Contextualising food sovereignty: the politics of convergence among movements in the USA

Abstract

As food sovereignty spreads to new realms that dramatically diverge from the agrarian context in which it was originally conceived, this raises new challenges, as well as opportunities, for already complex transnational agrarian movements. In the face of such challenges calls for convergence have increasingly been put forward as a strategy for building political power. Looking at the US case, we argue that historically rooted resistance efforts for agrarian justice, food justice and immigrant labour justice across the food system are not only drawing inspiration from food sovereignty, but helping to shape what food sovereignty means in the USA. By digging into the histories of these resistance efforts, we can better understand the divides that exist as well as the potential for and politics of convergence. The US case thus offers important insights, especially into the roles of race and immigration in the politics of convergence that might strengthen the global movement for food sovereignty as it expands to new contexts and seeks to engage with new constituencies.

Keywords:

• food sovereignty
• agrarian justice
• food justice
• immigrant labour justice
• politics of convergence
• USA

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Jun Borras, Eric Holt-Giménez, Todd Holmes, Martha Robbins, Salena Tramel and Siena Chrisman for their input and support. And our deepest respect and gratitude to the movements doing the work that has inspired this piece.

Notes

1. “Declaration of Nyéléni.”

2. See, for instance, Borras et al., “Transnational Agrarian Movements.”

3. Holt-Giménez, Food Movements Unite!

4. Desmarais, La Vía Campesina.

5. Martínez-Torres and Rosset, “Diálogo de Saberes.”

6. Edelman et al., “Introduction,” 922.

7. This is not to imply that attempts towards food sovereignty are not complex and fraught with challenges in any setting, including agrarian ones, as described by Bernstein, “Food Sovereignty”; and Agarwal, “Food Sovereignty,” among others.

8. Holmes, “Farmer’s Market”; Holt-Giménez and Patel, Food Rebellions!; Heffernan et al., Consolidation in the Food and Agriculture System; and Walker, The Conquest of Bread.

9. Pollan, “Voting with your Fork.”

10. Trauger, “Toward a Political Geography of Food Sovereignty.”

11. Alkon and Agyeman, “Introduction”; Holt Giménez and Shattuck, “Food Crises”; Billings and Cabbil, “Food Justice”; and Figueroa, “Food Sovereignty.”

12. Anderson, “The Role of US Consumers.”

13. Dickinson, “Beyond the minimally adequate Diet”; and Anguelovski, “Conflicts around Alternative Urban Food Provision.”

14. Clendenning and Dressler, “Between Empty Lots and Open Pots.”

15. Roman-Alcalá, “Occupy the Farm.”

16. Alkon, “Food Justice.”

17. Minkoff-Zern, “The New American Farmer”; and Mares et al., “Cultivating Food Sovereignty.”

18. Figueroa, “Food Sovereignty,” 3.

19. For background on the US Food Sovereignty Alliance and its origins, see Shawki, “The 2008 Food Crisis.”

20. Tarrow, Power in Movement, 21.

21. Ibid.

22. Garza, “A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.”

23. Kamal and Thompson, “Recipe for Decolonization”; Gupta, “Return to Freedom”; and Grey and Patel, “Food Sovereignty as Decolonialization.”

24. GRAIN, Hungry for Land, 8.

25. Wilson, “Missing Food Movement History.”

26. Ribot and Peluso, “A Theory of Access.”

27. Paine, Agrarian Justice, iii.

28. Geisler, “A History of Land Reform,” 13.

29. Ibid., 12; and Barnes, The People’s Land, xi.

30. Mitchell, From Reconstruction to Deconstruction, 20–21.

31. Coates, “The Case for Reparations.”

32. Mitchell, From Reconstruction to Deconstruction, 21; and Coates, “The Case for Reparations.”

33. See https://www.blackfarmercase.com/.

34. Wood and Gilbert, “Returning African American Farmers to the Land,” 43.

35. USDA, 2012 Census of Agriculture Race/Ethnicity/Gender Profile, 13.

36. Wilson, “Missing Food Movement History.”

37. Goodwyn, The Populist Moment; and Geisler, “A History of Land Reform,” 19–20.

38. Barnes, The People’s Land.

39. Geisler, “A History of Land Reform,” 21.

40. Naylor, Strengthening the Spirit of America, 8.

41. Kloppenburg and Geisler, “The Agricultural Ladder,” 63.

42. McCullen, “Why are all the White Kids sitting Together?,” 21.

43. Goodwyn, The Populist Moment, 512; and Gerteis, Class and the Color Line.

44. Reynolds, Black Farmers in America, 5.

45. Mooney and Majka, Farmers’ and Farm Workers Movements, 97.

46. McConnell, The Decline of Agrarian Democracy, 76–81.

47. Griffith, personal communication, 2015.

48. NFFC, NFFC Food Sovereignty Vision Statement.

49. NFFC, Food and Family Farms Act, 4.

50. See full membership list at http://.net/index.php/who-we-are/nffc-member-groups/.

51. BLS, “Industry Employment and Output Projections to 2022.”

52. Patel, “Survival Pending Revolution”; Allen, Together at the Table; Herrera et al., “Food Systems and Public Health”; and Bullard, Unequal Protection.

53. Cited in Alkon and Agyeman, “Introduction,” 5.

54. Holt Giménez and Shattuck, “Food Crises.”

55. Pettijohn, The Nonprofit Sector in Brief, 1.

56. BLS, “Nonprofits account for 11.4 Million Jobs.”

57. Borras, “Reply.”

58. Guthman, “Neoliberalism,” 1180.

59. Allen, “From Black Awakening,” 56.

60. GFJI, “About Us.”

61. Fisher and Gottlieb, “Who Benefits?”

62. Ibid.

63. Billings and Cabbil, “Food Justice,” 103.

64. Holt-Giménez and Wang, “Reform or Transformation?,” 98.

65. Harrison, Black Exodus, vii.

66. DeNavas-Walt et al., cited in Patel, “Survival Pending Revolution.”

67. Alexander, The New Jim Crow.

68. Madrigal, “The Racist Housing Policy.”

69. Herrera et al., “Food Systems and Public Health.”

70. Levine, “Poverty and Obesity in the US.”

71. Treuhaft and Karpyn, The Grocery Gap.

72. Baker et al., “The Role of Race and Poverty in Access to Foods,” 1.

73. Penniman, “Radical Farmers.”

74. Steel, “Youth and Food Justice,” 120.

75. Penniman, “Radical Farmers.”

76. The founding document of the USFSA is accessible at http://usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/USFSA-Founding-Document-with-date.pdf.

77. Alkon, “Food Justice”; and Gottlieb and Joshi, Food Justice.

78. FCWA, The Hands that Feed Us.

79. Ibid., 1.

80. Ibid.

81. Linder, “Farm Workers,” 1336.

82. Mize and Swords, Consuming Mexican Labor, 2.

83. Bacon, Illegal People.

84. Smith and Goldberg, Unity For Dignity, 16.

85. Milkman, LA Story, 9; and Zolberg, “Rethinking the Last 200 Years.”

86. Milkman, Organizing Immigrants, 6.

87. Ibid., 5.

88. Ibid., 6.

89. FCWA, The Hands that Feed Us, 26.

90. Ibid., 13.

91. Ibid., 16.

92. CIW, “About CIW, Coalition of Immokalee Workers.”

93. Shreck et al., “Social Sustainability,” 444. Emphasis in original.

94. Ibid.

95. Paraphrased by Barnes, The People’s Land, 218.

96. Fairbairn, “Framing Transformation,” 226; and Patel, “Food Sovereignty,” 667.

97. Mares et al., “Cultivating Food Sovereignty,” 10.

98. USFSA, Immigration Policy Principles.

99. NAACP, “Criminal Justice Fact Sheet”; and USDA, 2012 Census of Agriculture United States Summary and State Data.

100. Holt-Giménez and Wang, “Reform or Transformation?”