About us
We are a Junior Research Group based at the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies at Heidelberg University. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).
Food for Justice looks into social mobilization targeted at injustices in the food system and into social and political innovations that address inequalities undermining food security such as class, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality. Food for Justice aims at providing a theoretical and conceptual framework – grounded on empirical research – to analyze social and political initiatives that address inequalities based on class, gender, race, ethinicity, rurality, citizenship, and categorical divisions between humans and more-than-humans, thus building ecological, just, and democratical food politics.
Context
Increasingly, citizens perceive the global food system as part of the historical causes of the ecological crisis and persisting hunger in the world. Reasons for these causal links have long been known, such as the use of food for profit, the gap between production and consumption, conflicts over land and water, exploitative labor relations, the energy matrix, and waste generation, among others. Nevertheless, research on food security and the bioeconomy tend to rely on the same solutions, i.e., searching for technological fixes toward a profit-oriented model that exploits living matter.
To complexify the debate and contribute to socio-environmental transformation, more knowledge about which food system citizens desire is needed. Further, it is important to explore which alternative knowledge and technologies already successfully handle such claims for Justice within food politics and how to redirect public policies towards a just, democratic, and ecological food system.
The Junior Research Group Food for Justice investigates the inequalities and justice issues in global food systems, focusing on citizens’ desired food systems, existing solutions, and how to redirect policies towards fairness, democracy, and sustainability, with case studies from Europe and Latin America.
Working Paper Series 11: Food Movements in Germany. Analysis of actors in the socio-ecological transformation of the food system
With this working paper, Lea Loretta Zentgraf and Renata Motta aim to provide an initial overview of food activism in Germany. Based on an explorative mapping, relevant food movements in Germany as well as their discourses and agendas are identified.
International Workshop Food for Justice 2024
The 2nd International Workshop Food for Justice, held on July 23-24 in Heidelberg, Germany, will gather researchers and activists to explore the political potential of food for societal transformations.
Click here for more information.
Working Paper Series 9: Políticas de segurança alimentar e nutricional nos municípios brasileiros
Eryka Galindo, Veruska Prado Alexandre-Weiss, and Silvia Aparecida Zimmermann synthesized discussions from the V National Meeting of Research on Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security, emphasizing the role of Brazilian municipalities in implementing Food and Nutritional Security policies and proposing eight approaches to enhance research in this area.
Working Paper Series 10: “Kurzauswertung Befragung „Wir haben es satt!“ 2024”
Renata Motta, Birgit Peuker, Lea Loretta Zentgraf and Judith Müller have published a short Working Paper with the first results of our survey on the protest “We are fed up!”.
Broadening the Climate Movement: The Marcha das Margaridas’ Agenda for the Climate (and Other) Crises
Marco Antonio Teixeira and Renata Motta have published an article in the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society based on their research with rural popular feminist movements in Brazil, and in particular, the coalition Marcha das Margaridas.
New publication on “Food Movements, Resistance, and new digital repertoires in (post-)pandemic times”
The article from Lea Zentgraf and Thalita Kalix Garcia was just published in The International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food.
International Workshop “Alimento para Justiça”
The event takes place at Raízes do Brasil and CPDA/UFRRJ in Rio de Janeiro from August 22 to August 24, 2023.
Renata Motta, Marco Antonio Teixeira, Eryka Galindo, and Lea Zentgraf present their research at the International Workshop organized by Food for Justice (HCIAS), Ceresan (CPDA/UFRRJ), OPPA, and AS-PTA.
Food for Justice at the XX ISA World Congress 2023
Renata Motta, Marco Antonio Teixeira, Eryka Galindo, and Lea Zentgraf presented their research at the XX ISA World Congress 2023 in Melbourne, Australia.
Contag 1963-2023: Ações de Reprodução Social e Formas de Ações Coletivas
New book by post-doctoral researcher and project leader Marco Antonio Teixeira.
