Practicing Food Democracy: A Pragmatic Politics of Transformation

In Hungry for Profit, an edited collection of essays, contributor Henderson (2000) examines some of the current social activity opposing the excesses of industrialization, economic concentration, and globalization of agriculture and food systems. Henderson gives us a glimpse of organizations in the United States developing alternative farm practices, of farmers and eaters engaged in community supported agriculture, of groups working to guarantee the right to a nutritious and sufficient diet, and of policy advocates operating at the national and international levels. From this vista of the organizational landscape, Henderson (2000, p. 175) observes that: “sustainable agriculture is swelling into a significant social movement with a national network and an effective policy wing”. She sees rich potential in the ability of people to organize and build local food systems from the grassroots up. In this context, she concludes, “food becomes political,” and even a backyard garden becomes “a small piece of liberated territory in the struggle for a just and sustainable society” (Henderson, 2000, pp. 187-188).