Seeking Food Justice and a Just City through Local Action in Food Systems: Opportunities, Challenges, and Transformation

roducing social change and supporting social justice has always required multiscalar strategy and action. Federal policy actions can be transformative, but are sensitive to extreme philosophical shifts and partisan conflict in federal leadership. When federal leadership is unstable, local and regional government action provides a critical space for maintaining movement forward and presenting opposition when federal policies are not supportive. These dynamics are evident in many spheres of policy, such as housing, transportation, economic development, education, health, and food systems. We can see this tension in food systems today, as federal policies regarding agricultural subsidies and proposals to tighten food assistance programs (e.g., SNAP) can be in opposition to local goals of supporting sustainable and just local food systems. Local activities and practitioners must be agile to work within an ever-changing federal policy landscape. The long-term trend of federal devolution places even greater emphasis on “going local” to support reforming systems and social change. Discussions of federal versus local action can be overwhelmed by academic debate around the evils of neoliberalism. But for local activists, practitioners and marginalized communities, these theoretical arguments do little to bring change to their communities. Local action remains the primary sphere of influence to support social justice. Local action also is the primary space of innovation, as collaborative local efforts organically evolve and create new models for supporting food justice. The collection of experiences documented by scholars and practitioners in this special issue of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD) illuminates the opportunities for reshaping food systems through local government action and collaboration. They also demonstrate the persistent challenges facing systemic P