The 2008 Food Crisis as a Critical Event for the Food Sovereignty and Food Justice Movements
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Published
Dec 4, 2012
Noha Shawki
Abstract
As a reaction to the 2008 food crisis, a diverse group of US-based organizations formed a multi-sectoral coalition to promote food sovereignty. How did the 2008 food crisis unify these diverse groups? How did different groups with different agendas find a common cause in food sovereignty? I draw on social movement theory to explain the formation of the coalition and show how its member groups have sought to strengthen its capacity, formulate a coherent message, and jointly campaign for change in food and agriculture policy. I find that a number of variables explain these processes: heightened threats and expanding opportunities encourage initial joint mobilization, while pre-existing ties and trust, organizational flexibility, and frame alignment help expand the membership and capacity of the coalition.
How to Cite
Shawki , N. . (2012) “The 2008 Food Crisis as a Critical Event for the Food Sovereignty and Food Justice Movements”, The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food. Paris, France, 19(3), pp. 423–444. doi: 10.48416/ijsaf.v19i3.214.
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
References
Ahn, C. (2004) Breaking Ground: The Community Food Security Movement, Policy Backgrounder 10. Oakland,
CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Bello, W. (2008) How to manufacture a global food crisis, Development, 51(4), pp. 450–455.
Benford, R.D. and Snow, D.A. (2000) Framing processes and social movements: an overview and assessment,
Annual Review of Sociology, 26, pp. 611-639.
Birkland, T.A. (1998) Focusing events, mobilization, and agenda setting, Journal of Public Policy, 18(1), pp.
53–74.
Corrigall-Brown, C. and Meyer, D.S. (2010) The prehistory of a coalition: the role of social ties in win
without war, in: N. Van Dyke and H.J. McCammon (eds) Strategic Alliances: Coalition Building and Social
Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–21.
Food First (2010) Harvesting Money: The Global Land Grab, Factsheet. Oakland, CA: Institute for Food and
Development Policy.
Food Chain Workers Alliance (2012) The Hands that Feed Us: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along
the Food Chain. Los Angeles, CA: Food Chain Workers Alliance.
Gallagher, M. (2006) Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago. Chicago, IL: Mari
Gallagher Research and Consulting Group.
Gallagher, M. (2007) Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Detroit. Chicago, IL: Mari
Gallagher Research and Consulting Group.
Gallagher, M. (2010) Food Desert and Food Balance, Community Fact Sheet. Chicago, IL: Mari Gallagher
Research and Consulting Group.
Gerhards, J. and Rucht, D. (1992) Mesomobilization: organizing and framing in two protest campaigns in
West Germany, American Journal of Sociology, 98(3), pp. 555–595.
Gottlieb, R. and Joshi, A. (2010) Food Justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Guthman, J. (2008a) Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice,
Cultural Geographies, 15(4), pp. 431–447.
Guthman, J. (2008b) ‘If they only knew’: color blindness and universalism in California alternative food
institutions, Professional Geographer, 60(3), pp. 387–397.
Holt-Giménez, E. (2008) The World Food Crisis: What’s Behind It and What We Can Do about It, Food First
Policy Brief 16. Oakland, CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Holt-Giménez, E. (2010) Food Security, Food Justice, or Food Sovereignty?, Food First Backgrounder 16(4).
Oakland, CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Holt-Giménez, E. and Shatt uck, A. (2011) Food crises, food regimes and food movements: rumblings of
reform or tides of transformation?, Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(1), pp. 109–144.
Juris, J.S. (2008) Spaces of intentionality: race, class, and horizontality at the United States Social Forum,
Mobilization, 13(4), pp. 353–371.
Kerssen, T. (2009) Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Food First Factsheet. Oakland, CA:
Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Levi, M. and Murphy, G.H. (2006) Coalitions of contention: the case of the WTO protests in Seattle, Political
Studies, 54(4), pp. 651–670.
Liu, Y.Y. and Apollon, D. (2011) The Color of Food. New York: Applied Research Center.
Lo, J. and Jacobson, A. (2011) Human rights from field to fork: improving labor conditions for food-sector
workers by organizing across boundaries, Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 5(1), pp.
61–82.
Martinez-Torres, M.E. and Rosset, P.M. (2010) La Via Campesina: the birth and evolution of a transnational
social movement, Journal of Peasant Studies, 37(1), pp. 149–175.
McCammon, H.J. and Van Dyke, N. (2010) Applying qualitative comparative analysis to empirical studies
of social movement coalition formation, in: N. Van Dyke and H.J. McCammon (eds) Strategic Alliances:
Coalition Building and Social Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 292–315.
McCammon, H.J. and Campbell, K.E. (2002) Allies on the road to victory: coalition formation between the
suffragists and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Mobilization, 7(3), pp. 231–251.
Murphy, S. (2008) Globalization and corporate concentration in the food and agriculture sector, Development,
51(4), pp. 527–533.
Pat el, R. (2008) The unthinkable in pursuit of the eatable, Development, 51(4), pp. 442–449.
Ramos, H. (2008) Opportunity for whom? Political opportunity and critical events in Canadian aboriginal
mobilization, 1951–2000, Social Forces, 87(2), pp. 795–823.
Reese, E., Petit, C. and Meyer, D.S. (2010) Sudden mobilization: movement crossovers, threats, and the
surprising rise of the U.S. antiwar movement, in: N. Van Dyke and H.J. McCammon (eds) Strategic Alliances:
Coalition Building and Social Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp.
266–291.
Rosset, P. (2008) Food sovereignty and the contemporary food crisis, Development, 51(4), pp. 460–463.
Schiav oni, C. (2009) The global struggle for food sovereignty: from Nyéléni to New York, Journal of Peasant
Studies, 36(3), pp. 682–689.
Smith, J., Karides, M., Becker, M., Brunelle, D., Chase-Dunn, C., Della Porta , D., Garza, R.I., Juris, J.S.,
Mosca, L., Reese, E., Smith, P.J. and Vazquez, R. (2007) Global Democracy and the World Social Forums.
Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Smith, R. and Goldberg, H. (2010) Unity for Dignity: Expanding the Right to Organize to Win Human Rights at
Work. New York: Excluded Workers Congress.
Snow, D.A., Rochford, E.B., Jr., Worden, S.K. and Benford, R.D. (1986) Frame alignment processes, micromobilization,
and movement participation, American Sociological Review, 51(4), pp. 464–481.
Sta ggenborg, S. (1986) Coalition work in the pro-choice movement: organizational and environmental
opportunities and obstacles, Social Problems, 33(5), pp. 374–390.
Sta ggenborg, S. (1993) Critical events and the mobilization of the pro-choice movement, Research in Political
Sociology, 6, pp. 319–345.
Sta ggenborg, S. (2010) Conclusion: research on social movements coalitions, in: N. Van Dyke and H.J. Mc-
Cammon (eds) Strategic Alliances: Coalition Building and Social Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University
of Minnesota Press, pp. 316–329.
Van Dyke, N. (2003) Crossing movement boundaries: factors that facilitate coalition protest by American
college students, 1930–1990, Social Problems, 50(2), pp. 226–250.
Via Campesina (2009) La Via Campesina Policy Documents, 5th Conference, Mozambique, 16the to 23rd October,
2008. Jakarta: La Via Campesina.
White, M.M. (2010a) D-Town: African American Farmers, Food Security and Detroit. Black Agenda Report.
Published online
White, M.M. (2010b) Shouldering responsibility for the delivery of human rights: a case study of the DTown
farmers of Detroit, Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 3(2), pp. 189–211.
White, M.M. (2011a) D-Town Farm: African American resistance to food insecurity and the transformation
of Detroit, Environmental Practice, 13(4), pp. 406–417.
White, M.M. (2011b) Sisters of the soil: Urban gardening as resistance in Detroit, Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary
Global Contexts, 5(1), pp. 13–28.
Wood, R.S. (2006) Tobacco’s tipping point: the master settlement agreement as a focusing event, Policy
Studies Journal, 34 (3), pp. 419-436.
World Bank (2011) Food Price Watch, April. Published online
CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Bello, W. (2008) How to manufacture a global food crisis, Development, 51(4), pp. 450–455.
Benford, R.D. and Snow, D.A. (2000) Framing processes and social movements: an overview and assessment,
Annual Review of Sociology, 26, pp. 611-639.
Birkland, T.A. (1998) Focusing events, mobilization, and agenda setting, Journal of Public Policy, 18(1), pp.
53–74.
Corrigall-Brown, C. and Meyer, D.S. (2010) The prehistory of a coalition: the role of social ties in win
without war, in: N. Van Dyke and H.J. McCammon (eds) Strategic Alliances: Coalition Building and Social
Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 3–21.
Food First (2010) Harvesting Money: The Global Land Grab, Factsheet. Oakland, CA: Institute for Food and
Development Policy.
Food Chain Workers Alliance (2012) The Hands that Feed Us: Challenges and Opportunities for Workers Along
the Food Chain. Los Angeles, CA: Food Chain Workers Alliance.
Gallagher, M. (2006) Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Chicago. Chicago, IL: Mari
Gallagher Research and Consulting Group.
Gallagher, M. (2007) Examining the Impact of Food Deserts on Public Health in Detroit. Chicago, IL: Mari
Gallagher Research and Consulting Group.
Gallagher, M. (2010) Food Desert and Food Balance, Community Fact Sheet. Chicago, IL: Mari Gallagher
Research and Consulting Group.
Gerhards, J. and Rucht, D. (1992) Mesomobilization: organizing and framing in two protest campaigns in
West Germany, American Journal of Sociology, 98(3), pp. 555–595.
Gottlieb, R. and Joshi, A. (2010) Food Justice. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Guthman, J. (2008a) Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice,
Cultural Geographies, 15(4), pp. 431–447.
Guthman, J. (2008b) ‘If they only knew’: color blindness and universalism in California alternative food
institutions, Professional Geographer, 60(3), pp. 387–397.
Holt-Giménez, E. (2008) The World Food Crisis: What’s Behind It and What We Can Do about It, Food First
Policy Brief 16. Oakland, CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Holt-Giménez, E. (2010) Food Security, Food Justice, or Food Sovereignty?, Food First Backgrounder 16(4).
Oakland, CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Holt-Giménez, E. and Shatt uck, A. (2011) Food crises, food regimes and food movements: rumblings of
reform or tides of transformation?, Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(1), pp. 109–144.
Juris, J.S. (2008) Spaces of intentionality: race, class, and horizontality at the United States Social Forum,
Mobilization, 13(4), pp. 353–371.
Kerssen, T. (2009) Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Food First Factsheet. Oakland, CA:
Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Levi, M. and Murphy, G.H. (2006) Coalitions of contention: the case of the WTO protests in Seattle, Political
Studies, 54(4), pp. 651–670.
Liu, Y.Y. and Apollon, D. (2011) The Color of Food. New York: Applied Research Center.
Lo, J. and Jacobson, A. (2011) Human rights from field to fork: improving labor conditions for food-sector
workers by organizing across boundaries, Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 5(1), pp.
61–82.
Martinez-Torres, M.E. and Rosset, P.M. (2010) La Via Campesina: the birth and evolution of a transnational
social movement, Journal of Peasant Studies, 37(1), pp. 149–175.
McCammon, H.J. and Van Dyke, N. (2010) Applying qualitative comparative analysis to empirical studies
of social movement coalition formation, in: N. Van Dyke and H.J. McCammon (eds) Strategic Alliances:
Coalition Building and Social Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 292–315.
McCammon, H.J. and Campbell, K.E. (2002) Allies on the road to victory: coalition formation between the
suffragists and the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Mobilization, 7(3), pp. 231–251.
Murphy, S. (2008) Globalization and corporate concentration in the food and agriculture sector, Development,
51(4), pp. 527–533.
Pat el, R. (2008) The unthinkable in pursuit of the eatable, Development, 51(4), pp. 442–449.
Ramos, H. (2008) Opportunity for whom? Political opportunity and critical events in Canadian aboriginal
mobilization, 1951–2000, Social Forces, 87(2), pp. 795–823.
Reese, E., Petit, C. and Meyer, D.S. (2010) Sudden mobilization: movement crossovers, threats, and the
surprising rise of the U.S. antiwar movement, in: N. Van Dyke and H.J. McCammon (eds) Strategic Alliances:
Coalition Building and Social Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, pp.
266–291.
Rosset, P. (2008) Food sovereignty and the contemporary food crisis, Development, 51(4), pp. 460–463.
Schiav oni, C. (2009) The global struggle for food sovereignty: from Nyéléni to New York, Journal of Peasant
Studies, 36(3), pp. 682–689.
Smith, J., Karides, M., Becker, M., Brunelle, D., Chase-Dunn, C., Della Porta , D., Garza, R.I., Juris, J.S.,
Mosca, L., Reese, E., Smith, P.J. and Vazquez, R. (2007) Global Democracy and the World Social Forums.
Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Smith, R. and Goldberg, H. (2010) Unity for Dignity: Expanding the Right to Organize to Win Human Rights at
Work. New York: Excluded Workers Congress.
Snow, D.A., Rochford, E.B., Jr., Worden, S.K. and Benford, R.D. (1986) Frame alignment processes, micromobilization,
and movement participation, American Sociological Review, 51(4), pp. 464–481.
Sta ggenborg, S. (1986) Coalition work in the pro-choice movement: organizational and environmental
opportunities and obstacles, Social Problems, 33(5), pp. 374–390.
Sta ggenborg, S. (1993) Critical events and the mobilization of the pro-choice movement, Research in Political
Sociology, 6, pp. 319–345.
Sta ggenborg, S. (2010) Conclusion: research on social movements coalitions, in: N. Van Dyke and H.J. Mc-
Cammon (eds) Strategic Alliances: Coalition Building and Social Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University
of Minnesota Press, pp. 316–329.
Van Dyke, N. (2003) Crossing movement boundaries: factors that facilitate coalition protest by American
college students, 1930–1990, Social Problems, 50(2), pp. 226–250.
Via Campesina (2009) La Via Campesina Policy Documents, 5th Conference, Mozambique, 16the to 23rd October,
2008. Jakarta: La Via Campesina.
White, M.M. (2010a) D-Town: African American Farmers, Food Security and Detroit. Black Agenda Report.
Published online
White, M.M. (2010b) Shouldering responsibility for the delivery of human rights: a case study of the DTown
farmers of Detroit, Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts, 3(2), pp. 189–211.
White, M.M. (2011a) D-Town Farm: African American resistance to food insecurity and the transformation
of Detroit, Environmental Practice, 13(4), pp. 406–417.
White, M.M. (2011b) Sisters of the soil: Urban gardening as resistance in Detroit, Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary
Global Contexts, 5(1), pp. 13–28.
Wood, R.S. (2006) Tobacco’s tipping point: the master settlement agreement as a focusing event, Policy
Studies Journal, 34 (3), pp. 419-436.
World Bank (2011) Food Price Watch, April. Published online
Section
Articles
CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
You are free to:
Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
This license is acceptable for Free Cultural Works.
The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.