Alternative food provision conflicts in cities: Contesting food privilege, injustice, and whiteness in Jamaica Plain, Boston

All's Well That Ends Well: How Alabama Farmers Marketers “Last Stand” Against Modernity Was Finally Resolved

“…Divergent notions among both vendors and consumers as to the proper structure, form, and function of a farmers market (e.g., management, standards, location, architecture, goods allowed, producer‐only status, etc.) have often led to disputes and conflicts documented by anthropologists and others (Andreatta and Wickliffe ; Anguelovski ,b; Chrzan , ; Counihan ; Jarosz ; Smithers, Lamarche, and Joseph ). Just as the farmers market can be a site for community integration and bonding, it can also be a site of contention, especially when long‐standing traditions are threatened.…”

“…Alternative food networks, such as community‐supported agriculture (CSAs), co‐operatives, and farmers markets, aim to improve food access, typically in urban, especially inner city, areas (Lambert‐Pennington and Hicks ). Despite the best of intentions to increase the availability of wholesome locally grown food for all (Larsen and Gilliland ), these entities have been documented to be exclusionary on the basis of ethnicity and income (Lambert‐Pennington and Hicks ; also see Anguelovski ; Guthman ; Passidomo ; Slocum ; Slocum and Cadieux ). Ample concern has been registered over the degree to which local food movements in general, and farmers markets in particular, are privileged white middle‐class spaces that exclude Blacks, immigrants, and other minorities (Alkon and McCullen ; Pilgeram ; Ruelas et al.…”

Food Justice: What is it? Where has it been? Where is it going?

“…Alternative food movements often align themselves with the goals of food justice, aiming to increase access to healthy, culturally-appropriate food for marginalized communities [5]. Despite this intent, food justice supporters can be critical of alternative food movement activists who promote local, organic food without bearing in mind the underlying social disparities existing within the food system [9]. Consequently, despite the capacity for such alternative food movements to shorten the links in the food commodity chain, a disconnect can emerge between alternative food activists who support local, sustainable, and community-owned food practices and the reality that these practices often represent the ideals and values of white, middle-class communities at the exclusion of more vulnerable populations.…”

“…Consequently, despite the capacity for such alternative food movements to shorten the links in the food commodity chain, a disconnect can emerge between alternative food activists who support local, sustainable, and community-owned food practices and the reality that these practices often represent the ideals and values of white, middle-class communities at the exclusion of more vulnerable populations. This disconnect can result in a replication of the same oppressive power dynamics that exist within mainstream food systems [5,9]. In this sense, alternative food movements inform elements of food justice in terms of their problemitization of conventional food systems, and in fact provide opportunities for consumers to participate in and protest food systems during their everyday lives [5].…”

“…While different disciplines tend to define it through their own respective lenses, food justice is a concept that informs multiple areas of thought, action, and study, including: 1) alternative, activist, and oppositional food movements [4,7,[9][10][11][12][13] 2) environmental justice [2,4,11,14,15] 3) food security [2,6,7,12,13] 4) health equity and disparity [7,11,13,16] Although they differ significantly in their scope and approach, these issues intertwine across the landscape of the literature, collectively defining the principles of food justice and suggesting strategies for intervention. As Gottlieb and Joshi explain, "What connects these approaches is the desire to create fundamental change as well as alternatives to the dominant food system" [8].…”