Food Justice and Neoliberalism

 When I think about the word “activist,” I think about open-minded, passionate people. I forget to think about the possible biases and tunnel vision that could come with such personal intensity towards a specific issue. This article on the Food Justice and Neoliberalism critiques on the food system and its advocates helped me have a broader understanding of the community. It also has led me to think about my own activism journey, and to remember to look at something from all angles, despite how I want to say that [insert a solution here] is the way to fix it. It is easy to see the negative when looking at things. It’s hard not to be like, “I got this” and take things into your own hands. I didn’t realize how advocating for change within individuals, instead of for change in the government could potentially release responsibilities from higher up and the system and prevent wide-scale change. Specifically, the line about power being achieved by the individual participating within capitalism was influential to me. I hadn’t thought about the detriment of pushing change onto just people within the economy, because I thought small scale change would then lead to greater change. Alkon points out that this can set a precedent of people being the ones to take responsibility. I knew that change needed to happen within the government, but I didn’t realize that advocacy could potentially hinder its own efforts to promote change. 

Overall, I feel like this article was a very valuable read, for me, but for people in general. I learned more about the relationship between people and the economy, the barriers that POC face within the food system (and its corresponding movement), and the solutions that can propel society to a more sustainable and equal food system.