Food Justice
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“Food justice seeks to ensure that the benefits and risks of where, what and how food is grown, produced, transported, distributed, accessed and eaten are shared fairly. Food justice represents a transformation of the current food system, including but not limited to eliminating disparities and inequities.” – Robert Gottlieb & Joshi Anupama, Food Justice |
Food systems are not immune to the power dynamics that can create marginalization. These power dynamics become apparent as we ask ourselves:
- Who produces the food?
- Who has access to land, and the means of production?
- Who has access to healthy, nutritious, culturally appropriate food and who doesn’t?
- Who suffers the environmental impacts of food production?
- Who makes food decisions?
- How has colonialism affected our food system and traditional livelihoods?
- What type of food is produced?
- What knowledge is valued and which isn’t?
Examining these questions is key to dismantling the injustices in our food systems.
Food justice and racial justice
Reaching the goals of healthy, just, and sustainable food systems is not possible without addressing systemic racism and colonialism. In our homes and offices, our communities and gardens, our public and private spaces, race, class, and other factors interact in complex ways to entrench discrimination and oppression, particularly against Black communities, Indigenous peoples, and those of colour. We cannot ignore these realities while working to change our food systems, for there is no food justice without racial justice.
Get in touch
On this page, we gather resources on food justice and the sister topic of food sovereignty. If you have suggestions, please send them to communications@foodsecurecanada.org.
Resources
READ
- Broadbent Institute (February 3, 2020). “Black Food Insecurity in Canada.”
- Civil Eats (May 5, 2020). “People of Color are at Greater Risk of COVID-19. Systemic Racism in the Food System Plays a Role.”
- Civil Eats (June 24, 2020). “An Intergenerational Juneteenth Gathering Shows How the Black Food Sovereignty Discussion has Shifted.”
- Eater (January 25, 2019). "How Racism Has Shaped the American Farming Landscape."
- Food Secure Canada (April 21, 2020). "Recap: From short-term response to food system transformation."
- Food Secure Canada (2019). “Eat Think Vote: Indigenous Food Sovereignty.”
- Food Secure Canada (2019). “Eat Think Vote: Right to Food.”
- Food Print (n.d.). “Food Justice.”
- FoodShare (November 2019). “Fact Sheet: Race and Food Insecurity.”
- Food Tank (February, 2020). “24 Organizations Finding Food Justice.”
- Grub Street (2020). “Food Media Must Work Harder to Fix Its Racism Problem.”
- Greenpeace (June 18, 2020). “Cheyenne Sundance on why we need food justice, now and after COVID-19.”
- Vogue (July 3, 2020). “Soul Fire Farm’s Leah Penniman Explains Why Food Sovereignty Is Central in the Fight for Racial Justice.”
- Seed Change (n.d.). “Food sovereignty.”
Watch
- Earth to Tables Legacies (n.d.). “Earth to Tables.”
- Food Secure Canada (March 27, 2020). "With millions of Canadians facing food insecurity, it's time for universal basic income."
- FoodShare (2020). “Black women on Black food sovereignty.”
- FoodShare (2020). “It’s Time to End White Supremacy in Food Systems”
- UBC Farm Centre for Sustainable Food Systems (2020). “The Right to Eat: Tackling Racism & Inequality in the Food System."