Food ecologies and economies are vital to the survival of communities, nonhuman species, and our planet. While environmental communication scholars have legitimated food as a topic of inquiry, the entangled ecological, cultural, economic, racial, colonial, and alimentary relations that sustain food systems demand greater attention. In this essay, we review literature within and beyond environmental communication, charting the landscape of critical food work in our field. We then illustrate how environmental justice commitments can invigorate interdisciplinary food systems-focused communication scholarship articulating issues of, and critical responses to, injustice and inequity across the food chain. We stake an agenda for food systems communication by mapping three orientations-food system reform, justice, and sovereignty-that can assist in our critical engagements with and interventions into the food system. Ultimately, we entreat environmental communication scholars to attend to the bends, textures, and confluences of these orientations so that we may deepen our future food-related inquiries.

The complex web of political-economic relations that constitutes biotechnology coupled with a contentious history of public resistance, illustrates the power of perceptions of credibility in mediating individuals' judgements about GMOs. To more accurately measure what contributes to public skepticism of GM foods, the present research applies a multidimensional model of source credibility comprised of scientific understanding, integrity, agreement, concern, trust, and goodwill (bias). Testing the Anti-Reflexivity Thesis in a new context, we also explore the role of attitudes about science and economic innovation by analyzing associations between political ideology and beliefs about the potential impacts of GM foods. Using data from the Pew Research Center's American Trends Panel, we find evidence of politically polarized perceptions of GM scientists' credibility and public beliefs about the environmental risks and benefits of GM foods. Results suggest that political ideology is indirectly associated with beliefs about GM impacts on the food supply, largely through perceptions of goodwill, the so-called "lost" dimension of source credibility. Because demand for biotechnology products like gene edited foods is expected to increase, consumer beliefs about GMOs will likely have significant implications for the future of the bioeconomy.

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Agrifood movement literature largely represents food system labor through images, descriptions, and depictions of farm workers and other agriculture-related labor, such as slaughtering and meatpacking.

This forum brings together food, (in)security, and communication. The authors participating in this forum center communication as both process and tool for understanding, mitigating, and making meaning of food (in)security. The nine authors together discuss the role of communication in food (in)security, the central challenges for scholars and practitioners working on food (in)security, and the creative possibilities and impacts influencing the future of food (in)security. The forum produces a call for applied scholars to re-imagine communication frameworks in order to make meaningful differences in their communities.

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