protect the statute of a brown dog.

A majority of the suffragists were from more affluent backgrounds, and they were typically at odds with the working class (the unionists). Many women in the working class (just like now) were trying to figure out how to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads, and so to hear these women talk of “a vote” seemed like asking for a luxury. According to one writer, “Working men jeered at the suffragettes in order to protect their own livelihood and restricted sphere of social influence, and when they turned out in Battersea to defend the brown dog, they were protecting themselves against the vivisector’s knife.”

Even though these working class men did not support the suffragists, they could relate to the exploitation of the animals, feeling themselves exploited by those in power. Perhaps the young medical students (who from my reading have all been men and were also typically from affluent backgrounds) saw this emotion for the brown dog as a threat to science.

Women at this time were being treated as property and were questioning their own rights in society, which of course was a direct threat to men. When they fought for their rights, they were jailed and force fed while in prison. It's easy to recognize the similarities between how these women were mistreated and the mistreatment of animals then and now. (If you want a quick history lesson on how suffragettes were treated in the US, watch the 2004 film Iron Jawed Angels.)

Both the workers and the women were able to identify with the suffering of not only the brown dog, but all animals imprisoned and treated as commodities because they themselves were not held in high regard in society at the time.

I am retelling this story as a way to show the importance of the interconnections of what I do and talk about for Food Empowerment Project. I'm convinced that we are stronger when we work to connect issues of injustice, and when we work together, we can open more minds to fight the oppressors and free the oppressed.

What happened to the statue of the brown dog? Eventually it was taken down due to the turmoil it was causing, but many decades later, a new one was erected.

Once again, I relate this time in history in honor of Marti Kheel, who used her passion for justice and compassion to make the connections we all need to continue to make to create a better world for all living beings and our planet. We miss you and love you, Marti.

I want to thank Kim Stallwood for introducing me to this amazing piece of history and the time he shared with me when he was in the states. And I don’t find him to be so grumpy.

Photo credit: National Anti-Vivisection Society (UK)

Putting the Focus on Community Input

One of the first projects that Food Empowerment Project took on was to look at access to healthy foods in communities of color and low-income communities in Santa Clara County, home of the well-to-do Silicon Valley. We surveyed more than 200 locations that sold food (non-restaurants and fast food), such as grocery stores, convenience stores and liquor stores.

In August of 2010, we released the results in our report, Shining A Light on the Valley of Heart’s Delight: Taking a Look at Access to Healthy Foods in Santa Clara County’s Communities of Color and Low-Income Communities.

In our report, we gave only a few recommendations. The reason for this is because we believe that those living in impacted communities are the ones who should decide what they want – not outside agencies or governments. My concern has been that not listening to the communities is why some initiatives have failed.

As an all-volunteer organization (at this time), we do not have the in-house expertise to conduct the type of work necessary to carry out what would be the next phase of our project, so we put out a call for assistance.

While waiting for a researcher, we were lucky to have support from professors and students from Santa Clara University, who used our data to create GIS maps of impacted districts.

Eventually, we garnered the support of Stanford University’s Food Summit. They paired us with a former student, who was able to work with a professor to decide the best direction we should go in for this effort. Among their important feedback was that focus groups were the best next step.

We created a plan for Phase three (which we shared with you at the end of the year).

In addition to having the right questions and the right plan was having a great facilitator. While attending an event put on by a group in East San Jose (Somos Mayfair), I was able to see Lisa Castellanos (whom I had already met) in action; she had all of the right skills, and we were thrilled she was eager to assist!

From there we gathered a great team of volunteers to take notes and videotape the focus groups. Each participant from the community was paid $50 for their time (2 hours) and fed a free vegan meal – vegan tamales, rice and beans.

We did three focus groups with community organizations in San Jose located in some of the most impacted areas in Santa Clara County: Somos Mayfair, Sacred Heart Community Services and CommUniverCity.

Although policy makers at the city, county and state levels were all contacted, none of them attended even briefly to show their support. I had met with them previously, and all had expressed an interest in the issue. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. All I was hoping they or an aide would do would be attend the events and say a few words as to why the community members were important and why they were serious about working on this issue. At least one city council member did respond to express an interest.

We will release a report later with our findings, but just a preview (keep in mind these were all conducted in Spanish):

• One focus group discussed a particular store in their community (not a convenience or liquor store) where some of the food was moldy. It made them wonder if the store’s management believed that’s all their customers are worth.

• In every focus group, it was noted that when one neighbor would go to the store they would check around to see if anyone else needed anything. Neighbors often borrowed food from each other without any type of ledger being kept on who owed whom what. This made me start thinking: is this out of need or because of culture? I can’t imagine ever asking ANY of my neighbors to assist or even asking them to borrow any food item. Is it because I have only ever lived in apartments, or is it because I have never truly needed to? They referred to this as “trueque”: a type of bartering based on mutuality and social expectation.

• Participants emphasized the close relationship they have with food: to taste, to feel, to smell. They clearly care about what they feed their families, which is counter to the misconception many people have about communities of color: that they don't care what their kids eat and prefer to give them fast, easy food. On the contrary, all the participants talked about their weekly shopping excursions to find the best, freshest products. They are, as Lisa Castellanos puts it, domestic strategists, and they were excited to share how they make meal preparation miracles happen every day. This is important information as many have suggested a possible solution could be food-delivery services, such as those offered by Safeway, which simply may not be successful in these communities.

• In every focus group at least one person was familiar with what vegan meant, and in two of the focus groups, a parent had a child who was vegan for ethical reasons. Again, this type of information and their interest in vegan food preparation would not have been revealed were it not for the fact that we were asking these types of questions.
  
  
• As we also asked about access to vegan foods such as soymilk and “meat” alternatives, there was discussion about lactose intolerance and also a desire to have more options.

Food Empowerment Project wants to thank all of our donors who support us, as this was a costly and important aspect of our work, and we could not have done it without your financial support.

We also want to give a big thanks to Stanford University’s Food Summit, Flacos, Antonella Dewell, Katie Gera, Lisa Castellanos, Thoi Pham, Mark Hawthorne, Jessica Sanchez (and her mom), Nicole Latham, Martin Saunders, Iris Stewart-Frey, Katherine Connors, Emily Francis, and all of the community groups that participated: Somos Mayfair, Sacred Heart Community Services and CommUniverCity.

We look forward to sharing our results with you!

The 95%

When discussing what to post on Facebook for National Bird Day on January 5, my partner and I agreed that although ducks and turkeys should be recognized, we should talk about chickens raised for meat. Why? Because of the 10 billion land animals killed for food in the U.S. each year, more than nine billion of them are chickens. In fact, my partner said, they are the 95% and that's when the image you see was born.

Food Empowerment Project supports the ideals of both the Occupy movement and Occupy the Hood, so it got my more creative mind thinking about the issues we work closely on.

Many of us are familiar with part of the impetus for the 99% movement, where the richest 1% of the population makes the rules.

As a Chicana who is clearly part of the 99%, I often start to wonder about those who are barely part of the 99%. Those whose income is not that of the middle class and, in fact, those who aren’t even on the radar. That would include many farm workers and those who are and are not documented. Those who work hard to put food on our tables and participate in our economy by their purchases. Where do they fit in?

The Occupy movement has really worked to bring in all sorts of people, from unions to college students.

And, what if the chickens decided to “Occupy.” Where do you think they would start?

Wall Street? It might be fitting since this is where cows used to be slaughtered.

Or would they pick a fast food restaurant such as McDonald’s or KFC? After all, they are responsible for raising and killing billions of these amazing birds for food.

Or rather, I would like to think that each individual bird would actually choose to sit with one person. One chicken per person to spend time with them. Most people have never spent time with chickens or with the living animals they eat. They could explain to people what they enjoy in their life, like dust bathing and scratching in the earth, and the hens could talk about family and how well they take care of their chicks. They could show each person that they are more than a ‘leg’ or a 'wing' and they indeed are not nuggets.

Just as those in the 99% movement are showing their determination and tenacity while speaking for so many of us, the chickens could really help people have a better understanding of how much they and other non-human animals are capable of enjoying their lives.

The world will be a better place when we remind ourselves that even as the 'minority' we can have an important and positive impact on the world when speaking for those who are the most vulnerable, and we will never stop fighting.

Hash brown Stick w/Ketchup

Hash brown stick with ketchup. That is one of the things you would have had for lunch this week if you were an elementary school student in the Alum Rock Unified School District.

I try to picture what it would look like. Would it be on a Popsicle stick? Would grease be running down the sides?

I don’t have children, but I am well aware that schools don't typically offer the healthiest of foods for their students.

A wonderful community group in San José called Somos Mayfair recently surveyed members in their community regarding the school lunch program. I volunteered to enter some of the data and then participated in their community meeting to discuss the results.

The entire event was in Spanish, and although the meeting was not as well attended as they had hoped for, the energy in the room was overwhelming. I sat at a table with a woman and her two children. Her son, about 5, was eating baby carrots, watermelon and popping fresh garbanzo beans out of the pods into his mouth. I asked if he ate like this all of the time, and his mother said he does when he is at home because he loves his veggies.

The cafeteria menu* for that district was shown to me for that school was anything but healthy. Here are some of the options for breakfast: breakfast pizza, cinnamon glazed pancake, pork sausage biscuit and Trix yogurt. Some of the healthier options included whole grain cereal and applesauce cup.

Lunch: chicken hot dog w/ketchup, French bread pizza, PBJ sandwich (not so bad!), mini cheeseburger w/ketchup, turkey soft taco w/taco sauce, beef-and-bean burritos, corn dogs and chicken nuggets and hash brown stick w/ketchup.

The menu does show that they have some sort of salad bar available, however, as someone who first went vegetarian when I was in elementary school, I don’t imagine I could eat salad every day in fact when I was in college many years ago, I became anemic because of salads being my only option.

We discussed different things that needed to be done and, well, my suggestion of having the Child Nutrition Services Board eat from the school lunch menu for at least two weeks got a positive reaction.

The findings in the surveys showed that even though the majority of the children qualified for the free-lunch program, many didn’t take advantage of it because the food being offered was so unhealthy.

And what about any of the kids who have a strong love and compassion for animals? What are their options? Again, they should be given choices – not to mention that these types of choices will lead them to eating healthier food as they get older.

But, I started to wonder if I compared the school lunch menus of the students who live in the Mayfair neighborhood in East San José to those who live in Palo Alto. The Mayfair neighborhood (where Cesar Chavez lived at one point) is made up of immigrants, mostly from Mexico. And, well, Palo Alto is a very affluent area.

I just couldn’t imagine students in Palo Alto eating these types of meals.

So, for this blog, I looked it up:

Palo Alto School District Menu
http://pausd.org/parents/services/MealPlans/downloads/ElementarySchoolsMenu.pdf

Sample of some of the Lunch options: Hearty Garden Salad with Sunflower Seeds or Cheese Ravioli with Wheat Roll, Bean & Cheese Burrito, Assorted Vegetables, Assortment of Fruit, or Minnie Mouse Salad with Wheat Roll, Hamburger on Whole Wheat Bun, or Bosco Sticks with Marinara Sauce.

Alum Rock Unified School District Menu:
http://childnutrition.arusd.org/schools/aruesd_2904102043473906/menus/Elementary_Menu.pdf

Right. No surprises.

I am sure that people can explain economics and the reasons why, but personally I don’t care about any excuses regarding economics; I care about equality, and I care about justice.

So not only do people of color and low-income communities face a lack of healthy foods in their neighborhoods as compared to others, but they suffer this same injustice in the PUBLIC schools?

This is wrong and no words can make it any better.

But hopefully with more groups like Somos Mayfair asking tough questions of those in charge, changes can happen and kids, regardless of their background, can grow up healthy and happy.

*Thank goodness for California’s new law; with SB 1413, California schools are required to provide access to drinking water in the meal areas. Yes, without that, the students wouldn’t have access.