There is a growing commitment by different
parts of the alternative food movement (AFM) to improve
labor conditions for conventional food chain workers, and
to develop economically fair alternatives, albeit under a
range of conditions that structure mobilization. This has
direct implications for the process of intra-movement
building and therefore the degree to which the movement
ameliorates economic inequality at the point of food labor.
This article asks what accounts for the variation in AFM
labor commitments across different contexts. It then
appraises a range of activist perspectives, practices, and
organizational approaches. The answer emerges through a
comparative analysis of three California social movement
organizations enmeshed in the particularities of local
contentious food politics. The cases include a labor union
representing grocery store and meatpacking/food processing workers, a food justice organization working to create
green jobs and independent funding models, and an organic
urban farming and educational organization. Commitment
to fair labor standards varies due to differences in organizational capacity, the degree of dedication to ending economic inequality in local activist culture, and the openness
of local political and economic institutions to working class
struggles. The article concludes with a discussion of how
these findings inform our understanding of the process of
cooperation and division in the AFM, particularly regarding the complexities and contradictions of using food labor
to combat economic inequality. Movement building in the
midst of varying institutional, organizational, and cultural
contexts reinforces the value of a reflexive approach to this
imperfect politics of process