Information regarding forthcoming book by Professors Glen Filson and Bamidele Adekunle "Eat Local, Taste Global.  How Ethnocultural Food Reaches Our Tables" [1] has been released.

Summary:

After situating the analysis in the political economy of food, we establish the ethno-cultural vegetable demand from Toronto’s South Asian, Chinese and Afro-Caribbean Canadians and then outline their vegetable preferences. Protecting ethnic and national food security and sovereignty strengthens immigrant integration while producing healthy cross-over effects for other Canadians. Local farmers are now producing some of these vegetables.

Next we explain how culture, food and migration are intertwined. Access to ethno-cultural vegetables is affected by ethnicity, social class, where people shop and food prices. International and local value chains reveal that most ethnic vegetables are imported by corporations and ethnic intermediaries, Toronto’s Food Terminal as well as alternative forms of agriculture and markets play a significant roles in bringing ethno-cultural vegetables to our tables.

Social justice requires that people have both food security and food sovereignty. Solutions to identified contradictions include making farmers’ markets more inclusive, improving conditions for migrant farm workers and making alternative forms of agriculture more feasible. How we respond to the current food system’s contradictions and transform our cultures, our health, and the environment will determine whether we can eat local while tasting global.

Please see WLU Press [1] for more information regarding this book.