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Food labor, economic inequality, and the imperfect politics of process in the alternative food movement

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Abstract

There is a growing commitment by different parts of the alternative food movement (AFM) to improve labor conditions for conventional food chain workers, and to develop economically fair alternatives, albeit under a range of conditions that structure mobilization. This has direct implications for the process of intra-movement building and therefore the degree to which the movement ameliorates economic inequality at the point of food labor. This article asks what accounts for the variation in AFM labor commitments across different contexts. It then appraises a range of activist perspectives, practices, and organizational approaches. The answer emerges through a comparative analysis of three California social movement organizations enmeshed in the particularities of local contentious food politics. The cases include a labor union representing grocery store and meatpacking/food processing workers, a food justice organization working to create green jobs and independent funding models, and an organic urban farming and educational organization. Commitment to fair labor standards varies due to differences in organizational capacity, the degree of dedication to ending economic inequality in local activist culture, and the openness of local political and economic institutions to working class struggles. The article concludes with a discussion of how these findings inform our understanding of the process of cooperation and division in the AFM, particularly regarding the complexities and contradictions of using food labor to combat economic inequality. Movement building in the midst of varying institutional, organizational, and cultural contexts reinforces the value of a reflexive approach to this imperfect politics of process.

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Notes

  1. I use “local activist culture” interchangeably with “local movement culture” to refer to widespread discourses, mobilization approaches, norms, and rituals in liberal, progressive, and radical circles that spill over and inform activism in a particular place. Such a notion follows from the work of social movement scholars (c.f. Jasper 2010; Taylor and Whittier 1995).

  2. The interviewee demographics varied by case. That said the largest groups were college educated white males (24 %), white females (19 %), Asian females (10 %), Latinos (9 %), and Latinas (9 %). Overall the respondents were primarily white (47 %) with a college degree (79 %).

  3. I created this figure by assuming that across all board members roughly 25 h of labor is dedicated toward some aspect of the farm, and conservatively that nine volunteers work for 5 h each (45 in total).

  4. The minority unionism of groups like OUR Wal-Mart and the Fight for 15 (both backed by labor unions) and alternative labor organizations like Restaurant Opportunity Center are leading the current wave of contention for fair food labor.

Abbreviations

AFL-CIO:

American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations

AFM:

Alternative food movement

ALOFT:

A local organic farmland trust

CSA:

Community supported agriculture

LA:

Los Angeles

PJ:

Planting Justice

SD Roots:

San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project

TYY:

Transform Your Yard program

UFCW:

United Food and Commercial Workers

US:

United States

USDA:

United States Department of Agriculture

WWF:

Wild Willow Farm

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Acknowledgments

Thanks first and foremost to the many people who spoke openly about the ups and downs of creating a fairer agrifood system. An earlier and less developed version of this paper was presented at the 2013 Yale Food Symposium, at which I received a number of helpful comments. I also want to express gratitude to the anonymous reviewers and the editor, Harvey James, for providing constructive feedback.

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  1. Department of Sociology, Colorado State University, B258 Clark Building, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Joshua Sbicca

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Sbicca, J. Food labor, economic inequality, and the imperfect politics of process in the alternative food movement. Agric Hum Values 32, 675–687 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9582-2

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