Beyond Market Mechanisms: Advocating for racial justice in the Good Food Buffalo Coalition
Topics: Food Systems
, Environmental Justice
,
Keywords: Food justice, social movements, institutional procurement, activist-scholarship
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 43
Authors:
Jessica L Gilbert, SUNY Geneseo
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
Abstract
The Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) is a national program and social movement that leverages market mechanisms to foster values-based food procurement at public institutions. Centering a trans-local approach, the GFPP promotes the formation of local coalitions across the United States that combine the national GFPP values with local goals and priorities. One such coalition is the Good Food Buffalo Coalition (GFBC), which is working to implement the GFPP in Western New York public institutions in a racially just manner. Grounded in social movement theory and food justice praxis, this paper traces the GFBC’s shift from GFPP-specific advocacy to a values-driven approach that centers racial justice and the resulting impacts on the coalition’s potential to build towards transformative change in food systems at multiple scales. Specifically, this paper explores the ways that the GFBC’s explicit focus on racial justice in food systems has guided the coalition through 1) identifying limitations of the GFPP as both a program situated within neoliberal market mechanisms; 2) developing an understanding of root causes of racial injustice in food systems ; 3) engaging in multi-scalar networks in order to advance the coalition’s advocacy to address these root causes; and 4) understanding the benefits of continuing to advocate for the GFPP despite its limitations. Finally, as the author is a member of the GFBC, this paper demonstrates multiple ways that theoretical analyses might support social movements both within and beyond food systems advocacy, and vice versa.
Beyond Market Mechanisms: Advocating for racial justice in the Good Food Buffalo Coalition
Category
Virtual Paper Abstract
Description
This abstract is part of a session. Click here to view the session.
| Slides