What do you think?
Rate this book
Black, White, and Green: Farmers Markets, Race, and the Green Economy
Farmers markets are much more than places to buy produce. According to advocates for sustainable food systems, they are also places to “vote with your fork” for environmental protection, vibrant communities, and strong local economies. Farmers markets have become essential to the movement for food-system reform and are a shining example of a growing green economy where consumers can shop their way to social change.
Black, White, and Green brings new energy to this topic by exploring dimensions of race and class as they relate to farmers markets and the green economy. With a focus on two Bay Area markets—one in the primarily white neighborhood of North Berkeley, and the other in largely black West Oakland—Alison Hope Alkon investigates the possibilities for social and environmental change embodied by farmers markets and the green economy.
Drawing on ethnographic and historical sources, Alkon describes the meanings that farmers market managers, vendors, and consumers attribute to the buying and selling of local organic food, and the ways that those meanings are raced and classed. She mobilizes this research to understand how the green economy fosters visions of social change that are compatible with economic growth while marginalizing those that are not.
Black, White, and Green is one of the first books to carefully theorize the green economy, to examine the racial dynamics of food politics, and to approach issues of food access from an environmental-justice perspective. In a practical sense, Alkon offers an empathetic critique of a newly popular strategy for social change, highlighting both its strengths and limitations.
Black, White, and Green brings new energy to this topic by exploring dimensions of race and class as they relate to farmers markets and the green economy. With a focus on two Bay Area markets—one in the primarily white neighborhood of North Berkeley, and the other in largely black West Oakland—Alison Hope Alkon investigates the possibilities for social and environmental change embodied by farmers markets and the green economy.
Drawing on ethnographic and historical sources, Alkon describes the meanings that farmers market managers, vendors, and consumers attribute to the buying and selling of local organic food, and the ways that those meanings are raced and classed. She mobilizes this research to understand how the green economy fosters visions of social change that are compatible with economic growth while marginalizing those that are not.
Black, White, and Green is one of the first books to carefully theorize the green economy, to examine the racial dynamics of food politics, and to approach issues of food access from an environmental-justice perspective. In a practical sense, Alkon offers an empathetic critique of a newly popular strategy for social change, highlighting both its strengths and limitations.
224 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2012
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 6, 2020
I work in the farmers market world, and I really appreciate this book and the topics it covers. The book does a good job "zooming in" to profile two farmers markets with manager, vendor and customer perspectives as well as "zooming out" with national and local history, research and data. The academic style of writing was hard for me to get through, including the overall impassive tone and long summaries at the end of most chapters, which felt very redundant. Overall, I liked it and recommend it for folks in farmers market/food justice.
December 10, 2015
Very well done snapshot of the Northern California local food system, especially its history. As much as I thought I knew, I learned more about how it all began and what was valued. I appreciated that this book was centered around two farmers markets and their environmental and social justice leanings which is a great lens in which to view multiple types of organizing and sets of outcomes.
I especially like the time she takes to link the work in each market to the economic goals of the green economy.
here are some wonderful passages on the tensions and values of this emerging alternative system:
"One becomes an environmentalist, for example, through the consumption of green products such as organic food rather than the traditional means of voting, lobbying or attending protests. While this strategy allows supporters to inscribe their social movement goals into their everyday life practices. it also creates individuals who infuse the logic of the market into both their ordinary behavior and their desires for social change (Larner and Craig 1999)"
"The promise of the green economy is that the market can be made to value, and therefore to protect, humans and the environment."
"In these markets, actors choose from among competing narratives to envision and emphasize the spaces where buying and selling green products leads to environmental protection and social justice."
"Furthermore, proponents of the social change potential of the green economy attempt to redefine capitalism not as an exploitative system that must be overcome or restricted in order to protect people and the environment but as a tool to create a more just and sustainable world."
"...Working towards these goals (environmental sustainability and social justice) becomes possible, in part, because participants in each farmers markets define environment and justice in ways that render them compatible with one another."
"The compatibility between sustainability and justice achieved at these farmers markets is not inherent. Farmers market managers, as well as some vendors and regular customers, actively work to conceptualize strategies that speak to both goals."
As a community food system organizer, I believe this book is crucial to successful organizing around food. I do think the book starts out strong with establishing the history and the context of the area but falters a bit when it gets to actually showing if these outlets accomplish the lofty goals they organized around while still offering a stable alternative economic choice for shoppers and producers. That may be more of a problem with the outlets than with the writing however.
In any case, do take the time to read this thoughtful book and then pass it along to your friends and comrades.
I especially like the time she takes to link the work in each market to the economic goals of the green economy.
here are some wonderful passages on the tensions and values of this emerging alternative system:
"One becomes an environmentalist, for example, through the consumption of green products such as organic food rather than the traditional means of voting, lobbying or attending protests. While this strategy allows supporters to inscribe their social movement goals into their everyday life practices. it also creates individuals who infuse the logic of the market into both their ordinary behavior and their desires for social change (Larner and Craig 1999)"
"The promise of the green economy is that the market can be made to value, and therefore to protect, humans and the environment."
"In these markets, actors choose from among competing narratives to envision and emphasize the spaces where buying and selling green products leads to environmental protection and social justice."
"Furthermore, proponents of the social change potential of the green economy attempt to redefine capitalism not as an exploitative system that must be overcome or restricted in order to protect people and the environment but as a tool to create a more just and sustainable world."
"...Working towards these goals (environmental sustainability and social justice) becomes possible, in part, because participants in each farmers markets define environment and justice in ways that render them compatible with one another."
"The compatibility between sustainability and justice achieved at these farmers markets is not inherent. Farmers market managers, as well as some vendors and regular customers, actively work to conceptualize strategies that speak to both goals."
As a community food system organizer, I believe this book is crucial to successful organizing around food. I do think the book starts out strong with establishing the history and the context of the area but falters a bit when it gets to actually showing if these outlets accomplish the lofty goals they organized around while still offering a stable alternative economic choice for shoppers and producers. That may be more of a problem with the outlets than with the writing however.
In any case, do take the time to read this thoughtful book and then pass it along to your friends and comrades.
March 31, 2013
Alkon seeks to illuminate the short-comings of the green economy, both in how it tends not only not to challenge or change who has access to the benefits and who remains exploited. I would have been more excited had the text made some good suggestions as to answering these problems, or pointed to folks who are trying to engage the work (for there are many).
Read
February 15, 2013381.41 A415 2012
June 8, 2023
1.5/5⭐️
“black & white by ali_cher on wattpad”
“black & white by ali_cher on wattpad”
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews