About

About the blog:

Here’s the thing: I used to hate food.

I grew up in large, traditional Puerto Rican family in the middle of the suburbs. Partially because of my surroundings, I rejected anything Puerto Rican, most notably the food. I refused to even try bacalao and chicharrones, I didn’t like habichuelas and I only ate arroz con pollo if I was forced to.

But, really, I just hated to eat. My parents were lucky if they could get me to eat an entire slice of pizza. The only thing I would eat without (fighting) was Chips-a-hoy chocolate chip cookies (the blue bag).

As a child, I was not underfed, but I was very skinny, much to the dismay of my large, traditional Puerto Rican family.

Growing up, I often thought life would be easier if humans didn’t have to eat; we would be able to save money, we wouldn’t have to worry about choosing healthy foods and I wouldn’t have to fight with my family every time I sat down at the dinner table. I never had any desire to cook, partially because of the fact that I never wanted to give anyone the impression that I intended to spend my life cooking and cleaning for my future husband and kids. (My grandmother once asked me, “If you don’t learn how to cook, how are you ever going to find a husband?” so, please, understand where I’m coming from.) I rarely made an appearance in the kitchen unless it was to make a peanut butter sandwich.

When I got to college, my diet consisted largely of, not six food groups, but six foods: fast food, Chef Boyardee, Mac n Cheese, ramen noodles, sandwiches and the occasional poorly made meal. I started to realize how important being able to cook is, and I tried to teach myself, but with little success.

My views on food changed dramatically during my sophomore year when I wrote a story for my campus newspaper. Members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers gave a talk about the conditions in which tomato-pickers in Florida work. The farmworkers are almost all Latino, many of whom are undocumented. They work for very low wages, which many times they are denied. There were even specific cases of farmworkers being beaten in the field and denied water and access to bathrooms. It was, by all accounts “modern-day slavery.” I was stunned, and I realized I had never before considered where my food originated from, nor did I have a clue of the true cost of producing that food.

Later I learned of the some of the other conditions in which farmworkers work when I again covered a story for my campus paper. That time my school hosted a panel discussion of women farmworkers and advocates who were speaking out about three of the factors that harm women in the fields: sexism, low pay and pesticides. They recounted the story of a group of migrant women who all gave birth to babies born with severe birth defects; there was evidence that the defects had been caused by pesticides that the women were exposed to.

Later still, I visited Apopka, a rural town located less than an hour away from my university. Apopka had been the site of agriculture throughout the twentieth century. Most of the farms located there were finally shut down in the 1990s when the government became aware that pesticide run-off and dumping into Lake Apopka had turned the area into a certifiable ecological disaster (the lake is home to two superfund sites). When the farms were closed, the farmworkers who lived on them were forced to leave their homes without warning or pay. Although the farms are deserted, the residual effects remain: many of the workers have become sick with numerous diseases as a result of working in the fields.

My activism and passion for social justice causes led me to befriend many people who felt the same way. That led to an understand of the benefits of healthier eating as a lifestyle, eating natural, unprocessed food, organic food and a vegetarian and vegan diet.

During my senior year of school, I produced a documentary about farmworkers in Florida. I thought it was a good opportunity to bring awareness to the subject. This blog was first created as a companion site for the film. I’ve decided to expand the project and continue blogging about food and food politics.

I believe food is the ultimate example of the intersectionality of oppression: it’s the nexus of so many social justice causes. For example, Latino workers
fast food deserts (poverty, racism, lack of access to food)
Food is necessary to live. It should be a natural right to have access to healthy food.

Thanks for reading and thanks for visiting my blog. To read more about me and some of the other work I’ve done, please visit biancafortis.com

*Header photo by aidswarrio.