Front and back of the house: socio-spatial inequalities in food work

Images of work, images of defiance: engaging migrant farm worker voice through community-based arts

“…In the past decade there has been a growing interest among food justice scholars regarding a perceived disconnect between the food sovereignty movement and social justice concerns related to the exploitation of food labourers (Allen 2008). With notable exceptions (Gottlieb and Joshi 2010;Gray 2014) it is widely recognized that food movement scholarship has not been actively engaged with challenges facing food workers, particularly those who work in agriculture Minkoff-Zern 2014;Sachs et al 2014). While recent scholarship has examined the dynamics of unpaid labour on organic farms (Levkoe 2017;Ekers et al 2016), a wider concern regarding the exploitation of paid farm employees in the context of industrial agriculture remains uncharted (Sachs et al 2014).…”

#LivingOffTips: Reframing Food System Labor Through Tipped Workers' Narratives of Subminimum Wage Exploitation

“…Further, I argue, tipped worker framing of the instability and insecurity of their food labor illustrates how wage inequality is experienced across the industrial food system. Researchers and advocates have provided damning evidence of similar sexual abuse among female agricultural workers (Block, 2014;Sachs et al, 2014;Longoria & Schlosser, 2014). Through their use of strategic framing, these restaurant workers are able to make visible the instability of their labor, situate the work they do firmly in the sphere of the food system, and compel consideration of this labor exploitation as an issue relevant to the agrifood movement.…”

“…Some food and labor studies researchers have raised the centrality of labor to food justice and the simultaneous inability to "stave off worsening labor conditions" (Sbicca, 2015, p. 676) as a key contradiction within the agrifood movement (Besky & Brown, 2014;Fairbairn, 2012;Sachs, Allen, Terman, Hayden, & Hatcher, 2014). Through ROC, activists are actively seeking to redefine food security and food justice in order to account for the exploitative practices of the restaurant industry.…”

Paid Work, Unpaid Work, and Economic Viability in Alternative Food Initiatives: Reflections from Three Boston Urban Agriculture Endeavors

“…Labor organizers and advocates such as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Restaurant Opportunities Center, and the Food Chain Workers Alliance have brought growing attention to exploitative conditions facing many of those who work in the conventional food system. This activist engagement and "citizen science" has been complemented by academic scholarship that addresses food labor and economic inequality throughout the conventional food system (Alkon & Agyeman, 2011;Barndt, 1999;Gottlieb & Joshi, 2010;Lo, 2014), as well as at particular points along the food chain, such as on farms (Gray, 2014;Guthman, 2004;Holmes, 2013) and in restaurants (Sachs, Allen, Terman, Hayden, & Hatcher, 2014). Guthman's 2004 study of organic farming in California served as a clarion call to many to address issues related to the exploitation and marginalization of food workers.…”