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Brooklyn's agrarian questions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Evan Weissman
Evan Weissman*
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Food Studies, and Nutrition, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
*
* Corresponding author: [email protected]
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Abstract

Throughout the USA, urban agriculture is expanding as a manifestation of an emerging American food politics. Through a case study of Brooklyn, New York, I used mixed qualitative research methods to investigate the political possibilities of urban agriculture for fostering food justice. My findings build on the existing alternative food network (AFN) literature by indicating that problematic contradictions rooted in the neoliberalization of urban agriculture limit the transformative possibilities of farming the city as currently practiced in Brooklyn. I suggest that longstanding agrarian questions—concerns over the relationship between agriculture and capitalism and the politics of small-scale producers—are informative for critical interrogation of urban agriculture as a politicization of food.

Keywords

agro-foodalternative food networkfood politicsneoliberalizationurban agriculture
Type
Research Papers
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 30 , Special Issue 1: Innovations and Trends in Sustainable Urban Agriculture , February 2015 , pp. 92 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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