Beyond the Kale

Reviews / Votes

Challenging the increasingly mainstream view of urban agriculture as an extension of the new food movement that consists of young, middle-class white "homesteaders" and "pioneers," Nevin Cohen and Kristin Reynolds identify how communities of color have their own rich history and contemporary forms of an urban agriculture directly linked to a deeper desire to bring about community change and social justice. The authors do more than provide an account of this alternative view of urban agriculture; rather, they critically yet constructively engage the movement while trying to energize its efforts to achieve food system change and environmental, economic, and social justice. -- Robert Gottlieb * coauthor of Food Justice * Beyond the Kale is a much-needed antidote to the often a bit too celebratory writing about urban agriculture. Through the voices of their research subjects, the authors show that a frank discussion of the race, class, and gender politics of this burgeoning food movement is no less than an imperative. -- Julie Guthman * author of Weighing In: Obesity, Food Justice, and the Limits of Capitalism * The existence of race- and class-based disparities among farming and gardening groups is nothing new. What is new is Reynolds and Cohen's meticulous, critical urban agriculture scholarship and activist analysis focused on New York City urban agriculture programs that advance social justice goals and are led by people of color and first-generation immigrants from regions of the Global South, with deep roots into their respective communities. -- Professor Julian Agyeman * author of Introducing Just Sustainabilities: Policy, Planning, and Practice *