Critical Studies in Food and Culture

"Race and the Food System” Call for Papers Deadline: 2011-01-10
Date Submitted: 2010-09-07
Announcement H-NET ID: 178717

Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts
Volume 4, Number 4 (Summer 2011)
"Race and the Food System”
Papers must be received by January 10, 2011 to be considered for publication in this issue.
Please send manuscript submissions to the editor: shortlidge.2@osu.edu See Style Guidelines (www.raceethnicity.org/styleguide.html) to prepare your document in accordance with the style guidelines of Race/Ethnicity.
Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the issue is welcome. See website at http://www.raceethnicity.org/coverart.html for submission guidelines.

Call for Papers:
The U.S. and international food system,¬ from the ground to the grocer,¬ rests on a racial construct that has historically had, and continues to have, severe adverse impacts on producers, consumer, and workers of color. Structural racism shapes the development of the food system in the new century, not unlike it has in the past, and demands new, creative, and strategic thinking and action in response. Some of the questions we would like to address in this issue include:
• How does race intersect with the production, processing, and provision of food in the domestic and international food system?
• How does structural racism in the food system impact communities, particularly communities of color?
• How does structural racism in the industrial food system rest on and continue to impact low-wage food system workers, most of whom are people of color?
• As the industrial food system continues to transform food production, what can be done to assure structural equality for food producers of color?
• What creative, new responses are needed in the 21st century to organize a racially just food system that equitably serves workers and communities?
Sample topics could include but are not limited to the following:
• Black land control/food production/black farms in the 21st century, the black cooperative movement
• Black-led urban food production movement;
• Latino farm/food production;
• Hmong farmers/food production;
• The worker/race construct of the meatpacking and poultry processing industry;
• An overall racial analysis of the food production, processing, distribution sector which would focus on the industrialization process, race, and low-wage labor;
• A racial analysis of US international food policy: benefits primarily to white farmers, food costs, “foreign aid,” and the impact on farmers in other nations;
• Dumping impacts on farmers of color in other nations, particularly in Africa;
• The racial structure of the restaurant industry;
• The racial structure of poultry production (contractors, catchers, plants);
• The racial structure of field and fruit cropping;
• The emerging racial/immigrant labor structure of the dairy industry;
• The sustainable agriculture movement and worker/racial justice;
• Community-based worker of color organizing in the food sector;
• Union organizing among workers of color in the industry;
• Building a race-based, worker movement in the food sector, the Food Chain Workers Alliance;
• The racial construct of forced migration, climate change impact on food production and distribution
We welcome the viewpoints of activists, advocates, researchers, and other practitioners working in the field

Leslie Shortlidge
The Kirwan institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity
433 Mendenhall Lab
125 South oval
Columbus Ohio 43210
Email: shortlidge.2@osu.edu
Visit the website at http://www.raceeethnicity.org