The global food crisis—made worse by the financial crisis—has exposed the roots of an inequitable, unsustainable and unhealthy corporate food regime. Rapidly-growing food movements for neighborhood food security , food justice , and even food sovereignty reflect widespread discontent with the state of the U.S. food system.

Workers throughout the food supply chain are under-paid and under-protected. Last year, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics listed food preparation and serving-related occupations as the lowest paid of all occupational categories ($8.59 median wage) followed by farming, fishing and forestry occupations ($9.34 median wage). The same report shows that food-manufacturing workers have been hit disproportionately hard with mass layoffs during this economic recession (USBLS).