Labour conditions and the alternative food movement (#journal)

Food labor, economic inequality, and the imperfect politics of process in the alternative food movement

There is a growing commitment by different parts of the alternative food movement (AFM) to improve labor conditions for food chain workers, and to develop economically fair alternatives. This article asks what accounts for the variation in AFM labor commitments across different contexts. It then appraises a range of activist perspectives, practices, and organizational approaches. It seems that commitment to fair labor standards varies due to differences in organizational capacity, the degree of dedication to ending economic inequality in local activist culture, and the openness of local political and economic institutions to working class struggles. The article concludes with a discussion of how these findings inform our understanding of the process of cooperation and division in the AFM.