¶ … Food Justice Movement and Its Themes
Intersectional Theory is the study of systems that intersect in terms of power structure dichotomies -- oppression vs. hegemony -- and approaches this intersection from the standpoint of focusing on how various variables (such as gender, age, class, etc.) interact with cultural, ecological, environmental, economical categories in different ways. In the food justice movement, "the social relations of food have been organized along lines of gender" with women predominantly in the role of food preparer, thus projecting woman's role in the world "in deep, complex, and often contradictory ways" (Allen, Sachs, 2007, p. 1). Yet, with the globalization of food through the rise of multinationals, the powerful role held by women in food preparation and production has been taken from them and placed in the hands of the corporations (Shiva, 2009, p. 17). Food simultaneously elevates and impoverishes women in terms of the social power structure within the modern patriarchy and the corporatization of food today has altered the terms of woman's role by essentially delegitimizing it. The food justice movement, on the other hand, recognizes the oppression of classes and genders via the usurpation of food provision and preparation by the same corporate entities that put fast food chains on urban street corners in neighborhoods where grocery stores are closed. This paper will take an intersectional view of the food justice movement and show how the goal of the movement...
Today's resources are controlled by industrialists, corporations and multinationals (who have even collected the world's seeds and placed them in vaults called seed banks in order to preserve life should their own efforts to control the movements of the world end in catastrophic failure). The food justice movement aims to wrest control away from such monolithic giants and place it back in the hands where it organically and naturally has a right to be. If the history of the world tells us anything, it is that women are important when it comes to providing food. This role may limit the way that women are perceived in the wider social realm (Allen, Sachs, 2007) but it cannot be denied that their role in the food preparation process has even been anything but authentic and dominant (Shiva, 2009). Yet, even as women are recognized more and more in the workforce, their role in food preparation is more and more stripped as the "authentic" food experience is taken over by the multinationals who view the process solely as a means for them to accrue greater wealth and control over systems and societies. It is a new era of oppression -- this time not centered around labor in the workplace but rather labor in the food prep process.
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