Presents an argument for a food justice-oriented rhetoric and literacy that shifts the emphasis in the local food movement from individualized conscious eater literacies to addressing the broader social, political, and cultural implications, histories, and power relations embedded in the food system.

Food Justice Rhetorics and Literacies provides a critical examination of the dominant rhetorical tropes and arguments of local food discourse and their exclusions. The author addresses that through understanding complex patterns of discrimination and social action in relation to land ownership and food production, we can begin to imagine and enact a more just and sustainable food system. This book explores and assesses periods in history when the U.S. public took an active role in agriculture through publicly-promoted, often federal and state subsidized gardening projects and widescale grassroots gardening efforts in times of crisis, thus building alternative agrarian literacies among the U.S. publics and ensuring a stable food supply during times of crisis.

The shift to a food justice-oriented rhetoric centers food activists, BIPOC farmers, community gardeners and policy advocates who are seeking to change systems of food production and distribution so that all can eat well.

Argues for a food justice-oriented rhetoric and literacy that shifts the emphasis in the local food movement from individualized conscious eater literacies to addressing the broader social, political, and cultural implications, histories, and power relations embedded in the food system.

About the Author
Eileen E. Schell is Professor of Writing and Rhetoric and the Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor of Teaching Excellence in the Department of Writing Studies, Rhetoric, and Composition at Syracuse University.

Reviews
In her latest book Food Justice Literacies and Rhetorics, Professor Eileen Schell's intersectional approach to food justice applies incisive rhetorical and rich historical analysis to carefully chosen case studies, thereby reimagining the roles of writing and rhetoric scholars in food studies and offering new directions for scholarship, pedagogy, and everyday practices. In these ways, Schell provides an important argument about the significance of critical agricultural literacies to illuminate more accurate and representative histories of food justice and to illustrate ways forward to more just and inclusive food systems. * Stephanie Wade, Full-Time Lecturer, Stony Brook University, USA *
In Eileen's straightforward prose, she expertly challenges well-worn histories and dominant refrains, repurposing rhetorical voices to converse with BIPOC food justice advocates, rhetorically crystallizing issues of food politics to leave us less overwhelmed and more confident consumers. As each chapter built upon the next, I thought of more students and peers who will gain much from this read. * Charlotte Hogg, Professor and Director of Composition, Texas Christian University, USA *
With the acuity and depth readers have come to expect from Schell, Food Justice Rhetorics and Literacies leads rhetoric and literacy studies' contributions to interdisciplinary critical food and agriculture scholarship. Taking up a wide range of farming and food case studies, Schell smartly demonstrates how agriculture and food discourses host competing narratives about power, labor, and individual choice. Her in-depth analysis also illustrates how structures of discrimination and white supremacy maintain themselves in such contexts as public policy and popular food writing. As an intervention in food justice, this book will be taken up by students and researchers who seek to understand how persuasion operates in agriculture and food systems, as well as how equity and opportunity can be centered when we change the stories and practices needed to build food systems that work for all, especially the least enfranchised. * Abby Dubisar, Associate Professor, Iowa State University, USA *



Book Information
ISBN 9781666974300
Author Eileen E. Schell
Format Hardback
Page Count 224
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc