Yesterday the Applied Research Center, a racial justice think tank and publisher of Colorlines.com, released “Good Food and Good Jobs for All: Challenges and Opportunities to Advance Racial and Economic Equity in the Food System.” Part of a series on food justice and race, the report makes recommendations on how the labor movement and the food justice movement— which journalist Michael Pollan referred to as a “lumpy tent” of stakeholders— can better work together to advance their respective, and interrelated, agendas.
The challenge, according to the report, is to move beyond self-interest: “An effective response to the inequities of the food system requires analysis and action that both acknowledge and address the economics and racial composition of the power elite and those most impacted.” The report details unlikely and innovative approaches to further advance the work for good food and good jobs. By stipulating conditions for liquor licenses, procurement policies or retail subsidies, for example, activists can leverage these assets to create change.
To view the full report, go to: arc.org/foodjustice.
For additional resources on race and food justice issues, see also: Applied Research Center’s The Color of Food, the Food Chain Workers Alliance’s The Hands That Feed Us and WhyHunger’s Food Security Learning Center topic on Race and the Food System.
