Neoliberalism and the making of food politics in California

Abstract

This article is a theoretical overview that introduces a special issue on neoliberalism and agro-food activism in California. Its primary purpose is to theorize how projects in opposition to neoliberalizations of the food and agricultural sectors seem to produce and reproduce neoliberal forms, spaces of governance, and mentalities. The recently deployed analytics of neoliberalization and neoliberal governmentality have yet to be deployed in agro-food scholarship, owing to tendencies to see neoliberalism as a set of impacts, to use the commodity chain/network as an analytical framework, and to romanticize the local as resistance. Yet, the increased salience of food politics in contemporary life may itself reflect the neoliberal turn, particularly insofar as much of what passes as politics these days is done through highly individualized purchasing decisions. The paper thus argues that agro-food politics as well as the scholarship that supports it have contributed to neoliberal subject formation, as demonstrated by four recurring themes in contemporary food activism as they intersect with neoliberal rationalities: consumer choice, localism, entrepreneurialism, and self-improvement. Through a review of aspects of California’s history particularly relevant to the case studies presented in this special issue it proposes in addition that the character of agro-food politics in California reflects an articulation of California’ economic and political history, agrarian development, enduring and evolving food culture, and the neoliberal project. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the politics of the possible in light of trends in agro-food activism, calling for closer attention to the micro-politics that shape various initiatives.