ENVS 195: Land & Food Justice Movements

ENVS 195: Land & Food Justice Movements
Spring 2016, Registrar’s number: 15698
Wednesdays, 4 - 7 p.m., Waterman 457
Instructor: Brian Tokar, Institute for Social Ecology, [email protected]
Recent decades have seen a flowering of new popular movements across the world, highlighting concerns
about the future of food, seeds, and access to land. This course will offer a comprehensive look at both
domestic and international movements for land and food justice, from the emergence of organic and local
food activism in the North to the diverse “new peasant” movements in the global South, among others.
We will examine the ideas and contributions of rainforest dwellers, campesino activists and “landless
workers” in Latin America, farmer activists in Africa and Asia, urban gardeners, “locavores,” and food
chain workers across the US, among others. Guest speakers and films will address both the local and
international dimensions of these movements, and students will develop and critically reflect upon handson group projects that support efforts toward just and sustainable food systems in our region.
Readings: All readings for this class will be available for download from Blackboard. Printing out the
articles in double-sided format and keeping them together in a binder is highly recommended.
Assignments and grading:
•
Class participation, including student presentations of readings and postings to online discussions:
25%
•
2 response and reflection papers to readings, 4-7 pages each, focusing on analysis, comparison and
critique: 25%.
•
News presentation and research paper (7-10 pages): Analyzing an item in the news that addresses
any of the issues discussed in class or profiling a related campaign or organization: 25%. These
will be presented throughout the semester. Students have 3 weeks after their presentation to submit
this paper.
•
Group project/presentation/paper: Participation in and/or analysis of a local campaign, event, or
project related to food issues and advocacy, land rights, alternative food systems, or a related
topic: 25%. These will be presented during the final class session and also documented in writing.
The class will mainly be in a discussion/seminar format. The instructor’s presentations will introduce each
week’s topic, aiming to highlight and clarify key concepts, and much of our class time will be devoted to
questions, answers and discussions, including small group discussions. The instructor will offer
qualitative comments on student papers in addition to grades. Students are expected to read the week’s
materials carefully, and be prepared to participate in discussions drawing upon the ideas developed in
the readings.
Everyone is expected to attend every class (see Blackboard for specific the absence policies) and
participate in an active, informed and respectful manner in our class discussions, which will address many
diverse aspects of the readings and a variety of related issues. Please feel free to respectfully share your
disagreements and challenges, as these are generally far more interesting than simply echoing what
you’ve read.
Students will have the opportunity to supplement in-class participation with comments on a Blackboard
discussion forum. There is also a forum for notes and comments from small group discussions. Everyone
is expected to contribute at least once to these forums, and substantive posts will help raise your
participation grade, fully equivalent to in-class participation. A third online forum is aimed to help
facilitate the formation of project groups.
Each week, students will volunteer to present key ideas and questions from our week’s readings. Everyone
is expected to offer at least one presentation of a reading, and they will be an important part of your class
participation grade. These presentations will usually follow the instructor’s introduction to the material.
When you volunteer to present to the class on a reading, please aim to accomplish the following:
1. Explain how the particular reading was meaningful to you, the most essential or illuminating
ideas, and how/whether the reading added to your understanding of the week’s topic. Please do not
attempt to summarize the entire reading in order to maximize time for discussion.
2. Choose 2 - 3 key passages from the reading to help orient our class discussion.
3. Offer a discussion question for the class, related to the reading as well as the overall topic.
These should be specific enough to challenge everyone’s understanding of the reading, and open-ended
enough to spark a good conversation.
Written assignments for the semester are in three parts:
1. Two response and reflection papers on our readings: These are short papers of 4 - 7 pages each,
reflecting upon at least 2 of the required readings up to that time in the semester. The purpose is to offer
analysis, comparisons and critiques of the ideas expressed, not to either recap what the authors are saying
nor scrutinize their writing style. All papers should be printed in 12 point type, 1 1/2- or double-spaced on
a reasonable quality printer. Readings should be addressed in a single, unified essay, not separate
commentaries on each individual reading.
These papers are due the fifth and tenth weeks of class (2/17, 3/30), and students will be penalized for late
papers, other than in exceptional circumstances with prior permission. If you also have a news analysis
paper due that week, you are granted an automatic 1-week extension on one of the 2 papers (your choice).
2. News analysis – Presentation and paper: Throughout the semester, students are urged to keep a close
eye on the news (in newspapers, journals, and electronic sources) for current articles relevant to the
various topics addressed in this course. These may be accounts of popular movements around land and
food, or other related stories that the ideas discussed in this class may shed some light upon. It is
important to identify and explore the advocacy, social movement, and/or activist dimensions of the story
you choose. You can also choose to profile a particular organization; in this case it is essential that you
draw upon sources other than the organization’s own website.
Each student will be expected to offer one news presentation of approximately 10 - 15 minutes during the
semester. and then develop the topic further in written form. This research paper should be 7 - 10 pages in
length, draw upon a variety of sources, and offer background on the issue, the people and organizations
involved, and feature an analysis of how it relates to any of the various movements or general themes
explored in this class. You are encouraged to offer a thorough analysis of the story and/or organization(s),
any important successes and/or limitations, and your conclusions and/or recommendations for further
action. These papers should be fully documented and referenced, using any standard format for citations.
* Please be sure to contact the instructor via email for approval of your news presentation topic. *
* The paper is due 3 weeks after your presentation. *
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3. Final project/paper: Students will work in groups to develop a final project, or work with an existing
organization or campaign that addresses one or more of the issues and perspectives developed in this
course. Your project should have some public component, whether in the form of a demonstration,
performance, art show, website, video or radio program, or other public presentation. These can be in
coordination with an existing project or organization, either on or off-campus, or something developed
uniquely by your group.
Groups of 2 - 5 students are encouraged to work together, though individual projects are permitted,
especially if the activity is part of an ongoing campaign or organizing effort. Projects can be documented
in any appropriate medium, along with a final written report. During the 3rd week of class (2/3), we will
begin the process of choosing projects and groups. At mid-semester (3/16), groups and individuals should
be prepared to submit a brief written proposal (1-2 pp.), which will not be graded, but rather allow the
instructor to offer suggestions and resources to facilitate the success of your project; only one proposal
per project is needed. Presentations of everyone’s final projects will be scheduled during our final class
meeting, though some may choose to present earlier.
Documentation of your projects (due no later than May 4th) can be a combination of group and individual
writing. However, group reports should include an individual reflection by each participant (2-3 pages)
describing your particular role in the project, your feelings about the group effort and dynamics, and what
you might do differently in the future (these can be submitted together as part of a whole package, or
individually if you wish). Project reports should be 6 - 12 pages in length, not including the selfreflections. They may tend toward the shorter end of this range if you are offering substantial non-written
documentation (slide presentations, videos, art projects, etc.), and on the longer end if you are not, and
address:
1. The overall concept of the project, its rationale, motivation, and public significance.
2. The methods and techniques used, and their relation to the ideas discussed in this course.
3. The effectiveness of the project, public impact (tangible or potential), creativity, and effective
use of time and resources.
4. The outcome of the project, and possible future steps.
5. Critical reflection on the process and practices of environmental activism.
Students who for a particular reason do not wish to engage in a project, will have the option of submitting
a final research paper instead. These will be 15 - 20 pages in length, are graded on analysis and
originality, and the topic needs to be pre-approved by the instructor.
Course Schedule and Readings
(Scheduling of media and guests is tentative and subject to change.)
Week 1 – Jan. 20th: Understanding Today’s Food Crises
Lisa Miller, “Divided We Eat,” Newsweek, November 22, 2010
Mark Bittman, “How to Feed the World,” New York Times, October 14, 2013
“Andrianna Natsoulas on Food Sovereignty and the Commons,” from commonstransition.org
A. Alkon and J. Agyeman, Excerpt from “Introduction: The Food Movement as Polyculture,”
from Cultivating Food Justice (pp. 1-6)
F. M. Lappé & J. Collins, excerpt from “Myth 1: Too Little Food, Too Many People,” from
World Hunger: 10 Myths (2015 edition)
Helena Norberg Hodge, et al., “Local to Global,” from Bringing the Food Economy Home
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Week 2 – Jan. 27th: Background to Food Justice Movements
Charles Tilly, “Social Movements as Politics,” from Social Movements, 1768-2004
D. McAdam and D. Snow, “Social Movements: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues,” from
Readings on Social Movements: Origins, Dynamics and Outcomes
R. Gottlieb and A. Joshi, “An Emerging Movement,” from Food Justice
W. Bello and M. Baveira, “Food Wars,” from F. Magdoff and B. Tokar, eds., Agriculture and
Food in Crisis
Guest speaker: UVM Prof. Emeritus Fred Magdoff on contemporary food crises and land grabs
Week 3 – Feb. 3rd: Struggles for the Land
The Ecologist, “The Commons: Where the Community Has Authority,” from Whose Common
Future?
GRAIN, “The New Farm Owners: Corporate Investors and the Control of Overseas Farmland,”
from Agriculture and Food in Crisis
Fred Magdoff, “Twenty-First-Century Land Grabs,” Monthly Review 65:6, November 2013
Mark Chapin, “A Challenge to Conservationists,” WorldWatch November/December 2004
Marc Edelman, “The persistence of the peasantry,” NACLA Report on the Americas 33:5,
Mar./Apr. 2000 (For discussion next week)
Video: A Darker Shade of Green: REDD Alert and the Future of Forests (Global Justice Ecology Proj.)
Initial discussion of student project ideas
Week 4 – Feb. 10th: Movements for Food Sovereignty
María Elena Martínez-Torres and Peter Rosset, “La Via Campesina: Transnationalizing Peasant
Struggle and Hope,” from Richard Stahler-Sholk, et al., eds., Latin American Social Movements in the
Twenty-First Century: Resistance, Power and Democracy
Eric Holt-Giménez, “Food Security, Food Justice, or Food Sovereignty,” from A. Alkon and J.
Agyeman, eds., Cultivating Food Justice
Marc Edelman, “Food sovereignty: Forgotten genealogies and future regulatory challenges,”
conference paper, September 2013
Optional: Bina Agarwal, “Food sovereignty, food security and democratic choice: critical contradictions,
difficult conciliations,” Journal of Peasant Studies, 2014
Week 5 – Feb. 17th: Farmers Speak Out and Organize
Michael Pollan, excerpts from “The Farm,” from The Omnivore’s Dilemma
I. Masioli and P. Nicholson, “Seeing Like a Peasant: Voices from La Vía Campesina,” from H.
Wittman, et al., Food Sovereignty: Reconnecting Food Nature & Community
T. Boehm, H. Moore, & N. Beingessner, “Getting to Food Sovereignty: Grassroots Perspectives
from the NFU,” from H. Wittman, et al., Food Sovereignty in Canada
Ted Nace, “The New North Dakota Populists,” from J. Frank & J. St. Clair, eds., Red State Rebels
First response paper due.
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Week 6 – Feb. 24th Case Studies in Latin America
Angus Wright and Wendy Wofford, Introduction: To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement
and the Struggle for a New Brazil
MST, “Fundamental Principles for the Social and Economic Transformation of Rural Brazil,”
Journal of Peasant Studies, January 2001
João Pedro Stédile interview: “Brazil’s Landless Battalions,” from Tom Mertes, ed., A Movement
of Movements (pp. 18-35, 43-48)
Sinan Koont, “The Urban Agriculture of Havana,” from Monthly Review, January 2009
Video: Excerpts from Ciclovida
Week 7 – March 2nd: Farmworkers and Food Workers
R. Gottlieb and A. Joshi, “Growing Justice,” from Food Justice
Nelson Carrasquillo, “Race and Ethnicity from the Point of View of Farm Workers in the Food
System,” Ohio State University 2011
Joanne Lo, “Racism, Gender Discrimination and Food Chain Workers in the US,” from William
Schanbacher, ed., The Global Food System: Issues and Solutions
Guest speakers from Migrant Justice/Justicia Migrante, VT Food Chain Workers and others
– Spring Break, March 7 - 11th –
Week 8 – March 16th: Challenging Genetic Engineering
Brian Tokar, “The GMO threat to food sovereignty: Science, resistance and transformation,” from
W. Schanbacher, ed., The Global Food System: Issues and Solutions
Brian Tokar, “Resisting the Engineering of Life,” from Redesigning Life?: The Worldwide
Challenge to Genetic Engineering
Rachel Schurman & William Munro, “A Different Future for Biotechnology?” from Fighting for
the Future of Food
Abby Kinchy, “Science and Social Movements,” from Seeds, Science and Struggle: The Global
Politics of Transgenic Crops
Optional: Thomas G. Schweiger, “Europe: Hostile Lands for GMOs,” From Redesigning Life?
Week 9 – March 23rd: From Seed Sovereignty to Agroecology
Vandana Shiva, “Seed Satyagraha: A movement for farmers' rights and freedoms in a world of
intellectual property rights, globalised agriculture and biotechnology,” from Redesigning Life?
Janisse Ray, “The Bad Genie is Out of the Bottle,” from The Seed Underground: A Growing
Revolution to Save Food
Rachel Bezner Kerr, “Unearthing the Cultural and Material Struggles over Seed in Malawi,” from
Food Sovereignty
Jack Kloppenburg, “Seed Sovereignty: The Promise of Open Source Biology,” from Food
Sovereignty
Miguel Altieri, “Scaling Up Agroecological Approaches for Food Sovereignty in Latin America,”
from Food Sovereignty
Submit written proposals for class projects (1-2 pp.)
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Week 10 – March 30th: Organic Food, Local Food
M. Sligh & T. Cierpka, “Organic Values,” from Organic Farming: An International History
Julie Guthman, excerpt from Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California
(Revised edition)
Grace Gershuny, “Battle for the Soul of Organic,” from W. Schanbacher, ed., The Global Food
System: Issues and Solutions
Ken Meter, “Local Foods are Key to Local Economic Recovery,” from Food Movements Unite
Optional: Gunter Vogt, “The Origins of Organic Farming,” from William Lockeretz, ed., Organic
Farming: An International History; M. Sligh & C. Christman, “Concentration in the US Organic
Industry,” from Who Owns Organic?, RAFI-USA, 2003
Guest speaker: Grace Gershuny, auther of Organic Revolutionary: A Memoir of the Movement for Real
Food, Planetary Healing, and Human Liberation
Second response paper due.
Week 11 – April 6th: Race and the Food System
Charlene Barker, et al., “Unshared Bounty: How Structural Racism Contributes to the Creation
and Persistence of Food Deserts,” ACLU & NY Law School (2012), sections A, C and E
Rebecca Solnit, “Revolutionary Plots: Urban agriculture is producing a lot more than food,”
Orion, July/August 2012
Alison Hope Alkon, “Creating Just Sustainability,” from Black, White and Green: Farmers
Markets, Race and the Green Economy (pp. 73-80, 89-93)
Jessica Gordon Nembhard, “The Federation of Southern Cooperatives: The Legacy Lives on,”
from Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice
Lauren Kepkiewicz, et al., “Beyond inclusion: Toward an anti-colonial food justice praxis,”
Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (2015)
Erica Satin-Hernandez, et al., “A community engagement case study of The Somerville Mobile
Farmers’ Market,” Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (2015)
Week 12 – April 13th: Is Localism the Answer?
Chris Carlsson, “Vacant Lot Gardeners,” from Nowtopia
Stan Cox, “Does it Really Matter How Far Your Food Travels to Reach Your Plate?” AlterNet,
February 2010
Brenden Born and Mark Purcell, “Avoiding the Local Trap,” Journal of Planning Education and
Research Vol. 26 (2006)
C. Hinrichs and P. Allen, “Selective Patronage and Social Justice: Local Food Consumer
Campaigns in Historical Context,” Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics (2008)
Week 13 – April 20th: Bringing Food Sovereignty Home
T. Mares and D. Peña, “Environmental and Food Justice: Toward Local, Slow and Deep Food
Systems,” from A. Alkon and J. Agyeman, eds., Cultivating Food Justice
Hilda E. Kurtz, et al., “Community Autonomy and Local Food: Seeking Food Sovereignty in
Maine,” conference paper, September 2013
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Mark Winne, “Public Policy: Connecticut’s Food Policy Councils,” from Closing the Food Gap:
Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty
Video: Excerpts from The Garden
Week 14 – April 27th: Toward Food Justice and A Moral Economy
R. Gottlieb and A. Joshi, “A New Food Politics,” from Food Justice
Murray Bookchin, “Market Economy or Moral Economy,” from The Modern Crisis
Shalmali Guttal, “The Defense of Land and Territory and Agrarian Reform in the 21st Century,”
from Keeping Land Local (Bangkok: Land Research Action Network & Focus on the Global South,
October 2014)
Week 15 – May 4th: Student presentations and wrap-up
Some additional recommended readings
Sam Moyo & Paris Yeros, eds., Reclaiming the Land: The Resurgence of Rural Movements in Africa,
Asia and Latin America
GRAIN, The Great Food Robbery
Eric Holt-Gimenez, Campesino a Campesino: Voices from Latin America’s Farmer-to-Farmer Movement
for a Sustainable Agriculture
José Bové and Francois Dufour, The World is Not for Sale: Farmers Against Junk Food
Chaia Heller, Food, Farms and Solidarity: French Farmers Challenge Industrial Agriculture and
Genetically Modified Crops
Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment
Vandana Shiva, Stolen Harvest, and Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge
Sandor Elix Katz, The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved
Carlo Petrini, Slow Food Nation
Patricia Hayes, A Patch of Eden: America’s Inner City Gardens
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