This research was designed to better understand the concept of food democracy through analysis of a particular community food initiative in Missoula, Montana. An analytical framework identifying some key dimensions of food democracy is posited and then examined through in-depth research into a partnership that involves university students working on a community farm to produce food for distribution to low-income people through the food bank and to members of a community supported agriculture arrangement. Organizations collaborate to affect change they could not achieve on their own and create opportunities Neva Hassanein, PhD, is Associate Professor of Environmental Studies at
Many analysts of sustainable agriculture have given considerable attention to issues of knowledge production, but in general they have not engaged social movement theory. This neglect is addressed by examining the emergence of intensive rotational grazing as a local expression of the sustainable agriculture movement. Conceptual frameworks drawn from recent contributions to social movement theory are used to describe the cognitive praxis of graziers along technological, cosmological, and organizational dimensions. Contrary to current interpretations, which emphasize the idiosyncratic character of local knowledge in agriculture, this analysis shows that through horizontal forms of organizing and information exchange, graziers overcome the limits of their personal experience and usefully share local knowledge in networks that they have forged expressly for that purpose.
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