Food Justice Movements In Global Contexts

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, between 638 and 720 million people faced hunger in 2024. In a scoping review of 20 years of social work literature, scholars found a dearth of discourse in the US concerning food justice. To address this gap, this roundtable focuses on systemic issues impacting food justice by focusing on issues like environmental racism, land ownership, the economic exploitation of agricultural workers, and the affordability of healthy foods. We review both local and global social work efforts centered around food justice. Food justice is a global movement aimed at ensuring communities have equitable access to nutritious, affordable, and culturally appropriate food. Notions of food justice operate from a holistic view that conceptualizes healthy food as a basic human right and seeks to address structural barriers to access.

Our roundtable is composed of scholars working on three research studies focused on food justice. The first study is an NIH-funded intervention that seeks to identify the health implications of food movements in the Philippines. The research team interviewed community leaders, food practitioners, farmers, and those running urban farmers markets. Colonization, imperialism, and government control acted as structural challenges to food justice. During the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity was aggravated by farms being under lockdown and people in urban centers being unable to access fresh food. To disrupt the resulting food deserts, farmers incorporated several food sovereignty practices, such as using plants as medicine, saving seeds, and building farm-to-table practices through local farmers markets. Research participants see these practices as active, colonial resistance and part of their historical and cultural rights.

The second study, funded through the Bronx Community Research Institute (BRICS), examines the lived experiences of food insecurity among South Bronx residents in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a community-based participatory approach, our findings demonstrate that food insecurity extends beyond food access to reflect broader structural constraints, including inflation and the rising cost of living, healthcare access issues, immigration-related barriers, and limited access to culturally appropriate foods. Immigrant households also experienced the added burden of sending remittances, often forcing them to purchase low-cost, high-fat/sugar foods in lieu of more nutritious, more expensive options. Language barriers and limited access to social services further exacerbated these challenges.

The third study, a national Delphi panel of social work scholars and practitioners, examined how food justice is conceptualized within the United States. Analyses revealed alignment framing food justice as a structural, equity-driven, rights-based construct grounded in professional ethics and practice experience. Panelists identified multidimensional indicators spanning access, quality, culture, and power, yet report limited consistency in measurement approaches. Findings highlight a critical gap between conceptual clarity and operationalization, underscoring the need for standardized frameworks to guide assessment, practice, and policy advancement.

Taken together, the presenters will discuss both local and global approaches to food justice and food sovereignty, including the right of communities to control their own food systems and to have equitable access to affordable, nutritious, culturally relevant foods.