The New Food Activismexplores how food activism can be pushed toward deeper and more complex engagement with social, racial, and economic justice and toward advocating for broader and more ...transformational shifts in the food system. Topics examined include struggles against pesticides and GMOs, efforts to improve workers' pay and conditions throughout the food system, and ways to push food activism beyond its typical reliance on individualism, consumerism, and private property. The authors challenge and advance existing discourse on consumer trends, food movements, and the intersection of food with racial and economic inequalities.
This article describes pedagogical changes that I have made to my Environmental Justice class at the University of the Pacific in response to increasingly crisis conditions with regard to both ...climate change and higher education. Over the past 15 years, my students are increasingly low-income, first generation, and from Stockton, a so-called “sacrifice zone” with abysmal environmental health outcomes in the heart of California’s Central Valley. My increasing focus on local environmental health disparities, combined with the intensification of the climate crisis, and my decision to prioritize support for student mental health in the midst of climate anxiety, have resulted in a class that feels both connected and immersive. Students are engaging with readings and other course materials, actively participating in discussion, and pushing us further with their own questions, passions, and lived experiences. In this “post”-covid world in which student engagement has become increasingly difficult, student mental health is increasingly tenuous, and climate anxieties plague students and faculty alike, this feels extraordinary and worth sharing. This essay is a chance to reflect on why this shift has occurred, and the potential for university classes to draw working class, diverse students into environmental and climate justice movements at a time when they are so desperately needed.
Foodways of the urban poor Alkon, Alison Hope; Block, Daniel; Moore, Kelly ...
Geoforum,
08/2013, Letnik:
48
Journal Article
Recenzirano
•We seek to understand food choices of low-income people in Oakland and Chicago.•The primary barrier preventing access to healthy food is cost.•Most food desert residents shop at chain and discount ...stores outside their areas.•Respondents know about healthy food and understood eating as a cultural practice.•Foodways of the urban poor are culturally mediated in the same way as among affluent groups.
In the past decade, progressive public health advocates and food justice activists have increasingly argued that food deserts, which they define as neighborhoods lacking available healthy foods, are responsible for the diet-related health problems that disproportionately plague low-income communities of color. This well meaning approach is a marked improvement over the victim-blaming that often accompanies popular portrayals of health disparities in that it attempts to shift the emphasis from individual eaters to structural issues of equitable development and the supply of health-inducing opportunities. However, we argue that even these supply-side approaches fail to take into account the foodways – cultural, social and economic food practices, habits and desires – of those who reside in so-called food deserts. In this paper, we present five independently conducted studies from Oakland and Chicago that investigate how low-income people eat, where and how they shop, and what motivates their food choices. Our data reveals that cost, not lack of knowledge or physical distance, is the primary barrier to healthy food access, and that low-income people employ a wide variety of strategies to obtain the foods they prefer at prices they can afford. This paper speaks to academic debates on food systems, food movements and food cultures. We hope that progressive policy makers, planners and food justice activists will also draw on it to ensure that their interventions match the needs, skills and desires of those they seek to serve.
Food justice: cultivating the field Glennie, Charlotte; Alkon, Alison Hope
Environmental research letters,
07/2018, Letnik:
13, Številka:
7
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
This article provides an evidence-based review of the growing field of food justice, which seeks to understand how inequalities of race, class and gender are reproduced and contested within food ...systems. Analyzing a database of peer-reviewed articles and books related to food justice in the US context (n = 200), we find that food justice is a highly interdisciplinary research area organized around three central axes: social movement activism, the development of alternative food practices, and analyses of inequalities in conventional and alternative food systems. Especially since 2011, the rate of new scholarship has increased, along with increased attention from policymakers and the public to the issues of inequality in the food system. This field has developed somewhat independently of work in the physical sciences quantifying and evaluating the sustainability of local food systems, instead focusing more on social science concepts such as historic and present-day inequalities and the role of policy. However, there is room for convergence, especially as our analysis points to agro-ecology and land tenure as areas of growing interest. Considering this recent growth and potential for collaboration with physical scientists, we reflect on the development of the field to date by characterizing the field of food justice research, asking what is missing, and suggesting new directions.
Black, White, and Green Alkon, Alison Hope; Cowen, Deborah; Heynen, Nik ...
11/2012, Letnik:
13
eBook
Farmers markets are much more than places to buy produce. According to advocates for sustainable food systems, they are also places to "vote with your fork" for environmental protection, vibrant ...communities, and strong local economies. Farmers markets have become essential to the movement for food-system reform and are a shining example of a growing green economy where consumers can shop their way to social change. Black, White, and Green brings new energy to this topic by exploring dimensions of race and class as they relate to farmers markets and the green economy. With a focus on two Bay Area markets-one in the primarily white neighborhood of North Berkeley, and the other in largely black West Oakland-Alison Hope Alkon investigates the possibilities for social and environmental change embodied by farmers markets and the green economy. Drawing on ethnographic and historical sources, Alkon describes the meanings that farmers market managers, vendors, and consumers attribute to the buying and selling of local organic food, and the ways that those meanings are raced and classed. She mobilizes this research to understand how the green economy fosters visions of social change that are compatible with economic growth while marginalizing those that are not. Black, White, and Green is one of the first books to carefully theorize the green economy, to examine the racial dynamics of food politics, and to approach issues of food access from an environmental-justice perspective. In a practical sense, Alkon offers an empathetic critique of a newly popular strategy for social change, highlighting both its strengths and limitations.
This article develops the concept of food justice, which places access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food in the contexts of institutional racism, racial formation, and racialized ...geographies. Through comparative ethnographic case studies, we analyze the demands for food justice articulated by the Karuk Tribe of California and the West Oakland Food Collaborative. Activists in these communities use an environmental justice frame to address access to healthy food, advocating for a local food system in West Oakland, and for the demolition of Klamath River dams that prevent subsistence fishing. Food justice serves as a theoretical and political bridge between scholarship and activism on sustainable agriculture, food insecurity, and environmental justice. This concept brings the environmental justice emphasis on racially stratified access to environmental benefits to bear on the sustainable agriculture movement's attention to the processes of food production and consumption. Furthermore, we argue that the concept of food justice can help the environmental justice movement move beyond several limitations of their frequent place‐based approach and the sustainable agriculture movement to more meaningfully incorporate issues of equity and social justice. Additionally, food justice may help activists and policymakers working on food security to understand the institutionalized nature of denied access to healthy food.
ABSTRACT This article investigates the cultural politics of entrepreneurship as a form of opposition to gentrification in Oakland, California. Building on Watkins and Caldwell’s (2004) foundational ...work, I examine the relationship between political projects - resisting gentrification, racial and economic disparities - and the cultural work of signifying a community’s continued presence amidst displacement and glorification of newcomers. Based on 30 interviews with employees of food justice non-profit organizations, social enterprises, and government agencies, I argue that activists promote food-based entrepreneurship to create employment and business opportunities for long-term residents that enables them to stay in their hometown. In doing so, the contributions of long-standing communities to Oakland’s diverse food cultures are highlighted. However, property values are rising rapidly that even these opportunities cannot ensure that long-term communities remain. For this reason, I conclude by offering examples of direct action and policy advocacy that can supplement these entrepreneurial approaches.
RESUMEN Este artículo investiga la política cultural de la iniciativa empresarial como forma de oposición al aburguesamiento en Oakland, California. Basándome en el trabajo fundacional de Watkins y Caldwell (2004), analizo la relación entre proyectos políticos -resistencia al aburguesamiento y las disparidades raciales y económicas- y el trabajo cultural de significar una presencia continuada de comunidad en medio al desplazamiento físico y la glorificación de recién llegados. Con base en 30 entrevistas con empleados de organizaciones sin fines de lucro de justicia alimentaria, iniciativas sociales y agencias gubernamentales relevantes de la ciudad, planteo que los activistas promueven la iniciativa empresarial basada en alimentos para crear oportunidades de empleo y de propiedad empresarial para residentes a largo plazo que pueden permitirles permanecer en su ciudad natal. Al hacerlo, destacan las contribuciones de comunidades duraderas a las diversas culturas gastronómicas de Oakland en un momento en que estas comunidades están siendo desvalorizadas y desplazadas. Sin embargo, los valores de las propiedades están aumentando tan rápidamente que ni siquiera estas oportunidades pueden asegurar que permanezcan comunidades a largo plazo. Por este motivo, concluyo brindando ejemplos de acción directa y apoyo de políticas que pueden complementar estos abordajes emprendedores.
RESUMO Este artigo investiga a política cultural de empreendedorismo como uma forma de oposição à gentrificação em Oakland, Califórnia. Com base no trabalho fundamental de Watkins e Caldwell (2004), examino a relação entre projetos políticos - resistindo à gentrificação e disparidades raciais e econômicas - e o que significa, em termos culturais, a presença permanente de uma comunidade em meio ao deslocamento físico e a glorificação dos recém-chegados. Com base em 30 entrevistas com funcionários de organizações sem fins lucrativos de justiça alimentar, empresas sociais e agências governamentais relevantes da cidade, defendo que ativistas promovam o empreendedorismo de base alimentar a fim de criar empregos e oportunidades de negócios para residentes de longa data que possam permitir-lhes permanecer na sua cidade natal. Ao fazê-lo, destacam-se as contribuições de comunidades de longa data para as diversas culturas alimentares de Oakland, num momento em que essas comunidades estão sendo desvalorizadas e deslocadas. No entanto, os valores das propriedades estão aumentando tão rapidamente que mesmo essas oportunidades não asseguram que as comunidades de longa data possam permanecer. Por esse motivo, concluo oferecendo exemplos de ação direta e advocacia política que podem complementar essas abordagens empresariais.
How gentrification uproots the urban food landscape, and
what activists are doing to resist it From hipster coffee
shops to upscale restaurants, a bustling local food scene is
perhaps the most ...commonly recognized harbinger of gentrification.
A Recipe for Gentrification explores this widespread
phenomenon, showing the ways in which food and gentrification are
deeply-and, at times, controversially-intertwined. Contributors
provide an inside look at gentrification in different cities, from
major hubs like New York and Los Angeles to smaller cities like
Cleveland and Durham. They examine a wide range of food
enterprises-including grocery stores, restaurants, community
gardens, and farmers' markets-to provide up-to-date perspectives on
why gentrification takes place, and how communities use food to
push back against displacement. Ultimately, they unpack the
consequences for vulnerable people and neighborhoods. A Recipe
for Gentrification highlights how the everyday practices of
growing, purchasing and eating food reflect the rapid-and
contentious-changes taking place in American cities in the
twenty-first century.
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