Similar challenges and common values unite the diversified efforts of advocacy organisations for food justice in different parts of the globe. Besides scope for mutual learning between these organisations, bringing their experiences together creates opportunities for amplifying localised stories of change and crafting a narrative that alternative food systems are possible and can be constructed from below.
Besides their coastal location, there is little, at first sight, that the cities of Brighton and Hove (UK) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) have in common. Brighton and Hove is a relatively affluent medium-sized town of under 300 thousand people. Rio is a megalopolis of seven million, with 24 percent of its population living in poverty. Socio-economic differences abound. Yet, a recent dialogue between local advocacy organisations for food justice revealed that there is much that unites their urban communities – specifically, how they can and are creating alternatives to the dominant food system that prioritise social inclusion, justice, and ecological integrity.
Just food network
The dialogue was part of a series of interactions between advocacy organisations brought together to reflect on just food transitions. Just food? is an action-research project, funded by the British Academy, designed to establish a mutual exchange network that examines and compares conceptions of, approaches to, and strategies for, achieving the just transition of food systems in four contexts: Brazil, Zambia, Sierra Leone, and the UK. Country partners in these contexts are: AS-PTA in Brazil, the Brighton Food Factory in the UK, Green Earth in Sierra Leone and the Zambia Land Alliance.
The project consists of a series of participatory workshops organised by these local partners in selected communities in the field sites where they normally operate. Through these workshops, they explore with their peers and other food system actors the meanings of just transition and pathways to improve current food systems. These will then share and contrast the collected data in a series of online international exchanges with the other members of the network. The first of these exchanges happened recently to reflect on the first round of country-level workshops. This blog compares insights from discussions hosted by the Brighton Food Factory and AS-PTA in their respective communities.
Local specificities
In each of the two settings, conversations about just food system transitions reflected the distinct socioeconomic and political circumstances of these two locations.
In Brighton, the discussion emphasised matters of food consumption and its ecological footprint. Topics of concern included packaging, food miles, food waste and the disconnection between people and ‘real’ food, including, for example, understanding the seasonality of fresh food items and the implications of disregarding it. Participants reflected on the role of supermarkets versus consumers in the food system. Although consumers’ responsibility was highlighted and the ethics of consumption underlined as a powerful driver of change, the power of large supermarkets and inadequate regulation were thought to be a big part of the problem.
In Rio de Janeiro, the conversation emphasised the challenging context for just transitions, marked by a populist authoritarian regime, the gradual dismantling of a progressive public policy framework, and increasing violence and land grabs in the Rio de Janeiro periphery. Against this context, the workshop highlighted community-driven initiatives as forms of resistance against a hostile environment as well as expressions of solidarity between those in need. Despite a hostile political regime, participants conveyed a strong sense of the state whose functions and policy framework need to be safeguarded.
Notwithstanding contextual differences and specificities, there is much that unites thinking about just transitions and how to enact them. Three common themes were: the need to revalue food, connect intersecting injustices, and experiences of solidarity as engines of progressive change.
Revaluing food
The discussions in the two cities highlighted the need for society (and young people specifically) to rediscover and reconnect with food. Food is not just about what we eat to fulfil our biological needs but it embodies social, cultural, ecological and political meaning. In Brighton, this was expressed, for example, as the need to understand seasons, learn about food preservation to reduce waste, and make conscious ethical decisions in consumption. In Rio, community gardens for growing fruits, vegetables and herbs, supported by food justice organisations, were experienced not just as sites of healthy food growing, but also as places for educating young people, and refuges for women who experienced different forms of hardship during the pandemic.
Connecting intersecting injustices
In both cities, there is a growing movement toward connecting struggles for justice that relate to different parts of the food system – for example, linking debates about food poverty and urban food deserts to debates about agroecology and localising food production. The relatively confined scale of ‘the city’ has perhaps made these connections more evident and manageable. The concept of food territories breaks boundaries and challenges mercantilist logics that disconnect producers and consumers and dilute the struggles for justice that united them. Civil society organisations and community initiatives aligned through loose networks have made inroads in breaking these boundaries and pushing for more transversal framings of justice in the food system.
Solidarities as engines of change
A strong sense of solidarity has been powering these food networks in both cities and this has intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic. In Brighton, solidarity expresses a sense of civic and moral responsibility by individuals organised to support those in need and is enabled by supportive municipal institutions. In Rio de Janeiro, solidarity is a form of collective resistance (shaped by class, gender and race-based identities) against intensifying oppression and violence. Differences in enacting solidarity matter in terms of thinking just transition pathways.
Just transition pathways
Overall, emerging from this exchange, there is a sense that just food transitions are not about fixing failures of the current system in an effort to ‘build back better’. They are, instead, about pursuing fundamentally different pathways that reconceptualise food and food relations. While discussions in both cities suggest a strong role for civil society organisations and movements in uniting struggles to drive change, there are context-specific differences in imagining the role of the state as enabler of such transitions. Finally, while gloom prevails in diagnostics about the current food system in its social and ecological dimensions, solidarities have triggered a sentiment of hope that alternatives are possible and are already being crafted from below.