According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 690 million people worldwide suffered from malnutrition in 2019. That is 60 million more than five years earlier. In 2015, the United Nations included the goal of ending hunger worldwide by 2030 in the 17 sustainability goals. “There is no shortage of food,” says Renata Campos Motta. “Hunger and malnutrition are caused by an unequal balance of power.”

Goal: A Fairer Food System

A junior professor of sociology at the Institute for Latin American Studies at Freie Universität Berlin, Renata Campos Motta heads the junior research group Food for Justice: Power, Politics and Food. Inequalities in a Bioeconomy. The participating researchers investigate structural inequalities in the global food system and social movements that have arisen in this context. Food for Justice is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

How can people create a social, ecological, and just food system? This question is the main focus of the Food for Justice research group. In their search for answers, the researchers combine theories about global inequalities with research on social movements in relation to food justice. “Three quarters of the people who suffer from hunger live in rural areas,” Motta points out. That seems paradoxical as it is precisely in these areas where there is arable land. However, this land is often not used for the production of food. In Brazil, for example, soy is grown on a large scale for livestock in Europe and China.

Recognition for Women as Farm Workers

One focus of the research group is an intersectional analysis of the entangled inequalities associated with class, gender, race, citizenship, and other differences, such as the urban-rural difference. Or rather: with injustice. “There are big gender differences in access to resources in the food system,” says Motta. A social movement was formed in Brazil to protest against these inequalities: Marcha das Margaridas (March of the Margaridas; the name is a tribute to the unionist and activist Margarida Maria Alves, who was murdered in 1983).

Rural trade unions and feminist organizations join forces at the demonstrations, which usually attract between 20,000 and 100,000 Brazilian women. Together they fight, among other things, for the recognition of women as agricultural workers, their access to land titles and credits, for public policies for agroecology, and the cultivation of healthy and ecological food as well as for an end to sexual violence.

“Especially in rural areas, women suffer from various forms of oppression. Yet they shape the food system,” says Motta. Many women are perceived as helpers instead of workers in family businesses and when working at the market, and receive lower wages than men for doing the same work. They are at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving land titles and loans. In addition, women take a greater responsibility than men in cultivating and preparing food for their families. This is related to traditional expectations about the role of mother and housewife.

Oil-based Economy Creates Injustices in the Global South

Another social movement that the research group deals with is the German alliance Wir haben es satt (We're fed up with it). Since 2011 representatives from the small farming sector as well as from environmental, conservation, and animal welfare associations and concerned citizens have been taking to the streets at the start of the agricultural trade fair, the International Green Week, which normally takes place every January in Berlin.

They call for an end to industrial agriculture and food production. “We know that the dominant agricultural model that relies on an oil-based economy has a bad ecological balance. It also reproduces bad working conditions, precarious animal husbandry, and injustice in the Global South – and yet this model is heavily subsidized,” explains Motta.

According to a survey conducted by Food for Justice together with the Institut für Protest und Bewegungsforschung (Institute for Protest and Protest Movement Research), many individuals who participate in the Wir haben es satt (We're fed up with it) demonstrations adopt political consumption behavior as a way to contribute to environmental and climate protection. “Yet, they do not think they will change the world by individual consumption decisions, and this is why they collectively organize a mass protest to demand policy change as a means to drive the agrarian and food transformation,” says Motta.

Which Social Groups Are Most Affected by the Pandemic?

In Germany, as in other places, the covid-19 pandemic has made existing social inequalities more visible in the food system, as well as in many areas of life. “In particular, migrant workers who work in the food industry are often denied the right to a minimum wage or adequate health care,” Motta points out. These issues are not new, but it was only through the discussions about massive covid infections in food companies that the grievances drew public attention.

The research group is addressing the potential impact of the pandemic on food inequalities in Germany and Brazil. The researchers are looking into which social groups are most affected by food insecurity during the pandemic and what impact the difficult conditions have on agriculture and the food industry with regard to labor rights.

The pandemic also demonstrates that scientific findings should be given a higher priority in social debates. Motta emphasizes that she and her colleagues want to work together to achieve this. “Our goal is to provide scientific data that politicians can use for strategies in favor of a fair, agro-ecological, sustainable, and globally just agriculture and food system.”

The – overriding – goal of the United Nations that by the year 2030 no one should go hungry is still an urgent priority.

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This text originally appeared in German on December 5, 2020, in the Tagesspiegel newspaper supplement published by Freie Universität.