Food justice scholarship and activism have coevolved and at times been intertwined over past decades. In some instances, there are clear distinctions between “scholarly” and “activist” activities. However, individuals, groups, and actions often take on characteristics of both, producing knowledge at multiple sociopolitical scales. Recognizing and building upon these dynamics is important for strengthening food justice work. This is especially salient in an era in which academia, including geography, seeks more public engagement, yet has a complicated history of appropriating and/or dismissing experience-based knowledge, exacerbating uneven power-knowledge dynamics. These topics are of direct relevance to geography and intersect with radical geography traditions through engagement in social and political action and putting socio-spatial justice theory into practice. Since 2014, a small-but-growing group of individuals interested in the intersections between scholarship, activism, and geography have cultivated a Food Justice Scholar-Activist/Activist-Scholar Community of Practice (FJSAAS). This article examines the evolution and praxes of FJSAAS focusing on power-knowledge and radical geographies. Based on an analysis of FJSAAS records and recollections of participants since its founding, we discuss challenges encountered, the broader relevance for similarly positioned communities of practice, and offer recommendations for those engaging in food justice scholarship, activism, and/or radical geography. We conclude that radical geographies, concepts of radical food geographies, and scholar-activist/activist-scholar praxis are mutually reinforcing in recognizing experience-based knowledge as part of envisioning and putting into place a more just food system.
While mainstream efforts for reparations center financial compensation via legislation and litigation, social movements expand this conceptualization in order to address critical and yet often overlooked components of reparations. Equitable access to land and opportunities to heal from intergenerational trauma are two of these reparations demands that social movements prioritize. However, there is a dearth of scholarly literature exploring the role and impact of social movements on reparations. Therefore, we seek to develop this important conversation. In doing so, we elucidate the ways in which these two foci of reparations overlap with those of other social movements; food justice initiatives, in particular, also emphasize the connections between racial justice, land justice, and healing. We thus synthesize social movement, food justice, and reparations literatures to examine the overlaps between the goals of food justice initiatives and social movements for reparations. Using two case studies, Tierra Negra and Soul Fire Farm, we demonstrate the ways in which food justice initiatives support social movements for reparations. Contextualizing our analysis within reflections on personal experiences, we argue that through their efforts to transform systems of oppression, food justice initiatives provide an alternative pathway to achieving reparations.
This article examines the public school food system in Buffalo, New York, for a just transition (Movement Generation, n. d.). School food programs built on just transition characteristics democratize engagement, decentralize decisionmaking, diversify the economy, decrease consumption, and redistribute resources and power. The Buffalo public school district's food system is an important subsection of the city's food system that reaches the most vulnerable populations. School food systems contain teachable spaces within schools to introduce students to healthy eating, fresh food, and the (in)equitable economies of the larger community food system. We argue that school food is an ideal entry point for introducing a just transition to the local food system, enhancing food equity built from healthier social, economic, ecological, and political systems. Related to this JAFSCD issue's call on Local Government in Food Systems Work, we aim to bring attention to the role and responsibility of public education systems in managing and enhancing community food systems through public policy. This qualitative case study examines five public school food programs
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