Structures of power and oppression limit our food choices, but by understanding the big picture dynamics we can develop the tools to change how and what we eat. This endeavor draws upon feminism and critical race theory to make visible five pillars that oppress people today: capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, imperialism, and speciesism. First we develop the conceptual tools for understanding how these pillars operate to reinforce each other over time and through our globalized society. This becomes possible by examining the stories about how the modern industrialized food system has developed. Then we turn to alternative frameworks for re-imagining and redefining food as fundamental to our existence, and as a key mechanism for social change. Black liberation and indigenous knowledge offer tools to rethink and re-conceptualize the ways that we eat, as we become more capable of thinking about the embodied relationships between humans and nonhuman animals in food. Bringing in our research on veganism in the United States and Argentina, and the food sovereignty framework, we explore some of the ways that veganism as a philosophy can help with the efforts to decolonize our diets and our minds. As we learn to eat for liberation, more possibilities emerge for a more just and sustainable present and future. 

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Learning Objectives:

•  Objective 1:

  • Identify current food choices as they relate to power and oppression

• Objective 2:

  • Cultivate alternative strategies for eating rooting in a liberatory social change framework

• Objective 3:

  • Explore the ways that individual level practices connect to broader patterns of social change