| In recent years, problems such as environmental degradation, food insecurity, and economic concentration have worsened and become more apparent in the American agrifood system. These trends have been met by resistance and efforts to reconstruct the agrifood system to become more locally based, ecologically sound, and socially just. This study is about the character of this resistance, specifically the movements for sustainable agriculture and community food security, and their institutionalization within the landscape of American agrifood politics. Within the process of this institutionalization, are the potentially transformative ideas and practices of sustainable agriculture and community food security likely to be diffused and absorbed, or do they represent the first steps on a path to a more ecological and equitable agrifood system?; In this study I employ a critical approach, drawing from political ecology, new social movement theory, political economy, and discourse analysis to examine national and California programs in sustainable agriculture and community food security. I explore how sustainable agriculture and community food security have been constructed conceptually, that is, problems defined, beneficiaries intended, and scope of change sought. I also examine the strategies selected for implementing efforts to achieve sustainable agriculture and food security, that is, the institutions, agents, and methods considered relevant and effective.; I conclude that sustainable agriculture and community food security programs that have the potential to reshape the agrifood system in the direction of greater sustainability and food security, but to a limited extent. In many ways the institutionalization of sustainable agriculture and community food security has begun to change the discourse and practice of traditional agrifood institutions, particularly around issues related to the environment and family farms. In other areas, such as class and gender, little challenge is posed to the dominant paradigm. I explore the reasons for this outcome, identifying potential ideological and political obstructions inscribed in the orientations of the sustainable agriculture and community food security movements. Accomplishing further transformation toward environmental and social justice within agrifood institutions---and the agrifood system in general---requires critical reflection on the assumptions and ideologies embedded within the sustainable agriculture and community food security movements. |
