It’s impossible to understand the full picture of our food system without also considering the ongoing climate crisis. Climate change threatens lands, livelihoods, and food supply, resulting in shortages, price spikes, and land loss—especially for people of color.

Throughout US history, stealing and exploiting land for growing food—which has contributed to climate change—has always been intertwined with racism. Europeans’ genocide of Native Americans and enslavement of Africans cleared land to grow cash crops and depleted soil health across the country.

In the 1960s and 1970s, industrial agriculture ushered in a food system reliant on fertilizers and irrigation practices that threaten the health of soils and waterways, coupled with a heavy reliance on a largely immigrant workforce that lacks labor protections. Just this month, workers, including children and seniors, worked amid record-breaking heat in the Pacific Northwest.

To address these intertwined challenges of advancing food security, racial equity, and climate resilience, some food chain workers are promoting food sovereignty—the concept of a food system in which the people who produce, distribute, and consume food control the way it’s produced and distributed.

Advancing food sovereignty would require major food system changes to create environmental stewardship, land ownership, and labor practices that build power and agency among farmers, food chain workers, and consumers. The federal government has provided unprecedented federal aid to farms in recent years, and the actions below , undertaken in partnership with states and communities, can ensure future interventions advance these goals.

  1. Ensure fair lending for farmland and invest in shared equity ownership
  2. Expand understanding and practice of agroecology in food production
  3. Support food chain worker livelihood

Read the full article about food sovereignty by Clare Salerno at Urban Institute.