Week 4: Two different scales

These articles bring together a lot of different themes surrounding the idea of what it means to address food justice, the ways in which the community plays in there particularly with the idea of local foods, and ultimately discusses the ways in which engagement and organizing can make differences on different scales.
The first two chapters by Alkon and Agyman bring in a lot of different political philosophies and ultimately conclude that with all of these conflicting ideas of justice, the best solution is to take into account the different visions of the community, what good food is, and to pursue change beyond just the realm of 'local.' Gottlieb and Joshi kind of answer this idea, by discussing the importance of community processes and engagement, but ultimately give examples of success at both the local and statewide levels. Although the way that we address food justice issues will be different at varying scales, i.e. local, regional, state, nationwide, ultimately it is important to find solutions for each of these scales. There is no one right 'place' to address food inequity issues and the social injustice that occurs from it.
Take The Coalition of Immokalee Workers as the provided example. This is a coalition that I am familiar with and learned about about two years ago. Although there are varying geographical scales at which to address food justice issues, it is also important to recognize the different social scales that these injustices attack. The Coalition addresses primarily the tomato industry within the Florida and the conditions that the workers are in for hours and hours a week. This is both an individual scale and an industrial scale problem as there are factors that go into play on the individuals role within this bad working environment (poverty, poor health conditions, no where else to work, undocumented workers) and then the industrial role (giving poor wages, using pesticides as a norm, and being detached from the workplace). This industrial vs individual scale is also seen in Upton Sinclair's original literature; addressing what the industrial environment is that fosters bad conditions as well as the individual and personal backstory that cause them to have to work in places such as these.