ABSTRACT

This book develops "organizing eating" as an organizational-communication centered framework for understanding how communication and power combine to actively shape eating and working in the U.S. food system.

Drawing together established scholars, the book sheds light on how the interconnected aspects of power are communicative in nature, shaping and constraining the possibilities for organizing across the food system. The chapters provide grounded insight into the role of racism, corporate and state power, food cooperatives, urban farm systems, food policy, and labor practices, drawing attention to the pathways needed to pursue more equitable food systems. Providing readers with a set of useful critical conceptual tools and an understanding of communication frameworks, chapters identify common principles for critical organizing within the food movement and addresses the relevance of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national uprising against anti-Black violence for understanding the urgent possibilities of food justice.

This cohesive collection of cutting-edge scholarship will be of interest to organizational communication scholars, critical/cultural communication scholars, environmental communication scholars, and health communication scholars; and the interdisciplinary fields of environmental studies, agriculture and food studies, and organization and labor studies.

chapter 1|16 pages

Introduction to Organizing Eating

Food, Communication, and Power

chapter 2|31 pages

Hunger, Survivance, and Reparative Food Policy

A Racial Analysis of the “Right to Food”

chapter 3|21 pages

“The Rules for the Food System We All Eat By”

How the U.S. Farm Bill (Re)Structures Capitalist Food Politics

chapter 5|19 pages

Unemployment and Food (In)security

(Un)just Governance inUnemployment Organizations

chapter 6|25 pages

Communicative Considerations for Urban Food Governance

Toward Food Privilege or Food Justice in Denver, Colorado

chapter 8|24 pages

Addressing Health Inequalities Through Worker and Consumer Cooperatives

Co-Op Cincy's Organizing for Food Justice

chapter 10|22 pages

Building Collaborative Empowerment Through Regionally Attentive Organizing

A Comparative Case Study of Place-Making Within Two Appalachia Food Nonprofits