High-modern Food Systems in the USA: A Framework for Analysis and Change

Abstract

Food production in the USA is dominated by a high-modernist ideology and industrial agricultural practices. A wide range of scholars, journalists, and activists have documented the negative impacts of industrial agriculture on human health and welfare in the USA and the world. This article provides a framework for understanding the US food system to see how power is exercised, and to learn what avenues for reform are available to citizens today. This article develops a holistic approach to understanding food systems in the USA and the world. Also highlighted are increasing demands for food justice and the need for greater political activism in food democracy.