ABSTRACT
A major theme within the analysis of the global food system, along with the world it illuminates, is that our current course of progress and development is unsustainable and unjust. This stems from the increasing focus on people, not as citizens, but as consumers. The perspective of consumer implies an identity defi ned by a direct relationship with the market, one in which profi t becomes the most important factor in economic, political, and social activity. This identity is with us from the fi rst moments we encounter the world-from entry into the school system to the daily media. In response, there are resistance movements being waged internationally by those who refuse to accept the commodifi cation of human relationships. It is a struggle to build a viable alternative system outside the neo-liberal, capitalist marketplace and to reclaim the ethos of democracy.
