Department or Program

Environmental Studies

Abstract

Scholarship on the cultural politics of the local food movement asserts that the movement often “hails a white subject, entitling people marked as white to define the rhetoric, spaces, and broader projects of agro-food transformation” (Guthamn 2008, 395). Common representations of local farming within American culture affirm that a white image is provoked when exploring the following questions: Who has historically produced local food? Who knows how to produce local food? Who should produce local food? Who produces the best quality local food? Who cares about producing local food? Who are people comfortable with touching and tending to local food? In Lewiston, Maine, however, the local food movement has been shaped by overtly anti-racist practices and by the agency of minority – mostly Somali Bantu immigrant – communities of color since its early years, making Lewiston an interesting case to research. This thesis examines the culture of Lewiston, Maine’s Farmers' Market, analyzing the role race plays in participant’s perceptions of, interactions with, and policies involving producers of color, drawing on theories of racialization and anti-racist practice. While many studies on race and food have focused on minority consumers, this research focuses on perceptions of, interactions with, and policies involving minority producers. What work does race do around people, and what work do people do around race in the Lewiston Farmers' Market? What are the processes of racialization and resistance in the Lewiston Farmers' Market? This thesis offers an analysis that can help enhance anti-racist and food justice practice in communities where race is further complicated by other racialized identities.

Level of Access

Open Access

First Advisor

Miller, Ethan

Date of Graduation

5-2018

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Number of Pages

115

Components of Thesis

1 pdf

Community Engagement

1

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