Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability (Food, Health, and the Environment)

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(as of Sep 14, 2026 12:45:45 UTC – Details)


Documents how racial and social inequalities are built into our food system, and how communities are creating environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives.

Popularized by such best-selling authors as Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, and Eric Schlosser, a growing food movement urges us to support sustainable agriculture by eating fresh food produced on local family farms. But many low-income neighborhoods and communities of color have been systematically deprived of access to healthy and sustainable food. These communities have been actively prevented from producing their own food and often live in “food deserts” where fast food is more common than fresh food. Cultivating Food Justice describes their efforts to envision and create environmentally sustainable and socially just alternatives to the food system.

Bringing together insights from studies of environmental justice, sustainable agriculture, critical race theory, and food studies, Cultivating Food Justice highlights the ways race and class inequalities permeate the food system, from production to distribution to consumption. The studies offered in the book explore a range of important issues, including agricultural and land use policies that systematically disadvantage Native American, African American, Latino/a, and Asian American farmers and farmworkers; access problems in both urban and rural areas; efforts to create sustainable local food systems in low-income communities of color; and future directions for the food justice movement. These diverse accounts of the relationships among food, environmentalism, justice, race, and identity will help guide efforts to achieve a just and sustainable agriculture.

Publisher ‏ : ‎ MIT Press
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 21, 2011
Edition ‏ : ‎ Illustrated
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 389 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0262516322
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0262516327
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.06 x 0.79 x 9.02 inches
Part of series ‏ : ‎ Food, Health, and the Environment
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 12 and up
Best Sellers Rank: #448,886 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #160 in Agriculture Industry (Books) #294 in Sustainable Agriculture (Books) #327 in Environmental Engineering (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (62) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers find the book informative, particularly as a great introduction to basic food justice concepts. They appreciate its content quality, with one customer noting it covers topics often ignored by the food movement.