Labor and the Locavore: The Making of a Comprehensive Food Ethic / Edition 1

by Margaret Gray

Overview

In the blizzard of attention around the virtues of local food production, food writers and activists place environmental protection, animal welfare, and saving small farms at the forefront of their attention. Yet amid this turn to wholesome and responsible food choices, the lives and working conditions of farmworkers are often an afterthought.

Labor and the Locavore focuses on one of the most vibrant local food economies in the country, the Hudson Valley that supplies New York restaurants and farmers markets. Based on more than a decade’s in-depth interviews with workers, farmers, and others, Gray’s examination clearly shows how the currency of agrarian values serves to mask the labor concerns of an already hidden workforce.

She also explores the historical roots of farmworkers’ predicaments and examines the ethnic shift from Black to Latino workers. With an analysis that can be applied to local food concerns around the country, this book challenges the reader to consider how the mentality of the alternative food movements implies a comprehensive food ethic that addresses workers’ concerns.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520276697
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	10/25/2013
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Margaret Gray is Associate Professor of Political Science at Adelphi University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Is Local Food an Ethical Alternative?

1 • Agrarianism and Hudson Valley Agriculture
2 • The Workers: Labor Conditions, Paternalism, and Immigrant Stories
3 • The Farmers: Challenges of the Small Business
4 • Sustainable Jobs? Ethnic Succession and the New Latinos
5 • Toward a Comprehensive Food Ethic Methodological Appendix

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Gray has shifted our discussion of food ethics back to the humans who, by their hands, give us our daily bread."

Labor Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas - Charles Thompson Jr.

"Gray illuminates issues that even the most thoughtful among us have been turning a blind eye toward regarding the experience of many farm workers."

Food, Culture, and Society - Suzanne Cope

"Gray exposes the stark reality of farm labor conditions in the Hudson Valley’s regional food economy . . . An important contribution to the literature on social justice in agriculture."

New Labor Forum - Christy Getz

"As Margaret Gray discusses in her excellent book, 'Labor and the Locavore,' we cannot achieve ethical consistency in producing food without paying attention to labor. . . . For food to be affordable, people — all people — must earn living wages; alternatively, good food must be subsidized. Both conditions would be even better."

New York Times, The Opinion Pages - Mark Bittman

"Gray is a nuanced, thorough and evenhanded writer, which makes her argument all the more convincing."

NY 1

"An important contribution to the discussion of alternatives to the conventional food system."

Green Left Weekly - Fred Magdoff

"Gray deftly crafts her arguments . . . This book is exceptionally researched and would make an excellent and challenging addition to
undergraduate courses on sustainability as well as graduate courses in public scholarship."

Agriculture and Human Values - Russell C. Hedberg II

"Gray compiled a vivid picture of the living and working conditions of farmworkers in the Hudson Valley. . . . She reminds us that a progressive transformation of our global and local food systems cannot be achieved without securing justice for all food workers."

Progressive Planning - Tom Angotti

"Gripping reading . . . Gray’s success in uncovering injustice within the locavore movement in the Hudson River Valley is irrefutable."

Eric Buzzetti

"[An] excellent book . . . broad and balanced."

Labor Studies Journal - Kia Sanger

"Gray smartly argues that we must attend to the working conditions of individuals employed by farmers. . . . this book will be an eye-opening experience for anyone who cares about what they eat."

Women, Food, and Ag Network - Abby Dubisar

"Labor and the Locavore represents a powerful corrective to a major shortcoming in the food politics movement. . . . Gray’s
work shines a bright light on precisely this side of the equation and highlights the need for a comprehensive food ethic that encompasses both environmental and social justice."

Labour-Le Travail - Noah Zerbe

"An inspiring example to current and future scholars of food and agriculture."

Agricultural History - C. Clare Hinrichs

"By teasing out the complications of a single sliver of the 'alternative' food system, Labor and the Locavore points the way forward for foodies."

Dissent

"Labor and the Locavore is a timely and important antidote to much of today’s popular food writing. . . . I definitely recommend the book."

Progress in Human Geography - Julie Guthman

"Labor and the Locavore combines a wide-ranging historical perspective with the insights of contemporary fieldwork... Gray's tenacious commitment to examining the broad context of persistence and change in the injustices experienced by Northeast farmworkers offers an inspiring example to current and future scholars of food and agriculture." 

Agricultural History

"Gray is a nuanced, thorough and evenhanded writer, which makes her argument all the more convincing."

NY 1 - L.V. Anderson