What energizes my work
I wrote this paragraph as a first assignment for Dissertation Seminar, which I'm completing this spring. It's about what feeds me as a community-engaged scholar and the bigger picture I hope this work will serve. Energizing my work is the desire to introduce a new phrase to the constellation of local/alternative food research that includes food justice, food sovereignty, food dignity, food access, and food security. This phrase is food empowerment and is based on the premise that the current industrial food regime has created drastic environmental and socioeconomic imbalances that perhaps an empowerment agenda can help correct. Despite their popularity, community-based food system (CBFS) efforts such as community gardens, community-supported agriculture, gleaning, cooperatives, etc., struggle to be self-sustaining and meet the long-term needs of hungry people. Further, where higher education institutions are involved in CBFS, their engagement with local stakeholders has produc...