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Food Justice Undone: Lessons for Building a Better Movement (2026, University of California Press), Dr. Hanna Garth shows how the food justice movement has been affected by misconceptions and assumptions about residents, as well as by unclear definitions of justice and what it means to be healthy. Focusing on broad structures and microlevel processes, Garth reveals how power dynamics shape social justice movements in particular ways.
Drawing on twelve years of ethnographic research, Garth examines what motivates people from more affluent, majority-white areas of the city to intervene in South Central Los Angeles. She argues that the concepts of "food justice" and "healthy food" operate as racially coded language, reinforcing the idea that health problems in low-income Black and Brown communities can be solved through individual behavior rather than structural change. Food Justice Undone explores the stakes of social justice and the possibility of multiracial coalitions working toward a better future.
At this event, we will present a conversation about Food Justice Undone between Dr. Garth and Dr. Gail Myers, cultural anthropologist, creator of the film project, “Rhythms of the Land,” Co-founder of Farms to Grow, Inc, and Part-Time Faculty in the Food Studies Program at The New School. The conversation will be followed by audience questions/discussion and Q&A. This event is in person only and will not be recorded.
The Food Studies Program and Food and Social Justice Action Research (FJAR) Lab are proud to host this event as a part of our 2025-26 event series “Food and Democracy,” supported in part by The New School’s university-wide strategic initiative on Democracy and Culture.
Presented by the Food Studies Program within the Bachelor’s Program for Adults and Transfer Students at Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts and the Food and Social Justice Action Research Lab at The New School.
Dr. Gail Myers is a cultural anthropologist, creator of the film project, “Rhythms of the Land,” and Co-founder of Farms to Grow, Inc. For the last 23 years, she has been interviewing, researching, writing about, and filming the stories of African American farmers, and is considered an expert in the anthropology of African American farming.
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Dr. Hanna Garth is a sociocultural and medical anthropologist who studies food access and the global food system. She is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University. Her books include Food in Cuba: The Pursuit of a Decent Meal, Black Food Matters: Food Justice in the Wake of Racial Justice, and Food Justice Undone: Lessons for Building a Better Movement.
Dr. Gail Myers is a cultural anthropologist, creator of the film project, “Rhythms of the Land,” and Co-founder of Farms to Grow, Inc. For the last 23 years, she has been interviewing, researching, writing about, and filming the stories of African American farmers, and is considered an expert in the anthropology of African American farming. Dr. Myers has brought her “Black Farmers and Foodways in the US” to the Food Studies Program at The New School.
