What does it mean to do food justice?

Kirsten Cadieux,Rachel Slocum

doi:10.2458/v22i1.21076

Kirsten Cadieux, Rachel Slocum

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2458/v22i1.21076

Copy DOI

Abstract

'Food justice' and 'food sovereignty' have become key words in food movement scholarship and activism. In the case of 'food justice', it seems the word is often substituted for work associated with projects typical of the alternative or local food movement. We argue that it is important for scholars and practitioners to be clear on how food justice differs from other efforts to seek an equitable food system. In the interests of ensuring accountability to socially just research and action, as well as mounting a tenable response to the 'feed the world' paradigm that often sweeps aside concerns with justice as distractions from the 'real' issues, scholars and practitioners need to be more clear on what it means to do food justice. In exploring that question, we identify four nodes around which food justice organizing appears to occur: trauma/inequity, exchange, land, and labor. This article sets the stage for a second one that follows, Notes on the practice of food justice in the U.S., where we discuss attempts to practice food justice. Key words: food justice, food sovereignty, food movement, food security, alternative agri-food systems

Highlights

The North American food movement is increasingly using the term 'food justice', which joins its radical sister from the global South 'food sovereignty', in a discourse that aims to distinguish between an industrial food system and a more equitable, ecologically viable alternative
We aim to provide a clearer understanding of what constitutes food justice practice
Following Tsing's approach of "see[ing] how universals are used" (2004: 9), we suggest it is important to show how food justice and food sovereignty become engaged through the situated knowledge of those involved in their use (Haraway 1988)

Summary

Introduction

The North American food movement is increasingly using the term 'food justice', which joins its radical sister from the global South 'food sovereignty', in a discourse that aims to distinguish between an industrial food system and a more equitable, ecologically viable alternative. scholars have begun using the term 'food justice' liberally, yet often without alerting readers as to what criteria they are using to name their object of study as 'food justice.' But what makes an actual food project serve food justice? We see a great deal of playing fast and loose with what is called food justice, little analysis of what it takes to do it, and a conflation of more mainstream food movements with efforts to promote food justice. The new Green Revolution refrain of "doubling food to feed 9 billion by 2050" appears consistently in popular and scholarly work to argue that the need is too urgent to afford justice-oriented responses (see, for example, almost all the presentations at the 2014 World Food Prize dialogues) This techno-corporate position is countered by a diverse group of scholars, activists, NGOs, and farmers who point to increasing evidence that smaller scale and ecologically-oriented farming has had better outcomes for both societies and environments and is able to 'feed the world' (Holt Giménez 2014; Kremen, Iles, and Bacon 2012; Lappé 2010; McMichael 2008), especially if granted the social and state support currently reserved for mainstream production agriculture in the global north (Carpenter 2013; De Schutter 2011a; De Schutter 2011b; De Schutter and Vanloqueren 2011; IAASTD 2009a, 2009b; Liebman et al 2013).

Diagramming the lineage of food justice and food sovereignty

What does it mean to do food justice?

Engaging justice

Characteristics of food justice

Conclusions