Food for Justice: Power, Politics, and Food Inequalities in a Bioeconomy (Marcha das Margaridas 2023)

The research project "Food for Justice" investigates socio-ecological transformations of food and agricultural systems from an intersectional perspective, as reflected in mobilizations against the food system's inequalities. The project focuses on those social mobilizations and innovations committed to food justice by way of a comparative analysis of food movements in Brazil and Germany. To this end, the project employs a multi-method approach, utilizing both the qualitative methods of document analysis, participant observation and qualitative interviews, along with surveys.
The Brazilian protest "Marcha das Margaridas," organized by the union syndicate CONTAG, was surveyed over the course of studying food movements in Brazil. This march, comprised of rural women advocating for social rights, has been held every four years since 2000.
The corresponding survey is based on the “caught in the act” concept found in Klandermanns (2011), and adapted for the Brazilian context. "Caught in the act" ensures the randomization of selected participants for a given protest event. Questions drawn from a core questionnaire are used, so as to guarantee their compatibility with other surveys. Additional, specific questions were also developed by the "Food for Justice" research project.
The following two research questions in particular guide the survey:
• What are the main justice-related claims mobilizing citizens and consumers in the denunciation of food inequalities and in the demands for alternative food politics across different world regions?
• What type of knowledge and technology do food movements use in their aims of overcoming food inequalities and shaping an ecologically sound, fair and democratic food politics?
Surveys tracked the socio-demographic characteristics of the protesters, their political practices, their demands and their practices. Following the concept of food systems (Goody 1982), such practices include those located in the household, as well as those related to the production of food, either in its personal or farm-based cultivation, in marketing, and in practices concerning food waste.
The survey was conducted using the online survey tool LimeSurvey face-to-face interviews (CAPI).