Realizing justice in local food systems

ions. Consumers, students and alternative food-system leaders recognize and place great importance on solving social justice problems (Allen et al., 2003; Howard and Allen, 2006; Perez and Allen, 2007). Local food systems serve many purposes and improve the quality of life for many people. Realizing justice in local food systems 305 by gest on Sptem er 1, 2010 cjres.odjournals.org Doloaded rom However, they do not automatically move us in the direction of greater social justice. In particular, workers as actors and justice as principle are often missing in both theory and practice of alternative agrifood consumer efforts. Remedies include clearly prioritizing justice goals and processes (including showing consumers how their choices affect workers); revealing the causes and logical consequences of capitalist social relations; linking with unions and promoting the importance of collective bargaining for workers; moving beyond a discourse of choice and realizing that no social advances have ever been made without the combination of social movements and legislation. We should celebrate local food systems for what they can provide and seek additional approaches to problems that are outside the range of the method of food-system localization. In the face of global desperation and intensifying crisis, we must both work at the local level and create solidarities with those in other localities. We need to contextualize the local, understanding that place and community have been shaped by historical inequalities and work as we can to rectify those inequalities.