New book project on land justice in the United States

The term “land grab” is usually associated with the problem of large-scale land acquisition by foreign investors in African, Asian and Latin American countries. However, land consolidation and privatization is also one of the biggest barriers to equitable and sustainable food systems here in the United States. Land Justice: Re-imagining Land, Food and the Commons in the United States brings the question of land, water and resource access home to North America. The edited volume and associated media brings together the voices of activists and scholars working on issues of rural land consolidation, urban gentrification, Black land loss, Native land rights, farm labor, marine and aquatic resources, and more. In the book we look at the structures of race, class and gender that underlie the U.S. agri-food system and ask how policy, climate change and financialization articulate with them to drive dispossession. While exploring ways forward, the project also problematizes conceptualizations of “sovereignty” and “the commons” the reinforce, rather than resist, convention. Ultimately, we argue that we must radically transform our ideas about land and the commons in order to advance food justice and sustainable agriculture in the United States.