Call for papers – Special Issue for Organization : Fruits of our labour: Work and organization in the global food system

Guest Editors:

Steffen Böhm, University of Exeter, UK

Tim Lang, City, University of London, UK

Marja Spierenburg, Radboud University, The Netherlands

Work undertaken to produce food is one of the most fundamental and ancient forms of labour human beings must engage in to survive and flourish. It is not surprising, therefore, that much of the academic focus on food work has been on primary forms, that is, ‘on’ rather than ‘off’ the land. Thus, there are many studies of peasant labour, of the transitions caused by industrialization and mechanization of farming, of the role of migrant labour on the land. Yet, remarkably less attention has been given to the broader range of food labour – despite the revolution in length, complexity, control and technology of food work in the 20th century. As societies have industrialized and urbanized, food remains perplexingly hidden to most of us (Li, 2011). The need for consumers to understand these processes bubbles up from time to time. It was forcefully brought home, for instance, by the horsemeat scandal that gripped Europe in 2012. Scandals such as these have spawned a range of consumer and policy reactions, from scepticism to changed behaviour to moments of renewed interest in the production and regulation of food production.

This partial picture suggests room for improved understanding of the role of food work in modern systems. While there has been welcome attention to food retail (Burch and Lawrence, 2007), there has been less focus on modern food factories, or the growth of artisanal production. Catering remains the Cinderella service in academic studies that Gabriel (1988) noted three decades ago. Demand for local and fair-trade food, for instance, indicates some appetite for food with provenance that is ‘ethically produced’, though some studies indicate that even this niche has had limited impact on some sections of food labour, previously thought to benefit (Cramer et al., 2014).

To understand how change and growth in the food system and all its sectors affects those working in the agri-food system, we need to lift the commodity veil and explore the production processes behind food and the context that shapes them (Allen and Sachs, 2012; Bonanno and Cavalcanti, 2012; Cramer et al., 2014). As a transition unfolds from an era of low food prices to one characterized by, what Moore (2015) calls, ‘the end of cheap nature’, the costs and scale of production assume even greater importance. Yet, the costs and benefits within the agri-food system are unequally distributed among the various actors in the system (Van der Ploeg, 2009).

Understanding food as a set of practices that are embedded in a historical, globally distributed system has been one of the main theoretical lenses developed over the past decades (Ericksen, 2008; Rosin et al., 2013). While for some authors a systems perspective mainly involves showing the integrated relations between food, people and nature (Pretty, 2002), others highlighted the unequal distributions of power, land and access to food and markets, leading to conceptualizing the global food system as a set of ‘value chains’ (Allen and Sachs, 2012), as capitalist ‘regime’ (Friedmann, 2005; McMichael, 2009) and historical world-system (Moore, 2015).

Increased financialization (Clapp, 2014), a growing dominance of the food system by large agri-businesses (Lang and Heasman, 2015), as well as policy contradictions, characterized by the promotion of intensive production methods, on one hand, and sustainable rural development, on the other hand, have impacts on this distribution (Banks and Marsden, 2000; Garzon, 2006). At the same time, there is greater awareness among both policymakers and the wider public of the unacceptable social costs of cheap food, in terms of exploitative and unsafe conditions for workers and food producers across the system (Burnett and Murphy, 2014). The experience of these workers ranges from slave-labour aboard Thai fishing boats to volunteer work by the home or allotment gardener producing food for their own table. The wider political, economic, social and cultural contexts that shape such different forms of work and labour in the food system are important here.

Equally important is the recognition of alternative approaches to organizing food systems. Local and organic food demands a price premium by customers. Agroecology, permaculture and other, more sustainable, agricultural models have gained momentum across the world. Peasants and other rural movements are struggling for access to land and less control by agri-businesses (Borras et al., 2015). Food production and consumption cooperatives experiment with different organizational models. These are all examples of noteworthy innovations and struggles in the global food system. Yet, their implications for work and labour remain under-explored. Are these alternatives really improving labour processes and livelihoods of workers?

In this Special Issue, we invite authors to engage theoretically and empirically with the organization of capital, work and labour in the global agri-food system. Specifically, we ask authors to explore how work and labour in the agri-food system have been shaped by the political economy of food and agriculture, and how these issues relate to other pertinent challenges, including climate change, the obesity epidemic, ongoing hunger, food poverty and land grabbing. Finally, we are also interested in new forms of work and labour that resist dominant political economies of the agri-food system, showing pathways towards more sustainable, equitable and just futures.

We invite contributions from researchers, activists, artists and professionals on the following topics, though this list is by no means exhaustive:

• The experience of work and labour in the agri-food system;

• Political economy of value/supply chains;

• Organization of work and labour in the agri-food system;

• Historical perspectives of food labour and organization;

• Organization of small-scale food producers;

• Migration of labour in relation to food;

• Pro-sumption of food (the role of the prosumer);

• Work and labour implications of new technologies in food systems;

• Food and agricultural cooperatives;

• Struggles for land and their implications for work and labour;

• Agro-ecological work and labour;

• Global divisions of labour in the agri-food system;

• Fair trade versus free trade and the implications for work and labour;

• Organizing labour unions and informal resistances in the agri-food system;

• Consumer understanding of and engagement with food labour processes.