Neoliberalism and the making of food politics in Eastern Ontario

Abstract

Despite their opposition to the dominant agri-food system, alternative agri-food initiatives may unwittingly reproduce central features of neoliberalism. Julie Guthman has been a particularly strong proponent of this view, arguing that food activism and neoliberalism have shaped one another dialectically in California in recent decades. This paper responds to her argument, with a view to distinguishing between what it reveals and what it may conceal about the transformative potential of alternative agri-food initiatives in North America. Drawing on primary research on a variety of community-based food initiatives in Eastern Ontario, Canada, we show how a neoliberal lens does help to illuminate some problematic characteristics of these initiatives, including assumptions about market-based solutions and focus on self-improvement at the expense of state involvement. However, this lens underestimates those aspects of community-based food initiatives that may appear commensurate with neoliberal rationalities but which also push in more progressive directions.

Keywords:

• neoliberalism
• community food initiatives
• food justice
• local food
• food access

Notes

1. City population figures from 2006 census: City Population (2014).

2. Community-supported agriculture is the more common term, though community-shared agriculture is also widely used in Canada.

3. Although we collected data on gender, we did not collect data on other axes of social differentiation (such as race and class), and so cannot determine how these aspects of social identity might relate to agri-food activism. We also did not examine whether initiatives worked with particular ethnic communities, though this (and a fuller elucidation of identity) would allow us to contribute more directly to recent discussions within the food justice literature. These issues will be squarely on our radar moving forward.

4. Brackets such as this include the number (n) assigned to the relevant interview. These took place between June 2011 and March 2012, as part of an Ontario-wide research project funded by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and led by Dr. Karen Landman and Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer. Interviews were conducted by Brynne Sinclair-Waters and Linda Stevens. See also Andrée et al. (2013).

5. Widely defined as “a condition in which all community residents obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice” (Hamm and Bellows 2003).

6. For information on the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, see Oklahoma Food Cooperative (2014).

7. Our sample included only one farmers' market, though there are dozens in the region, because these are well studied in Ontario.

8. Just Food's complete vision statement reads:

We envision a vibrant, just and sustainable food system where: all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, nutritious and culturally-acceptable food for an active and healthy life; the principles of ecological sustainability, sustainable livelihoods for food providers, and social justice for all are upheld; the local population actively participates in the decision-making processes related to food at municipal, regional, and national levels; people have the desire, opportunity, and means to actively engage in all aspects of the food system; and food is celebrated as central to both culture and community.

9. In order to use the Savour Ottawa logo, restaurants must commit to purchasing either 15% or $25,000 per year of their food content directly from at least five Savour Ottawa farmers. Micro-scale processors must ensure that either the first ingredient or 51% of their products before processing are sourced from a Savour Ottawa producer.

10. On FoodShare Toronto, see Food Share (2014).

11. On the Food Action Plan, see Just Food (2014).

12. On the Ottawa Food Policy Council, see Ottawa Food Policy Council (2013).

13. A case of BSE was identified in Alberta in 2003. Limits were placed on exports of Canadian beef products to ensure the disease did not spread. These measures had serious financial impacts on beef producers in Eastern Ontario.

14. According to Guthman (2008a), examples of more authentic resistance/emancipatory alternatives include: food entitlement programmes; land reform: redistribution of public and private lands; protection of national-level food safety regulations; more stringent legislation (e.g. around pesticide drift) (p. 1180); anti-hunger initiatives in Latin America (p. 1181); peasant protests against land confiscation in China (p. 1181); and agricultural subsidies.