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Winter 2021 • Volume 49 • Number 1 In This Issue Toward a More Equitable Food System A collection of articles that highlight social justice issues related to the food system. Values of the Food System Tamara Mose, Director of Diversity, food and society write about a family feeding have changed within 1 on Display Equity, and Inclusion, American number of issues that ail our food households during the pandemic; Sociological Association system, from the complicated costs how people’s resilience is inter- 3 Is Healthy Food Too ood not only takes care of our of eating healthily for low-income connected and defined by class Expensive? Ask Those Fnutritional needs, but also reflects families to foodies confronting across the globe; urban farming Who Know Best broader social contexts in which their own privilege during the and gentrification; ways hops are we live. This has become especially pandemic; from how food con- traded and their impact on labor Household Food noticeable during the pandemic sumption represents a central pillar and agricultural landscapes; and the 5 Procurement, Gender, as many have come to learn how of population-level health issues to connection between food justice and COVID-19 food is accessed—often unequally privatization of supermarkets and and the Black community. corporate food distribution; from This collection of articles illumi- Foodie Tensions in Tough across communities. As a sociolo- 6 Times gist whose scholarship has in large the harmful effects of sugar addic- nates a range of social justice issues part focused on food and foodways, tion among communities of color that stem from the ways in which Why Refusing the Empire’s I know that food has played a con- to the critical role of intermediaries our food system works. The authors 8 Sugar Still Matters for tentious role in our global history, who are increasingly responsible for have approached their essays with Abolition which highlights cultural connect- getting food to our tables. different lenses and methodologies edness while also underscoring Articles also focus on food inse- and suggest ways in which public 9 The Pandemic and the disparities among groups. curity, strains on the food system, policy can be deployed to create a Distribution of Choice In this issue, sociologists studying and ways food procurement and more equitable food system. n Freedom Farmers: Black 11 Agriculture and the Origins of Food Justice Values of the Food System on Display Urban Farming: Tell All Andrew Deener, Professor of Sociology, neither the time nor the resources lines. Nearly all the food banks 13 the Stories University of Connecticut to repurpose the supply to meet the across the country report increased s news of the coronavi- changing demand. demand, and 59 percent of them Hops across Time and 14 rus pandemic spread, This food waste exists report diminished inventory. Space A alongside millions of grocery shopping became The Role of the Private Market a significant concern for people going hungry. Care and Feeding during While the coronavirus pandemic 16 many. Some stockpiled According to the Brookings the Pandemic put a spotlight on the U.S. food sys- food, fearing visits to Institution, as of June 2020, tem, the pandemic is not the cause supermarkets and the pos- 16 percent of families The Social Context of of these problems. In fact, both 17 sibility of food shortages. reported that their children Healthy Eating food waste and food insecurity are Soon after, the focus turned Andrew Deener did not get enough food on normal features of the food system. Food and Resilience during to the dangers lurking in a weekly basis. The propor- TheUSDA estimates that between 19 the Pandemic: Narratives meat processing plants, fruit and tion of Black and Latino children 30 and 40 percent of the food supply from around the World vegetable packing houses, and ship- was higher, about 33 and 25 percent is wasted every year, and food ping and distribution centers. These respectively—part of the unequal insecurity has remained a constant 21 ASA News locations became transmission burden of vulnerability during the hotspots, which delayed shipments. pandemic. (See Alison Hope Alkon, policy issue for decades without the federal government ever developing Announcements With pressures mounting on both Sarah Bowen, Yuki Kato, Kara 24 supply and demand, warehouse Alexis Young, “Unequally vulnera- comprehensive solutions. and supermarket workers struggled ble: a food justice approach to racial Agricultural economists point to keep the distribution system disparities in COVID-19 cases.”) out that the food system is currently together and the shelves full. The emergency food bank system failing in its flexibility, unable to While supermarket shoppers faces a parallel disruption. A U.S. connect production sectors with encountered empty shelves, demand census survey found that changing consumption needs. for milk and fresh produce from 26 million people are without Underlying this issue is a sociologi- restaurants, hotels, and schools saw enough food. Feeding America, a cal question about why a vital system a precipitous drop. As a result, dairy national organization of 200 food is set up in this particular way. The farmers dumped gallons of milk, banks, projects that the number food system was built to profit from and fruit and vegetable farmers could grow to more than 50 million abundance and convenience without plowed overflowing supplies back in the coming months. Food banks creating reliable methods for solving into their fields. Farmers had have experienced excessively long Continued on Page 2 footnotes 1 American Sociological Association footnotes.asanet.org Feature Values of Food System increasingly privatized. The urban publicly traded to gain expansion over what was considered “super” in From Page 1 grocery and wholesale system of the capital and remain competitive, the 1970s. Shoppers now take this late 1800s and early 1900s connected were at the whim of shareholders. massive overabundance for granted. other kinds of problems, including food supplies to new neighborhoods Stores that did not turn a substan- The federal government contin- food insecurity and food waste. and more consumers. Grocers opened tial profit—mostly smaller urban ued to play a role, too. In addition Why were these particular market hundreds of standardized outlets to outlets—were forced to close. The to subsidizing changes in transpor- values integrated into a vital system? meet the changing urban consump- financial pressures of the 1970s left tation and suburban development, The answer requires looking back tion needs and became skilled at behind a landscape of limited food it helped finance the farming of at the history of the modern food managing many small stores at the access, part of the larger disinvest- commodity crops and created con- system, especially the rise and same time. ment of cities. sumer relief programs, such as the dominance of mass-merchandising Similarly, the supermarket system Taking Overabundance for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance as central to the consumer land- started piecemeal to solve a prob- Granted Program (SNAP). All of these scape. U.S. consumers rarely think lem. During the Great Depression, efforts reinforced the prominence of The modern food system was now about why supermarkets—let alone entrepreneurs sought ways to lower mass-merchandising. SNAP benefits, pursuing a different collective inter- Walmart, Costco, or Target—are food prices by linking volume and for example, are used disproportion- est altogether: the constant search such fundamental parts of a vital variety. So-called “cheapy” markets ately at supermarkets and big-box for organizational and technical infrastructure. And yet, almost incorporated more types of prod- stores, bolstering this aspect of the improvements 90 percent of the nation’s population ucts, initially by inviting vendors retail market. purchases its food at a supermar- in economic to set up stands in abandoned Likewise, ket or one of these big-box stores. warehouse spaces. Over time, super- efficiency. Stores that did not turn a agricultural These private market interests have market owners married self-service The food subsidies fundamentally reshaped people’s consumerism and the coordination processing substantial profit—mostly smaller neglect fruit food tastes, nutritional lives, and of hundreds and then thousands of and consumer urban outlets—were forced to and vegetable consumer expectations. supply chains into the organization markets gained close. The financial pressures of growers, and of supermarket aisles. even more Supermarkets and Limited the 1970s left behind a landscape instead they As the suburbs sprawled between autonomy. Food Access mostly support 1930 and 1970, the federal and Through the of limited food access, part of the growers of As I explain in my book, The state governments financed the 1970s, different larger disinvestment of cities. crops like corn Problem with Feeding Cities construction of new roads and corporations— and soybeans. (University of Chicago Press, 2020), highways. The auto and trucking from regional These ingredi- the history of modern food distribu- industries replaced rail transporta- and national supermarkets to ents are turned into corn syrup and tion since the end of the 1800s is tion. Grocery companies and food discount stores like Kmart and about the shift in the scale of the manufacturers experimented with Walmart—tried to integrate food, soybean oil to create the abundance vital infrastructure, from a system reshaping supply chains, managing clothing, health products, beauty of soda, chips, and other cheap foods of feeding cities to supplying an more branded goods and fresh items, electronics, and other product saturating supermarket aisles. entire nation. The transition mir- foods. Supermarkets aligned with lines into one-stop shopping. This While foods are not widgets, rored changes in the scale of other agricultural interests, trucking consumer format proved difficult companies now design them to fit critical systems like electricity and industries, and food manufacturing until retailers teamed up with the high volume and high variety water distribution.

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