Queer Feminist Food Justice Activism in Southern California

Keywords: food justice, feminism, queer, activism, activist-scholar, participatory ethnography
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 30

Abstract

Nearly two decades ago, Avakian and Haber (2005) penned their foundational volume that sparked momentum in the nascent field of feminist food studies. Since then, Sachs and Patel-Campillo (2014) conceptualized a feminist food justice, and Parker et al. (2019) called for the need for intersectionality in feminist food studies. Although scholars have examined the experiences of queer farmers (Cramer, 2020; Hoffelmeyer, 2021; Leslie 2017, 2019; Leslie et al., 2019; Wypler, 2019) or explored the applications of the eco-queer movement to food studies (Sbicca, 2012), there is a paucity of work focused on queer feminist food justice (for an exception see Smith, 2019). As a coalition of feminist and queer activist-scholars who study and are deeply embedded in food justice activism in Southern California, we ask: What can queer feminist perspectives, experiences, and methodologies bring to food justice and food studies? How can activist-scholars collaborate with those who are already enacting a queer feminist food justice that embraces anti-racist and anti-capitalist approaches (e.g., Smith, 2019)? Drawing on three years of participatory ethnographic research with diverse food justice activists who organize and run a low-cost organic farmers market, we explore the practical and theoretical (e.g., praxis) implications of queering feminist food justice. More specifically, we demonstrate how queer feminist food justice enacts transformation while exposing and challenging the predominantly white, elite, and cisheteronormative spaces of farmers markets (e.g., Alkon & McCullen, 2010). This presentation concludes with some pragmatic directions stemming from the critiques highlighted therein.