Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
knowledge and local control. Finally, I compare the food justice move-
ment's emphasis on entrepreneurial strategies, which restrict participa-
tory norms to market behaviors, with the multiple scales and strategies
embraced by those working for food sovereignty in Latin America. This
analysis highlights the ways that transnational forces are experienced
through the policies of local, national, and remote governments, the
international political economy, and national and transnational social
movements, producing diverse strategies aimed at food sovereignty. From
this analysis, I speculate on the potential and promise of a joined-up
movement for food sovereignty and justice worldwide.
Denied Access to the Means of (Food) Production
In the United States, federal policies have stripped many marginalized
communities of their abilities to produce food. Examples include the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's discrimination against African-American
farmers (Gilbert, Sharp, and Felin 2002), the relocation of Native
Americans from their ancestral territories (Norgaard 2005), and the
incorporation of New Mexican land grants into national parks (Kosek
2006; Peña 2005). In the fi rst case, federal policies threatened the
economic solvency, and thus food sovereignty, of black farmers. In the
latter two, U.S. government agencies directly restricted access to land,
making self-sustenance impossible.
In the global South, scholars and movement intellectuals tend to high-
light three processes of globalization as responsible for denied access to
food production. Both the technological developments of the Green
Revolution and the neoliberal push toward privatization amplifi ed the
concentration of agricultural wealth in the hands of large farmers. The
latter have manifested themselves in a number of IMF and World Bank
policies and programs, but those working for food sovereignty tend to
highlight structural adjustment and market-led land reform. Activists
argue that these programs result in increased consolidation of Latin
American agriculture, creating environmental inequalities by constrain-
ing small landholders and landless peoples from producing food.
The Green Revolution
Envisioned by U.S. agronomist Norman Borlaug and fi nanced by U.S.
foundations, the Green Revolution sought to increase crop yields in order
to meet the food needs of rising populations. It found a home within the
political climate of the late 1960s, when many in the developed world
