AMONG THE VARIOUS movements for social justice today, few struggles are as complex and intersectional as the new food movement. The climate crisis, rising economic inequality, and the neoliberal political agenda known as “free trade” have led progressives to scrutinize the production and consumption of food as never before. From opposition to factory farms led by animal-rights and environmental activists to the return of local farmers’ markets in communities across the United States, contemporary food politics have become an inspirational model for progressive change, even as food safety, poverty and hunger, lax regulations, and the environmental impacts of corporate agriculture continue to pose new challenges.

Tikkun has convened a forum on Food Politics that take stock of the successes and dangers of contemporary food politics. The essays that follow touch on Jewish veganism, indigenous peoples’ resistance to big agribusiness, the hidden externalities of low food prices, the sexual politics of meat, and much more.

ONLINE ONLY EXCLUSIVES

Food Justice and Personal Rewilding as Social Movements
MARC BEKOFF

Stand Together or Starve Alone
Mark Winne

An Interview Between Tikkun and Nigel Savage, of Hazon 

FOOD POLIITCS

Two Stories About American Food
JOHN BRUEGGEMANN
Americans are changing the way they eat—and something beautiful, powerful, and subversive is unfolding.

Food Justice as God’s Justice
NORMAN WIRZBA
Is your meal without shame?

Judaism and Veganism: Time for a Reunion
JEFFREY COHAN
The Torah recommends a vegan diet.

Mustard Seeds and Mountains
TERESA MARBUT
Indigenous activists square off against big agribusiness. 

The True Cost of a Cheap Meal
KATIE CANTRELL
There’s pain and horror behind that two-dollar dozen of eggs.

The Scent of the Field
ANDREW BERNS
Spring break on the farm: a professor heads West for calving season.

Food Justice: Are We Solving a Problem or Reimagining a System?
ORAN B. HESTERMAN
A closer look at food insecurity in Michigan.

Ghosts
JO-ANNE McARTHUR
A photojournalist captures the spectral side of the animal kingdom.

Misery and Misogyny on the Menu
CAROL J. ADAMS
Selling sex, selling meat: animal exploitation and gender oppression.

Food as Medicine: Vermont Youth Grow Food for the Hungry
ALEXIS LATHEM
A solution for food insecurity and at-risk youth is flourishing in New England.