Food Justice can be considered: a) organizing to bring about food system change; b) a focus on equity and disparities; c) an entry point for a broader social justice agenda; or d) all the above. A food justice action-research agenda that seeks to identify and evaluate and engage in the ways that social movements can bring about change in each of those areas, will be described, elaborated in part through the work of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute and through the work of others around the U.S. and internationally.
Robert Gottlieb is Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute. He is the author and co-author of twelve books and numerous other publications, including Food Justice with Anupama Joshi (MIT Press, 2010), Reinventing Los Angeles: Nature and Community in the Global City (MIT Press, 2007), The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City with Mark Vallianatos, Regina Freer and Peter Dreier (UC Press 2006); Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement (Island Press, 1993); A Life of its Own: The Politics and Power of Water (HBJ 1989), and Environmentalism Unbound: Exploring New Pathways for Change (MIT Press, 2001). He is also the editor of two MIT Press series, “Urban and Industrial Environments” and “Food, Health, and Environment.” A long time environmental and social justice activist, Professor Gottlieb has been engaged in researching and participating in social movements for more than 50 years.