Cultivating just food: exploring inclusion and inequality in community food systems

In the United States, an increasing number of community-based food projects are emerging as people attempt to reclaim food sovereignty by modeling just and sustainable alternatives to the dominant, industrialized food system. Despite good intentions, researchers have found that many alternative food networks reproduce existing power relations by privileging middle class and elite interests over those of structurally marginalized groups. Such networks struggle to recognize broader mechanisms of inequality that contribute to disparities in access to food and thus face challenges in building truly inclusive, equitable and transformative food systems. In Poughkeepsie, New York, a community-based food network is evolving comprised of a constellation of groups working to improve access to healthy food for area residents, and to revitalize the city's local food system. The purpose of this research project is to explore selected community food efforts on the ground in Poughkeepsie, and to examine how they engage with issues of justice and equity in the food system there. I use the concept of food justice as a frame to guide my inquiry into the successes and challenges these groups face in their work.