Open AccessFarms and gardens everywhere but not a bite to eat? A critical geographic approach to food apartheid in Salt Lake City
Author(s) -
Leah Joyner,
Blanca Yagüe,
Adrienne Cachelin,
Jeff Rose
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
journal of agriculture, food systems, and community development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2152-0798
pISSN - 2152-0801
DOI - 10.5304/jafscd.2022.112.013
Subject(s) - politics , zoning , agriculture , urban agriculture , urbanization , geography , food sovereignty , food systems , resource (disambiguation) , economic growth , socioeconomic status , food security , allotment , political science , environmental planning , sociology , economics , market economy , computer network , population , demography , archaeology , computer science , law
Through community-engaged research, we investigate how political and economic practices have created food apartheid and the ways in which this legacy complicates efforts toward equitable urban agriculture in Salt Lake City (SLC). The study takes place in SLC’s Westside, where an ample number of farms and gardens exist, yet food insecurity is a persistent issue. We partner with a small urban CSA farm operating in a USDA-designated food desert in SLC’s Westside to explore the farmers’ own questions about whom their farm is serving and the farms’ potential to contribute to food justice in their community. Specifically, we examine (1) the member distribution of this urban CSA farm and (2) the underlying socio-political, economic, and geographic factors, such as inequitable access to land, housing, urban agriculture, food, and transportation, that contribute to this distribution. GIS analyses, developed with community partners, reveal spatial patterns between contemporary food insecurity and ongoing socioeconomic disparities matching 1930s residential redlining maps. These data resonate with a critical geographic approach to food apartheid and inform a need for deeper and more holistic strategies for food sovereignty through urban agriculture in SLC. While resource constraints may prevent some small farmers from attending to these issues, partnerships in praxis can build capacity and engender opportunities to investigate and disrupt the racial hierarchies enmeshed in federal agricultural policy, municipal zoning, and residential homeownership programs that perpetuate food apartheid.