Abstract
While researchers have identified numerous problems with food systems, sustainable, just, and workable solutions remain scarce. Recent developments in the food justice literature, however, show which local food movements favor sustainability and justice as problem-solving measures. Yet, some of the ways that these approaches could work in concert are overlooked. Through focusing on how they are compatible, we can understand how such endeavors can improve the conditions for community control and reduce the detrimental effects of agribusiness. In this paper, the author proposes a participatory budgeting project that involves a relatively new process called “vertical agriculture” to alleviate some of the harm that current agricultural practices cause. In turn, we see how such a measure can improve the integrity of municipal governance and reshape the power structures that control food systems.
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Notes
For a broad survey of such issues, see: Dieterle (2015) Just food: philosophy, justice and food. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield International.
In addition to the notion of time within radical sovereignty, the possibility exists that a complete overhaul is unnecessary or impossible. For instance, there could be parts of the system that work exceptionally well, and removing them might hinder people’s wellbeing. For instance, the structure of a municipal democracy could facilitate justice and human flourishing. Yet, under a system of radical reform, replacing it with an untested political device might not be in the best interest of residents.
See Karl Marx, Karl Marx: A Reader (ed.) Jon Elster, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986). Enrique Dussel, Philosophy of Liberation, (trans.) Aquilina Martinez and Christine Morkovsky (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985).
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Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Ian Werkheiser, Nathan Bell, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous version of this paper.
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Epting, S. Participatory Budgeting and Vertical Agriculture: A Thought Experiment in Food System Reform. J Agric Environ Ethics 29, 737–748 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-016-9631-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-016-9631-x