Intersections between rural studies and food justice in the U.S.: some implications for today and the future

ABSTRACT

Justice is a term increasingly used in rural studies and agri-food systems research. In this article, we examine how rural studies can gain by more directly integrating food justice and its focus on transformative intervention. First, we identify existing gaps in discussions about social justice in relation to rurality in the United States. Second, we analyze prominent food justice literature and its main conceptualizations, characteristics, and gaps in relation to rurality. Drawing on existing gaps and opportunities in rural studies and food justice, we discuss why and how critical analyses of race/white supremacy, intersectionality, and engaged scholarship can strengthen the study of injustices in rural settings. In prioritizing these aspects, rural scholars might adopt powerful lenses for interrogating the ongoing hegemonies of rural communities while also facilitating greater engagement in social justice within and outside our disciplines.

KEYWORDS:

• Food justice
• rural studies
• race
• white supremacy
• intersectionality
• engaged scholarship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Some of this work can be found in journals with focus on rural studies such as Rural Sociology, Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Rural Studies, and Sociologia Ruralis.

2. We recognize that there might be existing publications addressing the main topics of this article that were not found, a limitation that the literature review often entails.

3. See e.g., White (2011) in Detroit published in Race/Ethnicity Multidisciplinary Global, and Levkoe (2006) in Toronto, Sbicca (2012) in West Oakland, and Passidomo (2014) in New Orleans, all published in Agriculture and Human Values.

4. See the 2019 Society & Natural Resources gender and sexuality special issue or Dentzman et al.’s (2021) Society & Natural Resources article analyzing queer farmers in the U.S. Census of Agriculture.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Diego Thompson

Dr. Diego Thompson is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Mississippi State University. His research has focused on minority groups and social disparities in agri-food systems and community perceptions and adaptations to agri-environmental challenges in the U.S. and Latin America.

Angie Carter

Dr. Angie Carter is an associate professor of environmental and energy justice in the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI. She studies agriculture, food systems, and rural environmental movements. Her current research engages community-based methods to study rural food systems development and resistance to extractive energy projects.