Abstract
As world food and fuel prices threaten expanding urban populations, there is greater need for the urban poor to have access and claims over how and where food is produced and distributed. This is especially the case in marginalized urban settings where high proportions of the population are food insecure. The global movement for food sovereignty has been one attempt to reclaim rights and participation in the food system and challenge corporate food regimes. However, given its origins from the peasant farmers' movement, La Via Campesina, food sovereignty is often considered a rural issue when increasingly its demands for fair food systems are urban in nature. Through interviews with scholars, urban food activists, non-governmental and grassroots organizations in Oakland and New Orleans in the United States of America, we examine the extent to which food sovereignty has become embedded as a concept, strategy and practice. We consider food sovereignty alongside other dominant US social movements such as food justice, and find that while many organizations do not use the language of food sovereignty explicitly, the motives behind urban food activism are similar across movements as local actors draw on elements of each in practice. Overall, however, because of the different histories, geographic contexts, and relations to state and capital, food justice and food sovereignty differ as strategies and approaches. We conclude that the US urban food sovereignty movement is limited by neoliberal structural contexts that dampen its approach and radical framework. Similarly, we see restrictions on urban food justice movements that are also operating within a broader framework of market neoliberalism. However, we find that food justice was reported as an approach more aligned with the socio-historical context in both cities, due to its origins in broader class and race struggles.
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Notes
The original names of academics interviewed on the concept of food sovereignty in the US have been kept upon permission. Pseudonyms have been given to all other respondents in the Oakland and New Orleans areas.
Similarly, corporate investors are acquiring vast tracts of land in the Global South, particularly in Africa, for timber plantations, food and biofuels production (Lyons et al. 2014).
Interview with Madeleine Fairbairn, New York City, 25 July 2011.
Interview with Raj Patel, San Francisco, 26 July 2011.
La Via Campesina’s website: http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=27&Itemid=44.
Key informant interview with H. Wittman, 26 July 2011.
Key informant interview with food policy scholar, Oakland, 28 July 2011.
Interview with Alison Alkon, Oakland, 1 August 2011.
Key informant interview with food policy scholar, 28 July 2011.
Phat Beets website: http://www.phatbeetsproduce.org/about/mission-statement/.
Interview with Phat Beets volunteer Sherri Oakes, Oakland, 30 July 2011.
See Alemany Farm website: http://www.alemanyfarm.org.
Interview with Alemany Farm co-manager, Tim Bales, San Francisco, 22 September 2011.
Interview with Alemany Farm co-manager, Tim Bales, San Francisco, 22 September 2011.
Interview with Lisa Palm, Garden for the Environment, San Francisco 2 August 2011.
See Mandela MarketPlace’s website: http://www.mandelamarketplace.org/.
Interview with Nora Pines, Oakland, 3 August 2011.
Interview with Nora Pines, Oakland, 3 August 2011.
Interview with Robert Lohane, New Orleans, 8 August 2011.
Interview with Robert Lohane, New Orleans, 8 August 2011.
NOLA stands for New Orleans, Louisiana.
Interview with Grant Edwards, New Orleans, 8 August 2011.
Interview with Derek Glenn, New Orleans, 31 August 2011.
Holly Grove is a neighborhood garden, market and resource center named after the community it is in.
Interview with Jason Green, New Orleans, 6 August 2011.
Abbreviations
- CSA:
-
Community supported agriculture
- FAO:
-
Food and Agricultural Organization
- NGO:
-
Non-governmental organization
- NOLA:
-
New Orleans, Louisiana
- NOFFN:
-
New Orleans Food and Farm Network
- USDA:
-
United States Department of Agriculture
- USFSA:
-
United States Food Sovereignty Alliance
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
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Acknowledgments
This study would not have been possible without the time and effort of numerous urban farmers, activists and academics who shared their thoughts on food justice and food sovereignty meanings and practices. Dr Richards also acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant DP110102299, The New Farm Owners: Finance Companies and the Restructuring of Australian and Global Agriculture. Additional thanks go to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.
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Clendenning, J., Dressler, W.H. & Richards, C. Food justice or food sovereignty? Understanding the rise of urban food movements in the USA. Agric Hum Values 33, 165–177 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9625-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9625-8