Rethinking Justice in City-regional Food Systems Planning

This paper offers a rethinking of justice in city-regional food systems planning from the perspective of urban food enterprise (UFE). UFEs are socially innovative business practices that seek alternative, local responses to conventional food systems, from inputs through to resource recovery and waste management. They operate under several legal designations, with diversity in both the scale and scope of business practices that span all stages of this cycle. Yet in this paper I highlight how the pluralism of these urban initiatives offers a means towards rethinking the idea of justice in city-regional food systems planning. I argue that when UFEs are framed as emergent and co-evolutionary practices, the act of doing food justice is consequently a function of pragmatic real-life choices for these organizations. Moreover, while this embrace of the pluralism of UFE practices in cities requires an appreciation of the diversity of entrepreneurial activity, the act of doing food justice raises fundamental questions surrounding what constitutes a pragmatist ethics in city-regional food systems planning.