UC Berkeley

Birmingham, Alabama has a long history of racial conflict and segregation. This dissertation investigates that how that history has shaped space in the region and the consequences of that spatial production on the current alternative food and agriculture movement. Specifically, I analyze three processes that produce Birmingham's racialized space - capital accumulation, racialization, and commoning. I first look at how Birmingham's segregated space shapes the initiatives of the alternative food and agriculture movement. I find that there are two institutional structures that come from and animate spaces in Birmingham, one black and one white, and because the organizations creating a food policy council come almost exclusively from white space, the process for creating the council is almost wholly white. Next, I investigate gentrification in downtown Birmingham, and the alternative food and agriculture movement's role. I argue that gentrification is in fact happening in downtown neighborhoods evidenced by census data that shows neighborhoods in transition and the loss of low-income housing in the area. I show that the food movement lends cultural legitimacy to the trendy lifestyle emerging in the central city. Eating at fine dining that supports local food, shopping at farmers' markets, and patronizing local foods grocery stores are practices that create a foodie culture that supports neighborhood transformation. Finally, I look at what black and diverse organizations are doing in the food movement. Those organizations are focused using urban agriculture as a means of community development, and the gardens are a part of a comprehensive strategy by these organizations to produce a community space, a commons to meet the needs of those in their respective communities.