Food Justice in Appalachia | Food Justice in Appalachia

Introduction

What is food justice?

Food justice is a holistic and structural view of the food system that sees healthy food as a human right and addresses structural barriers to that right. The movement draws in part on environmental jus tice, which emerged in the 1980s as a critique of how environmentalism became more mainstream as it became more elite, more white, and more focused on wilderness and scenery than on human communities vulnerable to pollution (the effects of which are at once disparate and racialized). Environmental j ustice is a movement primarily l ed by the people most impacted by environmental problems, connecting environmental health and preservation with the health of vulnerable communities.

Food justice efforts, which are generally led by indigenous peoples and people of color , work not only for access to healthy food, but for an end to the structural inequities that lead to unequal health outcomes.

- Text courtesy Foodprint.org

Abstract pantng of a heart This multidisciplinary exhibition by WVU Art in the Libraries, in partnership with the WVU Center for Resilient Communities’ Food Justice Lab, foregrounds the context of this multilayered, complex social movement in Appalachia and beyond through narratives from students, scholars and community-based organizations. Original art by eighteen regional artists, alongside highlights from several Appalachian non-profit organizations, farmers, food system development programs, cooperatives and activists. Personal perspectives on Appalachian food traditions, ongoing personal and collective struggles over food access are also weaved in through creative writing. The exhibit integrates with education materials, highlighting various sub themes in the movement for food justice and suggestions for action-steps that eaters might get involved in to shape their food system toward more just, equitable and sustainable futures.

Food is essential to human survival. From the earliest communities to our contemporary integrated global economy, gathering, producing, distributing and consuming food has shaped our social fabric. Exchange between people and communities across space and time have centered on food and nourishment, yet has also been associated with histories of violence and dispossession, a means through which people, institutions and empires hold power over others. Food however is also a potent means through which to collectively think about liberation from oppressive systems, a means to restore race, gender, land, water, seed, labor and other injustices coded into our foodways.

The artwork reproduced in this exhibit, along with its educational content, explores issues around the evolving histories of the Appalachian food system, the production of hunger, the struggle for food access, the relationship between food and consumerism, the struggle for race and gender equity and much more. Art, as a storytelling vehicle, has the power to tap into the emotions of a growing social movement to rectify past wrongs, repair relationships between peoples and their environment, and ultimately ensure the right to food for all.

Art by Gerardo Valera, Courtesy WVU Food Justice Lab

The Food Justice Lab was founded in 2011 in the Department of Geology and Geography at West Virginia University and has been host to students and faculty interested in advancing community based research around food system issues here in our Appalachian home and beyond. As an experimental space for action research, and activist scholarship, students develop personal research projects and contribute to collective inquiries that challenge food system inequalities across an intersectional and increasingly interconnected food system.

Alongside a network of grassroots partners in food production, food distribution, government and public advocacy we mentor, advise and support students working on food, environmental and development issues while they pursue degrees in geography and related fields at the Ph.D., M.A. and undergraduate levels at WVU. Now housed in the newly formed Center for Resilient Communities, the Food Justice Lab continues to encourage students to engage with this learning laboratory and food system transformation field station by fostering the development of grassroots, ground-up, enlightened strategies to address pressing problems facing our food system today. In conjunction with other university institutions such as WVU libraries, our aim is to cultivate a diverse network of grassroots leaders, scholars and students who are committed to advancing more just, equitable and resilient communities in West Virginia and around the world.

Painting of sun and waves Artist Bio: Gerardo Valera is a Mexican born artist who graduated from the WVU geography program in 2015. That same year he received the inaugural Catalyst for Campus Change scholarship for this work on the Beechurst PRT Murals. He also founded the WVU art movement, a student organization dedicated to making a difference in the world through art. Gerardo currently resides in Puerto Vallarta, where he directs the Museum of Opals and Minerals of Mexico.