Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain

Abstract

Consumers are increasingly concerned with what products go into their food and are demanding a healthier and more ecologically focused food system. However, labor is rarely part of the so-called sustainable food discussion. This project provides a broad overview on the topic of labor across the food system, examining the historical and present-day conditions, contexts, forms of resistance that workers experience and contribute to in today’s food sector jobs. This work provides a nuanced and necessary perspective on food and labor studies, asking: Is it possible to build a food system that is devoid of human exploitation and suffering? What would it take to do so? Through investigating the legal, social, and political contexts of labor in the food system, we highlight themes of migration, agrarian exceptionalism, and racial and gendered inequality. Ultimately, this project makes the case for a new way to look at food system change, centering labor in the movement for socially and environmentally sustainable food, and conversely, centering food systems as a framework with which to understand labor. Without addressing the question of labor directly, we will not be able to fix the social ills and injustices that our food system has wrought in terms of income inequality, racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and ecological destruction.