ABSTRACT
This chapter takes on some of the tensions between food labor and technology by placing them squarely within the realities of class struggle. Doing so positions visions of regenerative food labor alongside actually existing economic conditions in the food system, both historically and contemporarily. The notion of regeneration moves beyond the need for social reproduction under capitalism, which centers earning wages to pay for goods to care for oneself to keep working. A focus on regenerative labor asks what kind of economy can set in motion labor relations that improve and sustain society’s workforce. This shift in focus offers a means to think through the gains and aspirations of labor movements. After reviewing some of the key social science scholarship on food labor, the chapter discusses the precarity of working in the food system, especially for fast food and restaurant workers. It then pivots to some considerations about visioning and designing regenerative labor relations in the food system. There are both actually existing institutional steps to restructure food labor and conceptual leaps we can make to begin prefiguring something new entirely. The hands that feed us demand as much.
