Glossary

 

 

Glossary

Agribusiness: agriculture conducted on a global scale and based on commercial principles that value the maximization of profit. Agribusinesses risk undermining natural and sustainable farming practices.

Countercuisine: an alternative method of food consumption that focuses on ethical, local, organic, and seasonal foods.

Dominant Food System: the intersection of the industrial and capital-driven processes by which most food is produced and distributed. Large commercial farms and other agribusinesses, which are part of the dominant food system, place profit before sustainable and ethical practices.

Eater as Co-producer: active engagement and awareness of where food comes from and how it is grown, distributed, and prepared. 

Emergency Food Program: any of several charitable initiatives that provide meals and basic provisions to individuals and families affected by undernourishment. 

Fair Wages: steady pay above the federal minimum wage for tipped workers, which excludes tips and allows employees to sustain physically and mentally healthy livelihoods. 

Food Citizenship: the social and political engagement with food production and consumption, which aims to create a more democratic, sustainable, and economically just food system.

Food Desert: an urban area where there is little to no access to fresh and/or affordable food.

Food (In-) Security: the state of being able to afford and consume nutritious food. Individuals who do not have access to wholesome food are described as being food insecure.

Food Justice: efforts to ensure that the benefits and risks of producing, distributing, and consuming food are shared fairly.

Food Justice Movement: the movement against the dominant food system, which offers a set of alternative foodways and includes efforts to make produce accessible to people who live in food deserts, to protect the rights and fair livelihoods of farm and restaurant workers, and to challenge corporate farming practices that endanger the ecosystem.

Food Miles: the distance that food travels from where it is grown to where it is consumed. The greater the distance the food is transported, the less it is considered environmentally sustainable.

Food Movement: a growing effort to critique large-scale agriculture and to offer a set of alternative foodways, including organic, local, fair trade, and slow foods.

Food Sovereignty: the assertion that everyone should have equal access to and control of arable land and healthy food.

Foodshed: a socio-geographic space in which food is responsibly grown, distributed, prepared, and consumed; a framework for both thought and activism that requires a commitment to finding an alternative to the dominant food system.

Locavore: a person who aspires to eat locally produced food, thus minimizing the distance food travels and maximizing freshness.

Monoculture: the cultivation of a single crop or plant species over a number of years in one area that causes farms to become dependent on fertilizers and pesticides and susceptible to disease, infestation, and erosion.

Neolocalism: the renewed desire for and commitment to fostering local connections, identities, and economies.

Seasonality: an emphasis on diverse, locally grown, in-season foods, which decreases dependence on transnationally grown produce. 

Slow Fashion: encourages the reevaluation of material sourcing and the sustainable harvesting of fibers for fabrics. This is also known as slow clothing.

Slow Food: an international movement that encourages the adoption of sustainable food and labor in an effort to present an alternative to fast food and prevent the disappearance of regional and local food cultures.

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP): a federal program, formerly known as food stamps, that offers nutrition assistance to low-income individuals and households.

Sustainable Food: the judicious management of food resources that includes the cultivation of organic produce, the humane treatment of livestock, and the well-being of individuals who produce, distribute, serve and consume these products.

Sustainability: a balanced and sensible long-term management of resources.