Neoliberal Issues In America

For generations, activists and legislators have strived and struggled to approach the subject of the unequal resource distribution across the nation. Typical discourses have concentrated on the dilemma between espousals of feigned concerns for insecure and impoverished people, while simultaneously projecting particular anxieties with supporting their dependency on the state. For the past three decades, US policy has positioned itself in conjunction with neoliberal philosophy, composed with the intention to discourage political aid. Not necessarily to foster an environment of starvation, but rather to encourage private individual living without state intervention. However, the consequence of neoliberal policy often results in marginalized identities,

specifically people of color and women, left to navigate without a safeguard. Unfortunately, neoliberal interests control the contemporary conversations regarding the food crisis, ignoring the systemic issues of food insecurity and the specific identities it targets.

To be free from hunger is not a privilege nor is it a luxury; it is a human right as recognized by international law, Article 11 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Spieldoch 4). However, there is a presently marked difference between the right to be free from hunger and the right to food. Where the right to be free from hunger recognizes an arbitrary quantity of food required for survival, the right to food must conceptualize the humanity in its populace. There has to be a careful consideration for the people who the law affects, "people in statistical or abstract and idealized economic systems need only ingest sufficient calories, proteins, vitamins, etc. They just need a certain 'intake' of food. But for real human beings the quality of the access to food is what always counts" (Künnermann and Epa-Ratjen 3). Food quality and cultural suitability for its consumer is significant, in addition to a right to food, people also have a right to dignity. To deny ones dignity is to deny their citizenship to the state, as well as their humanity. Consciously thinking about hungry peoples' personhood is multifaceted, it is not just about considering their calorie intake, but recognizing both the nutritional and cultural aspects of eating. Moreover, a person's right to food should not negate any of their other rights, including the right to religious freedom. Hungry individuals should not have to compromise their convictions to eat.

While perpetuations of the "starving third world" narrative do exist at the forefront of the popular dialogue, hunger is not bound to any specific region.

Hunger is not dependent on a country's access to food, “food surpluses [can] coexist with hunger and malnutrition—even in the same country. It is not the availability of food, but access to food for the vulnerable and deprive people who lack it[,] that is the real issue” (Künnermann and Epal-Ratjen 1). Evidence of the US' food crisis exists throughout the public consciousness, despite the country's beloved meritocratic model. Media is regularly expressing the wealth and income disparity in the country, and the strain to survive in poverty, moreover, the insufficient governmental services that minimize that strain. Political policies like the minimum wage do not account for the unstable economy and the cost of living in a modern era, having been frozen in the Great Recession of 2008. The sheer number of communities in need of additional governmental support in the US consequently also reveals the national food crisis. Food insecurity manifests when "culturally appropriate and nutritious food" is economically, physically and socially inaccessible (Wittman et al. 3). In the land of the free, 12.3% (5.6 million) of U.S. households were food insecure at some time during 2016 (ERS). Food insecurity, not only about feeding the nation, but is also indicative of other social and political inconsistencies within a cultural

hegemony.

Economic neoliberal ideology centers on a conceptual promotion of privatization and minimal public assistance. Neoliberal philosophy is defined as a " theory of political-economic practices that proposes that human wellbeing can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free trade" (Wittman et al. 18). Neoliberalism extends further than just the economic resurgence of the free market; it pervades the social as well as the political. Furthermore, it is an intrusive entity whose values propagate throughout the entirety of US identity. It is the idea of the American Dream, the meritocracy, where regardless of creed, race or gender the free market is readily available to solely those who work hard enough. As a representation of the Western capitalistic culture, neoliberalism serves to promote this specific mindset that often neglects various systemic impediments for oppressed peoples.

The 1980s corporate food regime follows the neoliberal, laissez-faire market model, in which privately owned large food corporations are the controllers of the economy. Additionally, international regulations are limited, allowing for more lax exchanges.