Food justice or food sovereignty? Understanding the rise of urban food movements in the USA

What does the diversity of social movements and food initiatives tell us about processes of social change? I argue that they offer a productive analytical lens to observe social change because they identify injustices and dynamics of inequalities in the food system and are actively engaged in transforming these. Alternative local food initiatives react to the environmental impacts of globalized food relations; food sovereignty movements highlight class inequalities and power asymmetries in the food system that affect people’s rights to culturally appropriate foodways; food justice movements denounce institutional racism; feminist movements fight persistent gender inequalities from food production to consumption; vegan movements defend animal rights. These are often mapped onto different world regions, with food justice movements more present in the US; food sovereignty movements louder in the Global South; feminist food movements more active in Latin America; and local food movements commonly in the Global North. This article brings together diverse strands of activism and research on social inequalities related to food under the conceptual umbrella of food inequalities. In addition to concept building, it contributes to a sociology of food studies by mapping the geopolitics of knowledge about social change behind the growing mobilization around food issues.

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Fulfilling the Right to Food for South Africa: Justice, Security, Sovereignty and the Politics of Malnutrition

World Nutrition ◽

10.26596/wn.2020113112-152 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 112-152

Author(s):

Busiso Helard Moyo ◽

Anne Marie Thompson Thow

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Food Systems ◽

Food System ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Food Justice ◽

System Transformation ◽

Right To Food ◽

Economic Rights ◽

The Individual ◽

The Right

Despite South Africa’s celebrated constitutional commitments that have expanded and deepened South Africa’s commitment to realise socio-economic rights, limited progress in implementing right to food policies stands to compromise the country’s developmental path. If not a deliberate policy choice, the persistence of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms is a deep policy failure. Food system transformation in South Africa requires addressing wider issues of who controls the food supply, thus influencing the food chain and the food choices of the individual and communities. This paper examines three global rights-based paradigms – ‘food justice’, ‘food security’ and ‘food sovereignty’ – that inform activism on the right to food globally and their relevance to food system change in South Africa; for both fulfilling the right to food and addressing all forms of malnutrition. We conclude that the emerging concept of food sovereignty has important yet largely unexplored possibilities for democratically managing food systems for better health outcomes.

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Brooklyn's agrarian questions

Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems ◽

10.1017/s1742170514000222 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 92-102 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Evan Weissman

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Urban Agriculture ◽

Food Justice ◽

Small Scale ◽

Food Network ◽

Alternative Food Network ◽

The Usa ◽

The Relationship ◽

The City

AbstractThroughout the USA, urban agriculture is expanding as a manifestation of an emerging American food politics. Through a case study of Brooklyn, New York, I used mixed qualitative research methods to investigate the political possibilities of urban agriculture for fostering food justice. My findings build on the existing alternative food network (AFN) literature by indicating that problematic contradictions rooted in the neoliberalization of urban agriculture limit the transformative possibilities of farming the city as currently practiced in Brooklyn. I suggest that longstanding agrarian questions—concerns over the relationship between agriculture and capitalism and the politics of small-scale producers—are informative for critical interrogation of urban agriculture as a politicization of food.

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Diverse Citizenship? Food Sovereignty and the Power of Acting Otherwise

Social Sciences ◽

10.3390/socsci8120331 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 331 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Benno Fladvad

Keyword(s):

Empirical Investigation ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Alternative Food ◽

Liberal Tradition ◽

Food Movements ◽

Alternative Approach ◽

Political Theories ◽

Living Together ◽

Alternative Food Movements ◽

Theories Of Sovereignty

This contribution discusses two different but interlinked fields of research: political theories of sovereignty and citizenship, as well as conceptualizations of emerging alternative food movements. In drawing on James Tully’s practiced-based understanding of ‘diverse citizenship’, as well as on other selected theories of postmodern political thought, it focuses on the contested political nature of the food sovereignty movement, specifically with regard to the dynamics and actions that have brought it into being. In doing so, it conceives of citizenship as materializing on the basis of multi-faceted practices of ‘acting otherwise’, which stands in sharp contrast to a conceptualization of citizenship as an institutionalized status, as it is understood in the liberal tradition. In order to deepen and to sharpen this alternative approach, this contribution additionally draws on Theodore Schatzki’s practice theory, which, despite its rather apolitical character, makes it possible to conceive of political practices as emergent and situational phenomena that are closely connected to the quotidian practices of everyday life. The combination of these perspectives bears great potential for theoretical discussions on alternative food movements as well as for their empirical investigation, since it puts emphasis on the way how practitioners and advocates for food sovereignty disclose themselves in multifaceted struggles over the imposition and the challenging of the rules of social living together.

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Shared voices, different worlds: Process and product in the Food Dignity action research project

Gateways International Journal of Community Research and Engagement ◽

10.5130/ijcre.v7i1.3399 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Christine M. Porter ◽

Hank Herrera ◽

Daryl Marshall ◽

Gayle M. Woodsum

Keyword(s):

Action Research ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Community Based Participatory Research ◽

Food Justice ◽

Action Research Project ◽

Community Based ◽

Research Project ◽

University Partnerships ◽

Personal Strengths ◽

True Diversity

Diversity of perspective makes for greater depth when painting a portrait of community life. But embracing the idea of representing true diversity in a formal research project is a whole lot easier than putting it into practice. The three dozen members of the Food Dignity action research team, now entering the fourth year of a five-year project, are intimately familiar with this challenge. In this article, four of the collaborators explore the intricacies of navigating what it means to bring together a genuine cross-section of community-based activists and academics in an effort to draw on one another’s professional and personal strengths to collect and disseminate research findings that represent the truth of a community’s experiences, and are ultimately disseminated in a way that brings tangible benefit to the heart and soul of that community. The authors include Food Dignity’s principal investigator (Porter) and three community organisers (Marshall, Herrera and Woodsum) in organisations that have partnered with Food Dignity. Two of the organisers (Herrera and Woodsum) also serve project-wide roles. These collaborators share their personal and professional hopes, struggles, concerns, successes and failures as participants in this cutting-edge effort to equalise community and university partnerships in research. Keywords: community-based participatory research (CBPR), food justice, equitable community-campus partnerships, food sovereignty, case study, action research

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Intellectual Traditions in Black Agriculture

Freedom Farmers ◽

10.5149/northcarolina/9781469643694.003.0028 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 28-62

Author(s):

Monica M. White

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Historical Analysis ◽

Food Justice ◽

Black Communities ◽

Agricultural Cooperatives ◽

Political Strategy ◽

Black Farmers ◽

Intellectual Traditions ◽

Justice Movements

This chapter analyses the theoretical and applied contributions to Black agriculture of three influential African American intellectuals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Booker T. Washington built institutions, developed agricultural extension services, and organized conferences for Black farmers. George Washington Carver produced, systematized, and disseminated scientific agricultural knowledge. W. E. B. Du Bois focused on strengthening Black communities by advocating agricultural cooperatives as an economic and political strategy. While the three had different – and sometimes controversial – approaches, all saw agriculture as a strategy of resistance and community building. Through a historical analysis of these thinkers’ ideas about Black agriculture, this chapter offers fresh perspectives on classical African American intellectual traditions. This history challenges contemporary ideas that community agriculture is new, unearthing Black intellectual contributions to current conversations about sustainable, organic, and local food, as well as food security and food sovereignty. In doing so, it offers a historical precedent and framework for contemporary food justice movements for enacting the connection between agriculture and freedom.

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