WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The pandemic has shown the fragility of the nation’s food system, but it has also provided some great opportunities, according to Malik Yakini, co-founder and executive director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN).

Yakini spoke March 3 during the first day of the 2022 Indiana Small Farm Conference. The virtual-only conference will offer weekly seminars throughout the month.

“Many Americans were shocked in March of 2020 to see empty grocery store shelves either on the news or in the neighborhoods,” he explained. “We’ve learned the American economy is subject to global events. Inflation is at its highest in 40 years. Retail food is experiencing the highest inflation of all sectors of the economy. We will undoubtedly see continued price increases as a result of Russia’s war on the Ukrainian people.”

There have also been opportunities in these difficult times, including for small farm operations, Yakini pointed out.

“The multi-faceted crisis that we face has convinced many of the need for small scale sustainable regenerative agriculture, both for the positive impacts it has on human health, when we have access to more vibrant, more deep, nutrient-dense clean food, and also for the environment. We know that the current industrial conventional food system spews tremendous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, leaches tremendous amounts of pesticides and herbicides into the groundwater, which in turn empties into rivers and streams, which in turn empties into lakes and oceans.”

Over the course of the pandemic, many people have reflected on their own health and mortality, and on the undeniable interconnectedness of communities, nations and humanity, Yakini said. “The past two years have given us the opportunity to witness and reflect on both the positive attributes, and the troubling tendencies, within humanity. We’ve been challenged to think about what it means to become more fully human, to think about how we protect the most downtrodden and vulnerable of the human family.”

The pandemic has made it clear that racial and economic inequities are exacerbated in times of crisis, he stated. The poor and marginalized are more vulnerable as communities scramble for valuable resources and public services, Yakini added.

During the pandemic, we learned food system workers, particularly farm workers and meat-packing plant workers, are particularly vulnerable, he said. “We’ve learned that funders are willing to throw tremendous amounts of money at addressing short-term food insecurity but are less inclined to make the deep, long-term investments required to build the infrastructure needed for resilient local food systems.”

DBCFSN has a seven-acre urban farm in Detroit and is working to open a building that will feature a co-op grocery store in the city’s North End.

“Many (across the country) have been convinced of the need for food cooperatives and other community self-reliance initiatives,” Yakini noted. “Many have become convinced of the need for an end to the great racial and economic disparities that have plagued this nation since its beginning.”

The tremendous potential of this moment will only be realized if we seize the time, he noted.

“We are the drivers of history. We’re not simply something that other powerful forces act on. We have the responsibility in this time of organizing our communities to build and support models of the type of farming and food system that we want to bring into being.”

Working to create such a food system is important for a number of reasons, Yakini said. Food is a great unifier, and food systems impact every other system in society, such as transportation, land use, education and health care.

He said the work ahead includes mobilizing and organizing the populace around racial justice, food sovereignty efforts, land redistribution and other critical issues. We have the responsibility to relentlessly challenge laws, policies and practices that impede equity, he stated.

Yakini said we also have the responsibility of grappling with the central issue facing the food movement: “How do we make high-quality food accessible and affordable to all regardless of so-called race, class or geography, while at the same time paying food system workers fair, livable wages. Clearly, the struggle to create a fair and just food system must be wedded with the struggle to eliminate poverty.”