Community food security and environmental justice: Searching for a common discourse

Whose adequacy? (Re)imagining food security with displaced women in Medellín, Colombia

“…The point of our work in Colombia is not to claim that all displaced people experience urban industrial food as inadequate, nor to claim that displaced women are fully nostalgic for their previous rural lives, but to instead point to specific cases that are useful for thinking differently about food and food insecurity in both the Colombian context and broader terms. Academically, food security has been linked to environmental and social justice concernsfor instance, in merging discourses of sustainable agriculture and community food security (Gottlieb and Fisher 1996) or in food sovereignty critiques of food security (Fairbairn 2012). Yet, there has been little discussion, especially in the context of marginalized households, as to how 'food' itself may be differentially defined with respect to specific environmental and social practices; by breaking open the black box of 'food' itself, we also insist on taking seriously the differing material relationships that different people-different bodies-have with food.…”

Urban Food Security and Landscape Change: A Demand-side Approach

“…At the same time, the quality turn storyline provides an argument to justify reducing consumption, as higher rates of well-being may be obtained by trading quantity for quality. Although not explicitly mentioned, this narrative has many points of contact with 'community food security' (Gottlieb & Fisher, 1996;Pothukuchi, 2004), and 'food sovereignty' narratives (Pimbert, 2008;Wittman, 2009). The emphasis that both movements give to local communities implies a discipline of local consumption linked to the availability of local resources.…”

Including the Voices of Communities in Food Insecurity Research: An Empowerment-based Agenda for Food Scholarship

“…Scholars have also investigated the concept of food justice and outlined inequities in the current systems of food production, distribution, and consumption (Gottlieb & Fisher, 1996;Gottlieb & Joshi, 2010;Winne, 2005Winne, , 2009. A recently emerging trend grounded in the work of activists has examined the radical potential as well as problems inherent in "alternative" solutions to the problem of food insecurity, such as urban gardening, mobile markets, and novel ways in which food banks can operate (Allen, 1999;Johnston & Baker, 2005;Phoenix & Walter, 2009;Slocum, 2006).…”