Week 4: Food Justice

Alkon and Agyeman chapter 13 gave us a theoretical and philosophical framework behind modern local food system activists, including the contradictions and negative consequences. They discussed how Marxian anticorporatists and communitarians had similar positions with different interests. They also discussed the fact that while trying to achieve social justice, it is possible to exclude groups, making the process unjust. They provided a way to avoid injustice in the search for justice, reflexive food justice. Reflexive food justice acknowledges that food justice techniques are not flawless, and tries to embrace and learn from the flaws.

Alkon and Agyeman chapter 14 explored the corporate food regime, and how every food system is tied to the global food system somehow. They explain the current food crisis as a result of the corporate food regime. In other words, with corporations directing where food goes, they are selecting who has access to the global food system, and many people are being left out. The chapter compares and contrasts different food movement trends, and how they could possibly change the current food regime to address the current food crisis.

Chapter two from Gottleib and Joshi discussed the many reasons food insecurity exists. The Urban and Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) found that many urban and rural areas have food access issues. Gottleib and Joshi present many reasons for limited access to fresh, nutrient dense foods. The first issue they discuss is the citing of stores. As the size of grocery stores grew, the stores had to be moved out of the compact, expensive urban areas. This led to a transportation issue. With grocery stores cited outside of the center of population, transportation becomes trickier. Many disadvantaged people do not own a car, and public transportation has not been designed for trips to the supermarket.

Even if a supermarket is cited in an economically disadvantaged community, the food choices in such a market are usually limited and poor quality. Many of the foods offered and promoted in supermarkets in low income areas are highly processed and contain large quantities of sugar, salt, and fat.

Gottleib and Joshi chapter six focused on the many ways that individuals and communities are being empowered by the food justice movement. The chapter discusses movements such as using urban farms to address economic hardship, community revitalization, and grocery gaps. The chapter starts by describing the efforts of the Nuestras Raices organization and Centro Agricola in Massachusetts. The organizations played off of the town’s predominantly Puerto Rican heritage, farm knowledge, and fertile soil to create social and economic capital. They provided learning opportunities while addressing food insecurity.

The chapter also discusses similar practices in Detroit. With little access to fresh, healthy foods, the community took food into their own hands. The development of the Detroit Food Policy Council led to community and school gardens which could be used to address grocery gaps in the city.

What would be a good way to change the “corporate food regime?” With corporations having so much money and power, it is difficult to really fight back.

How can we get policy makers to see the issues related to food systems? A great deal of food access is related to food policy. Do you know of any excellent food policies? If so, how did they become implemented?