Food Justice

Food Justice is a holistic and structural view of the food system that treats real, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food as a human right and addresses structural barriers to that right. Social movements for food justice are typically led by the communities most directly impacted, particularly low-income communities of color. Food justice includes issues like ownership and control of land, the rights of farmworkers and food service laborers, the kinds of food traditions that are valued, and the environmental impacts of food production.

Unpack questions like:

  • What is the history of how our food system came to be?
  • What are the legacies of colonialism and enslavement on our current system?
  • How does power operate in the food system?
  • Who benefits and who is excluded?
  • What are the strategies of social movements working to transform the food system?
  • How are movements for food justice connected to broader efforts for social, racial, and economic justice (such as to movements for justice in housing, the prison system, immigration, climate change, workers' rights, the solidarity economy, and more)?

Hands-on learning is an integral part of this field. Design projects such as a cooperatively-run campus kitchen and pursue internships with community partners including local farms, food cooperatives, and other organizations working for food justice.

Faculty Associated With This Field
Title Expertise
Lal, Prita Food justice, social movements, race/gender/class inequality, Black studies
Rosemeyer, Martha Agricultural ecology, food systems
Selected Programs 2022-23
Title Class Standing Credits
Agroecology Science and Practice: Market Farming and Community Gardening (Summer)
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
16
Black Agrarian Traditions
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4
Building Businesses for Responsible Futures
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4, 8, 12
Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS): Rooted, Legacies of Food Justice
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4
Food Systems, Human Health, and the Environment
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
14
Reclaiming the Commons: Black, White, and Indigenous Peoples Reconstructing Community
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
16
Rooted: Food Players, Policy, and Power
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4
Rooted: Food Sovereignty as Medicine
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4
Selected Programs 2023-24
Title Class Standing Credits
Business for Responsible Futures: Strategic Branding
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4, 8, 12
Business to Transform Society: Product Design and Marketing
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4, 8, 12
Environmental Justice: History and Sociology
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4
Environmental Justice: Social Movements
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4
Fungi for Human Health and the Environment
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
8
Land-Based Learning: Foodways
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
16
Rooted: Legacies of Food Justice
  • Freshman
  • Sophomore
  • Junior
  • Senior
4