Will Work for Food

Labor across the Food Chain

Teresa M. Mares, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9780520391628
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Agricultural Public Policy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Examining the essential role—and exploitation—of frontline workers across the food chain.

Consumers are demanding a healthier and more sustainable food system. Yet labor is rarely part of the discussion. In Will Work for Food, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern and Teresa M. Mares chronicle labor across the food chain, connecting the entire food system—from fields to stores, restaurants, home kitchens, and even garbage dumps.

Using a political economy framework, the authors argue that improving labor standards and building solidarity among frontline workers across sectors is necessary for creating a more just food system. What would it take, they ask, to move toward a food system that is devoid of human exploitation? Combining insights from food systems and labor justice scholarship with actionable recommendations for policy makers, the book is a call to action for labor activists, food studies students and scholars, and anyone interested in food justice.

Table of contents

• Subvention
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction: A New Opening for Worker Justice in the Food System
• 1. Industrialization and Racialized Dispossession on the Farm
• 2. Deskilling in the Assembly Line and on the Factory Floor
• 3. Precarity and Deregulation in the Warehouse and on the Road
• 4. Consolidation and Vulnerability from the Corner Store to the Superstore
• 5. Intersectionality and the Fight for a Fair Wage in Food Service
• 6. Reproductive Labor, Gender, and Food Work in the Home
• 7. Value, Work, and Food Waste at the End of the Line
• Conclusion: Working toward a Just Food Future
• Acknowledgments
• Appendix
• Glossary of Terms
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index