In my choice of praxis I decided that I would shop local and at small minority run businesses, in particular a local Black grocery store. At the time of my choosing I knew and had laid a foundation as to why this was an important option to display my own ecofeminist social justice praxis. In the beginning stages of my own thoughts on this I know capitalist practices serve as the main form of dominion over the environment so it was important to me to serve as a direct actor that would attempt to course correct this power that patriarchy and capitalism have or those under them in a social hierarchy . As multiple scholars attested to, capitalism serves as a form of domination over women and nature, ecofeminist “Shiva also published, with Maria Mies, a German, Marxist sociologist, Ecofeminism: Reconnecting a Divided World (1993). In this book the authors connect the capitalist-patriarchal economic system with the oppression of women in both the northern and southern hemispheres” (Hobgood Oster page 7). With that being said my main goal in my social justice praxis was to consciously spend my dollars with smaller local shops /businesses to potentially drive economic attraction to them as we know from activists like Shiva, women and marginalized peoples endure hard economic realities as compared to their male counterparts.

 My belief for where I could do the most good was intrinsically rooted in consciously spending my own dollars. For the marginalized people who are affected by harsh individualism, I thought how could I be in community but also  shift the monetary dominance dynamic into the hands of the marginalized. This Black owned grocery’s store, which sources a lot of their produce from local and ethical means, seemed like a great place to divert my funds. I hope that through my own personal awakening with this ecofeminist practice, that more attention and thus people’s pockets  will come to shop small and local more and more.

From visiting Bumpys’ over the course of my praxis I learned that Bumpys’ Natural andOrganic Foods Store got its name from the owner, Derryl “Bumpy” Gibbs. Bumpy, the owner, struggled most of his life with severe allergies and had to switch to a vegan plant based diet in his early adult life. Bumpy, who I met one afternoon in his grocery store, was very welcoming and actually took it upon himself to chat and walk around the store with me for a bit while I told him about my school assignment but the larger picture, he listened while I spoke about my intentions for shopping  to support small local shops  in the community. He agreed and said that based on location he was excited to be a pillar of wellness and connection through ethically sourced food for the people of Springfield, Ma.

 What I also appreciated very much is that all of the workers in the shop were women too. I have included a picture from an article on Bumpy’s where there are two women who work in the grocery store. I did find that buying entirely organic is more expensive per grocery trip, but I was still finding why to cut the costs a bit. What I found by visiting Bumpy’s over the course of this assignment is that Bumpys’  is a source of good for the plant, people, and place. They compost their food straps from their juice bar, take a percentage off your purchase when you bring your own reusable bags, and  have a section dedicated to Black owned food brands. I do feel as though this plan was successful, however tangible economic results will have to be achieved with more time, people and attraction to shopping smaller. I would love to continue going there regularly, having great conversations with the owner about the traffic into the store. I plan to continue to visit, bring food straps and be a patron at the Bumpy’s and any other stores and entities  that align with supporting these communities.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to putting the ecofeminist principles into motion. The most important thing is to approach this subject matter with clarity and practicality. I thought up until the last few moments on what I would put into practice for the end of semester praxis project. Ultimately what really resonates with me is “thinking carefully about where I spend my money”, similarly like the article says 13 simple ways to support feminist activism on International Women’s Day” says, “Choosing to shop with ethical brands that ensure a fair wage and a safe working environment is an act of feminism and a huge push towards equality, not only bet

ween genders but also between different groups of women” (Devaney & Crockett). My idea for the practice is to intentionally shop/ buy from only small, local, women, ethical, and environmentally conscious stores/ brands for the next fourteen days. It is also my hope to incorporate more of the sustainable practices I am familiar with like recycling and plastic free lifestyle. There is a Black owned mini grocery mart named Bumpy’s Natural and Organic Foods, about 25 mins from my house that I have shopped at a few times in the past. This will be my go to place for food until the end of the semester.

I hope to achieve a better dependency on the local businesses in my community. I also think one of my hopes is that I have enough success that it inspires other people in my ecosystem to intentionally shop from small minority owned businesses. I think this plan will be effective because when I implemented this before in 2020 in my personal life I saw a lot of people doing the same. In the height  of the pandemic social media platforms like Instagram would highlight small businesses through hashtags that you could seen based on location. I myself used that to find the minority business in my area to support and highlight.

I included the graph below because long term if eco-consciousness was to be at the forefront of the decisions we make in our communities the graph depicts how the health of a community would grow.

The connections between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature that I saw from the Vice article, “ The Brazilian Slum Children Who Are Literally Swimming in Garbage”, were that nature and women are deeply suffering and being neglected. Approximately 2500 children from two under-resourced areas in Brazil are living in conditions not suitable for life. The physical environment in these areas ie: the water,  are not conducive to life but even through that, people in these specific parts are paving their own way and surviving. 

The clear antonym to the previously mentioned realities of the Brazil communities, is the Greenbelt movement in Kenya. Wangari Maathis, environmental activist, and Greenbelt founder, writes potently about the nature of women and their unagreed upon social responsibility. Maathis says this, “Throughout Africa (as in much of the world) women hold primary responsibility for tilling the fields, deciding what to plant, nurturing the crops, and harvesting the food. They are the first to become aware of environmental damage that harms agricultural production: if the well goes dry, they are the ones concerned about finding new sources of water and those who must walk long distances to fetch it. As mothers, they notice when the food they feed their family is tainted with pollutants or impurities: they can see it in the tears of their children and hear it in their babies’ cries” (Maathai, 2000). I kept what Maathai said about the closeness of women and the environment in mind, as an environmental advocate she worked her entire life to protect land but also worked land appreciation.  So I half heartedly agree that “behind” the material deprivations and cultural losses of the marginalized and the poor lie the deeper issues of disempowerment and/or environmental degradation because ultimately I believe that both of these two things are happening simultaneously. Our ecofeminist author this week, Ivone Gebara, says this, “While these discussions are going on, lots of women and children are starving and dying with diseases produced by a capitalist system able to destroy lives and keep profit for only a few” (Gebara page 94). Gebara’s work from this week dives into global power structures and their relationships to those oppressed as a result of power structures.

Over the course of the last 2.5 months we have learned about dynamics like intersectionality, the web of domination, and now religious patriarchy, all having their own at times separate but equal connection to a multitude of equality movements, specifically ecofeminism. When I was reading the story of Recife in Brazil I was immediately reminded of the general quote, “You get out what you put in”. Up until a semester or two ago I believed that quote. However I do not  believe this is the case for people living in the global south, specifically women, who as we have established are the primary environmental workers. I think that quote doesn’t take enough about all that is extracted from those living in the Global South.  Life in the Global south is described as jail by Gebara.

Gebara points out cycles of persistent poverty within another Brazilian community as a way to showcase what happens when marginalized people are disempowered, “Daily life for poor women is like a jail…Most of them stay at home. They have nothing to cook. They wait for the children to return from school. They hope the children have already eaten, but they have not…The cycle of domestic jail finished today and now women wait to begin again tomorrow” (Gebara page 96). The example I highlighted from Gebara’s essay talks about women and children. We know that men tend to, because of patriarchy, sit closer to the top of this power structure.

However when men have identities like race, socioeconomic status, and location that are outside of the normal western patriarchal heteronormativity identities they become susceptible to oppression. Such would be the case as men living in the Global South where our original example in Gerbara comes from. Since we know intersectionality praxis can be applied globally when trying to end oppressive systems like patriarchy, its place in the conversation on disempowerment and thus environmental degradation.