Food justice, intersectional agriculture, and the triple food movement

• Published in: Agriculture and human values 2019-12, Vol.36 (4), p.825-835
• Main Author: Smith, Bobby J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agrarian structures; Agricultural Economics; Agriculture; Black owned businesses; Education; Ethics; Evolutionary Biology; Farmers; Food; Food justice; Food processing industry; Food security; History; Intersectionality; Justice; Marginality; Philosophy; Social inequality; Social justice; Symposium/Special Issue; Veterinary Medicine/Veterinary Science
• ISSN: 0889-048X; 1572-8366
• DOI: 10.1007/s10460-019-09945-y

Emerging as an intersectional response to social inequalities perpetuated by the mainstream food movement in the United States, the food justice movement is being used by marginalized communities to address their food needs. This movement relies on an emancipatory discourse, illustrated by what I term intersectional agriculture. In many respects, the mainstream food movement reflects contention between marketization (corporate agriculture) and social protectionist (local food) discourses, while the role of food justice remains somewhat unclear as it relates to the mainstream movement. Each movement attempts to restructure the ways in which food is distributed, consumed, and produced, impacting the social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental dimensions of food. Using the lens of Nancy Fraser’s triple movement framework, I construct an interpretation of food justice as the emancipatory pole of what I term the triple food movement to explore the role of food justice as it relates to the mainstream movement. Specifically, I draw upon the cases of black farmers and queer people in the U.S. creating and (re)creating spaces to address their community food needs and counter systems of domination constructed around race, class, gender, sexuality, agriculture, and food.