Author: Necia Parker-Gibson

RC Cola and a Moon Pie: Food Justice/Food Security as an AgNIC Topic
Necia Parker-Gibson, MLIS Mullins Library 223b University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR 72701

It’s All Intertwined:
An RC Cola and a Moon Pie used to be called “a working man’s lunch” in the United States, notably in the South: it was cheap, filling, and didn’t spoil. The nutrition profile is low in protein, high in fat, and high in sugar. Here, it is acting as an avatar for the cheapest processed foods available in most places.
Are the intertwined issues of food justice and food security agricultural, economic, political or social? They are all of these, and more. Land ownership, harvests, food distribution, marketing, and various subsidies all effect what food is available at what price, where. In many countries, historical patterns of work assignments and gender roles may also affect who can get what food at what price (Gibson, 2013, Yekinni, 2010).
What is available where, at what price, influences food security and food justice— if individuals cannot reach good food, it doesn’t matter how much is harvested. If the food rots in the field for lack of pickers, or is composted or burned because of low prices, that changes availability. If food availability and price is a function of economic geography, then if someone lives and works in a food desert* they may be stuck without fresh vegetables, or wholesome milk, or meat that is fairly priced (Feenstra, 2013).
If people can get to it, but can’t afford it, it doesn’t matter what is available (Alkon, 2012). If they can afford what nutritious food is on offer, but don’t know how to cook or store it, then it may get wasted. More than thirty percent of available food in the United States and the world is wasted annually, and much of this is post-consumer waste (http://www.epa.gov/smm/foodrecovery/; http://www.unep.org/wed/2013/quickfacts/).
Cost may be primary but convenience is vital . If people fall back on what is cheap, available and convenient, often junk food, they may increase their risk of diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and more (Designed for Disease...,2008; Ratcliff, 2013).
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Online book from Auburn University about what they are doing in Food Systems http://issuu.com/auburn_research/docs/au_speaks_food?e=11025389/7402570

Why an AgNIC site?
Many of the people affected or trying to solve food security problems are not in situations where they have reputable sources easily available. This is a challenge that is national and international in scope. There is much information available; for example, the USDA has a lot of material and especially data on food security and food justice, but the resources are attached to more than one division of the USDA, such as the NASS, the EPA and the ERS. It is not necessarily easy to find what is needed on those sites.
There is a significant political and sociological component to the literature which may not be easily directly addressed by government publications. More threads of the discussion might be drawn together on an AgNIC site.
Food Justice and Food Security Considerations:
Food miles: how far is it from field to plate?
Relational/proximate: where? To whom? Price? Do producers know consumers? Vice versa?
Food accessibility: how far away is nutritious food? How hard to get there? w/o a car? w/ a disability? w/four kids under 5?
Economic equity: for this, there must be safe, affordable and palatable food for each person in a given place.
Health disparities from diet: many diseases which afflict persons in poverty more often are specifically correlated with poor diet and highly processed foods.
Environmental protection: the historically low price of food in the U.S. has been driven in part by the use of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. There have been environmental and financial costs to this practice. (Feenstra, 2013).

The terminology about food security is complicated and confusing, and definitions are somewhat elastic (Gibson, 2012); food justice doesn’t show as a thesaurus term in Agricola or CAB Abstracts, though other related terms such as food deserts, food insecurity, food availability and hunger are all common. Searches in CAB with food security found citations dating back to 1914, but if limited to the United States, the oldest was 1995. Food sovereignty, which relates food security and food justice to the political and social control of the production and provision of food to citizens, is another topic of growing interest.
The literature related to food security in both senses, food defense/food safety and as related to food access is expanding at a significant rate. Food security, in the sense of access to food on a regular, affordable basis, started showing in the literature in the 1940’s in Sociological Abstracts, but coverage leapt up in 2000-2009; food justice doesn’t appear until 2004.
Journals dedicated or related to food security and food justice, including the number of open access journals, are increasing in tandem with the expansion of interest. Public Health Nutrition (1998- ); Sustainable Development (1993- ) and Agriculture and Human Values are some subscription titles. Open access titles include: Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development (2010-); African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (2001-); Journal of Gender, Agriculture and Food Security (2014– no issues available yet); European Journal of Nutrition and Food Safety (2011- ); Journal of World Systems Research (1994-).
OAPEN is a publisher of open access books, with a focus on humanities and social sciences– related books in the collection are on economics and social policy vs. agricultural or technical.

*Food deserts are defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food.
http://apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/foodDeserts.aspx, accessed 4/21/14

Framework of Food Security (FAO/FIVIMS, n.d.)

Alkon, A. H., D. Block, K. Moore, C. Gillis, N. DiNuccio, and N. Chavez. "Foodways of the Urban Poor." Geoforum 48 (Aug 2013): 126-35.
Bernau, C. "Food Justice." Human Ecology 39, no. 4 (Aug 2011): 547-49.
Brosnan, K. A. "Food Justice." Environmental History 16, no. 4 (Oct 2011): 729-30.
California Center for Public Health Advocacy. 2008..Designed for Disease.: the link between Local Food Environments and Obesity and Diabetes. http://www.publichealthadvocacy.org/_printable/CCPHA_Designedfordisease.pdf
Editorial Group, FAO Information Division. n.d. “FIVIMS Framework of Food Security.” FAO, http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/fsn/docs/FIVIMS_Framework_of_Food_Security.pdf
Gibson, Mark. The Feeding of Nations : Redefining Food Security for the 21st Century. Boca Raton, Fl. CRC Press, 2012.
Morland, Kimberly, Ana V. Diez Roux, and Steve Wing. "Supermarkets, Other Food Stores, and Obesity: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 30, no. 4 (2006): 333-39.
Ratcliff, Kathryn S. 2013. The Power of Poverty: Individual Agency and Structural Constraints. IN Fitzpatrick, Kevin M., ed. Poverty and Health : A Crisis among America's Most Vulnerable. , Praeger: Santa Barbara, California, 2013. Vol. 1: Risks and Challenges: Praeger an Imprint of ABC-CLIO LLC. Santa Barbara, CA. 2013.
Yekinni, O. T. "Women's Participation in Development Programs and Food Security Status." Journal of Agricultural & Food Information 11, no. 1 (2010/01/21 2010): 28-35.