Examining Environmental Justice: Navigating Identity and Hegemony

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The zine is also dedicated to the themes of the course, which include environmental justice, issues surrounding hegemonic ideas, and the importance of identities. In regards to environmental justice, Gosine and Teelucksingh (2008) believe that this “ connects a range of social movements, including anti-racism, Aboriginal rights and sovereignty movements, labour union movements, and the mainstream environmental movement.” (p. 11). Creating an environmental justice framework is an opportunity to evoke change by demanding the fundamental right for individuals to live free from environmental hazards. This idea relates to the core purpose of our zine because we believe that environmental justice is essential in order to change the global food …show more content…

In relation to Richard Dyer (2012), he mentions the ideas of how we come to our “understandings” of the things we encounter in life through what other people are telling us (p. 354). Specifically he is speaking about people, but his ideas on the importance of how society constructs our thoughts and knowledge can also be related to our food system. We live in a society where certain ideas and behaviors are acceptable and others are not. In regards to our food system, those in power try to make consumers believe that GMO’s for example are not harmful to the environment or human health, however this is not the case. We wanted to provide readers with information that challenges hegemonic thinking and make individuals realize that we do in fact have many food related problems. Similarly, the theories of Gimenez and Shattuck (2011), further explore this through analyzing the global food crisis. They mention the importance of food movements that respond to “ social, economic and environmental crises unleashed by the corporate food regime” (p.113). The individuals, who are apart of these food movements, recognize that they need to challenge dominant ideologies. Both authors teach us to have our own voice within society rather than continue to listen to what those in power want us to …show more content…

Often within the media, identities of individuals are misrepresented, however creating alternative pieces of media such as a zine can allow for identities to be represented in a different way. Jeppesen (2012) teaches individuals that zines can be used as a way to engage in anti-authoritarian principles (p.267). Zines give individuals freedom to create what they desire and produce a space that addresses activism. She also mentions that “zines produce the culture that they represent” (Jeppesen, 2012, p. 280) and with regards to our zine we wanted to produce a culture that focused on individuals finding their food identities in order to seek change. In addition, focusing on the idea of identities a blog post about consuming identity through food also framed ideas within our zine (“Eating Yourself:” 2014). This post reflects upon, understanding that our dietary choices express our identities. The post mentions that food contains a social role within society and it is important that we are influenced and taught what we can and cannot eat properly. This relates to the theme of the course because it is important that individuals are able to explore their own identities without regards to what mainstream media depicts as “good” or “bad”. Having alternative media such as our zine, allows the reader to think about food in a different way as well

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