FOOD SYSTEM WORKERS are often a glaring absence in discussions of the contemporary global food system, even though they are employed in some of the most labor-intensive industries within the entire economy, among them agricultural field work, food processing, food distribution, and restaurants of all kinds. The new food localism privileges questions of “where food comes from” over “how” and “who” questions about the conditions under which food is grown, shipped, processed, cooked, served, and sold. Labor Across the Food System will advance research and advocacy by bringing key scholars and advocates to Santa Cruz for discussions of the critical role of labor and social justice in remaking the global food system.

Keynote Lecture by local historian, Frank Bardacke

author of Trampling Out the Vintage: Cesar Chavez and the Two Souls of the United Farm Workers
Friday, February 3, 2012, 7pm
Humanities Lecture Hall, UCSC

Conference

Saturday, February 4, 2012, 8:30am-5:30pm
Humanities Lecture Hall, UCSC

Participants Include:

Patricia Allen, UC Santa Cruz
Dana Frank, UC Santa Cruz
Shannon Gleeson, UC Santa Cruz
Julie Guthman, UC Santa Cruz
David Brundage, UC Santa Cruz
Carolina Bank Muñoz, Brooklyn College
Deborah Barndt, York University
Lucas Benitez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Chris Bohner, UNITE HERE
Sandy Brown, UC Berkeley
Charlotte Chang, UC Berkeley
María Teresa Gastón, University of Nebraska
Eric Holt-Gimenez, Food First
David Griffith, East Carolina University
Saru Jayaraman, Restaurant Opportunity Center
Joann Lo, Food Chain Workers Alliance
Yvonne Yen Liu, Applied Research Center
Don Mitchell, Syracuse University
Mónica Ramírez, Southern Poverty Law Center
Chris Tilly, UC Los Angeles

Labor Across the Food System, organized and sponsored by the Center for Labor Studies in collaboration with the UCSC Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) and the Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy. Major conference sponsors include the Food and the Body Multicampus Research Group, the Institute for Humanities Research, Community Studies Department, Environmental Studies Department, Sociology Department and Politics Department. Additional financial support generously provided by the Departments of American Studies, Anthropology, History, Latin American and Latino Studies, and Psychology.

For further information and updated conference program: http://ihr.ucsc.edu//laboracrossfoodsystem or contact Shann Ritchie at the UCSC Institute for Humanities Research, sritchie@ucsc.edu, (831) 459-5655. Maps: maps.ucsc.edu. Staffing provided by the Institute for Humanities Research. Poster Design: © 2011 Kim Ferrell, kimferrelldesign.com