The story of how the emerging food justice movement is seeking to
transform the American food system from seed to table.
In today's food system, farm workers face difficult and hazardous
conditions, low-income neighborhoods lack supermarkets but abound in
fast-food restaurants and liquor stores, food products emphasize
convenience rather than wholesomeness, and the international reach of
American fast-food franchises has been a major contributor to an
epidemic of "globesity." To combat these inequities and excesses, a
movement for food justice has emerged in recent years seeking to
transform the food system from seed to table. In Food Justice, Robert
Gottlieb and Anupama Joshi tell the story of this emerging movement.
A food justice framework ensures that the benefits and risks of how food
is grown and processed, transported, distributed, and consumed are
shared equitably. Gottlieb and Joshi recount the history of food
injustices and describe current efforts to change the system, including
community gardens and farmer training in Holyoke, Massachusetts, youth
empowerment through the Rethinkers in New Orleans, farm-to-school
programs across the country, and the Los Angeles school system's
elimination of sugary soft drinks from its cafeterias. And they tell how
food activism has succeeded at the highest level: advocates waged a
grassroots campaign that convinced the Obama White House to plant a
vegetable garden. The first comprehensive inquiry into this emerging
movement, Food Justice addresses the increasing disconnect between
food and culture that has resulted from our highly industrialized food
system.
