Julia Clark

In this commentary we focus on the significance of social infrastructure for food system resilience by drawing on the insights and experiences from our positions as emergency management practitioners and land-grant university social science food system researchers working with emergency management agencies, food system and food security organizations. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the years since, as a group we have worked in a shared learning model to research and reflect on the lessons we can take from COVID-19 to create more resilient food systems that are better prepared for future shocks, disruptions, emergencies, and disasters. As applied scholars and practitioners, our first goal in this commentary is to synthesize the emergency management and disaster (EMD) and food system literatures with our research examining the on-the-ground experiences shared by emergency management and food security practitioners in Ohio tasked with responding to the COVID-19-induced food systems crisis. Our second goal is to demonstrate the often overlooked, undervalued, and underinvested core role institutional and group social connections and relationships play in effective responses to acute and chronic emergencies and disasters, and how this social infrastructure is the bedrock on which efforts to strengthen food system resilience depend. Finally, we lay out a path forward and articulate the need to value the role of EMD and social infrastructure in food systems resilience funding and public policy priorities.

Dominant food systems, based on industrial methods and corporate control, are in a state of flux. To enable the transition towards more sustainable and just food systems, food movements are claiming new roles in governance. These movements, and the initiatives they spearhead, are associated with a range of labels (e.g., food sovereignty, food justice, and community food security) and use a variety of strategies to enact change. In this paper, we use the concept of relational fields to conduct a post-hoc analysis of nine cases, examining how social movement organizations and other actors actively create new deliberative governance spaces. We argue that successes are related to the “power to convene,” a process-oriented approach that increases movements’ capacity to mobilize; leverage different types of power; and integrate, coordinate, and build a systems-oriented vision. The power to convene and create deliberative spaces is demonstrated in a variety of contexts and often results in outcomes that further movement aims, including policy change and repositioning food movement actors vis-à-vis others in the field. Our findings suggest that success is not only measured as policy outcomes, but as an advantageous repositioning of social movement actors that enables them to be part of governance processes beyond simple policy advocacy.

In her 2023 Agriculture, Food & Human Values Society (AFHVS) Presidential Address, Jill Clark reflects on the importance of “joy” in academic pursuits to confront the power of the conventional, industrial food system and generate power through our collective work. Clark addresses the various dimensions of power and their role in addressing systemic injustices by turning questions of power back on herself, examining her engaged research in public participation and collaborative governance. She delves into the need for reflexivity, emphasizing the burden of participation and the ethical dilemmas faced when engaging within inherently inequitable systems. The address acknowledges the potential for collectively generating power to change the conversation and normalize diverse perspectives in the food system discourse. It highlights the role of organizations like the AFHVS in providing spaces for interdisciplinary work and proposes boundary-spanning with other food movement organizations. Clark invites scholars and practitioners to join in table-building efforts to promote inclusivity and reflexivity within AFHVS.