“Free Market” — this approach to economics is very good at producing wealth for persons and families who are already wealthy, but falls quite short of engendering justice or well-being for the rest of America’s citizens. That includes food injustice. Inequity in the quantity and especially in the quality of food available for the Fox Valley’s poorest is the norm in America’s “free market economics.’
To learn a better way, Crystal, Veronica, and Gabrielleof The Just Food Initiative’s Leadership Team attended a presentation October 12 at Chicago’s Loyola University. Dr. Tony Annett, professor, and author of the new book Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy, expounded on economic theories in which the common good, not the good of the wealthy, would take precedence in the just economic life of any country.
“You don’t have to be Catholic to realize the urgency of Dr. Annett’s more balanced view,” noted the three JFI leaders. He strongly proposes resisting the “free market” ideology, stressing instead “the preferential option for the poor.”
All three leaders returned to the Valley with concrete ideas about to lead “the poor” of our Fox Valley into quality food options instead of cheap leftovers, corporate handouts, and generous but low nutrient donations from local individuals.
— Just Food Initiative of the Fox Valley