The intersection of food justice and religious values in secular spaces: insights from a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio

Abstract

Critical food scholars have argued that activists’ political ideologies and environmental values are important influences on their food justice projects. However, this body of work has given little attention to religion and spirituality even though religious studies scholars maintain that religious values affect environmental and social action. Bringing together these perspectives considers the way religious values and meaning making intersect with actions toward food justice outside of traditionally religious spaces. This paper draws on qualitative research, including a dozen interviews and 11 months of participant observation, at Franklinton Farms, a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio. I demonstrate that Franklinton Farms team members reference diverse religious values and practices when explaining the meaning and significance of their farming. In addition, I argue that they renegotiate their religious values in light of the injustices they see in the food system. By examining religion and spirituality within a secular food space, this paper sheds light on an underexplored influence on whether and how alternative food spaces realize food justice.

Appendix

Examples of Thematic Coding Structure

Theme	Codes	Examples
Farming Sustainably and Collaborating with Nature	Connection with nature/environment	“But on a spiritual level, I very much feel connected to the outdoors and think there is something beautiful about growing food. It’s a miracle kind of thing…That connection to the land is spiritual for me” (interviewee 1)
	Sustainable agriculture	“I had been wanting to get involved with food and explore agriculture in an environmental context since you know it’s – for environmentalism it’s one of the biggest issues…to grow more food for more people on less space and then to balance that with conservation concerns and things like that” (interviewee 4) “I think the fact that we’re growing really high-quality food in a local setting is really important. I think that this connection between the food and your distance to it is important” (interviewee 12)
	Growing food	“It [the initial community garden] was primarily about being a part of growing their own food and in some small way beginning to care for the land and maybe a closer connection to—with the and out of a sense of responsibility” (interviewee 5)
Building Community in Franklinton	Food access	“It’s just so important to me to be a part of a community that doesn’t have—their right to eat fresh affordable good food has been taken away from them and not provided” (interviewee 6) “It was really appealing that Franklinton Gardens was serving in a poor neighborhood and that…we grow food for poor people, but they’re trying to create access for people in this neighborhood who have less economic advantage anyway” (interviewee 7)
	Building relationships	“My experience of food, growing food, and urban farming is definitely centered around relationships” (interviewee 8) “I would say that one of my most treasured moments through this process has been just simply sharing meals with—with my neighbors” (interviewee 5)
	Interconnection	“I think it’s really really important that we provide them [Franklinton neighbors] with a source of food that’s going to give them energy to thrive and not just be full but for their bodies to physically be healthy so that the rest of their life can hopefully be happier and healthier. And just the sole aspect of it [food] connecting us to each other and to the cycle of everything” (interviewee 6) “If you look at it especially from, maybe not a religious or spiritual perspective, that we’re all connected, to me then that person’s injustice is also yours and maybe that resonates with people that they can feel that more” (interviewee 3)
	Shared knowledge	“I’m learning from people at the farms like ___ and ___ and ___ and ___about workers – farmworkers' rights” (interviewee 8) “Just a lot of meaningful conversations that I would say were very spiritual and just nice” (interviewee 10)
Participating in a Movement for Change	Alternative vision for food system	“I’m very much a believer in that the local food economy is shifting from this transnational—this set of transnational corporations that have essentially controlled almost all of the globe’s food production, processing, distribution, and sales. And really as the local food economy is the answer for not only a lot of economic injustices but also a lot of environmental issues as well” (interviewee 5)
	Practice vs theory	“I guess the work of food justice and urban agriculture –food justice seems like such a wide topic that I knew very very little about. But, as far as urban agriculture and urban farming, I think it’s a tool that can be used to usher in the way of God’s kingdom in a way that has a real effect and impact on social class or race or gender because everybody can have access to it” (interviewee 8)
	Food access	“Looking into the food environment made me realize wow, you know access to good food isn’t something that everyone has, and it’s really messed up so how can people try to address that gap” (interviewee 1) “[I] encountered more radical trains of thought with regard to food and capitalism and the way that our food system is deeply integrated with structural racism and oppression and exploitation in every step of the process” (interviewee 11)
	individual action	“If you’re not part of the solutions you’re part of the problem type of thing, so I just keep thinking, ‘I’ve got to do something’” (interviewee 2) “I can’t restructure society really and change massive oppressive systems. But what I can do is take a small piece of land, understand all the variables about that, and do everything I can, as a person who’s conscious of how nature interacts with human society, and try to help those systems act in harmony more” (interviewee 9)
	Meaning/purpose	“When I had my faith broken and couldn’t really believe in a concept of the divine, what I could believe in was the divinity within people and the collective and the power of community when you put it together and try to do meaningful work together. That felt so transcendent and that’s honestly what carried me through the entirety of my college…having this solid community of people whose practice is to courageously and intentionally walk in the world and have hope and create hope for something better with regard to food justice” (interviewee 11)