Who Speaks and Are We Listening? Food Sovereign Voices in a Changing Climate

This chapter considers how journalists and other content producers can contest classism and racism embedded within our food system through food justice approaches. Drawing on Sabiha Ahmad Kahn's notion of “food sovereign voices,” Alana Mann problematizes food media that only superficially amplify the voices of those who act otherwise. She explains that while food media that privilege the voices and standpoints of frontline workers in fields, kitchens, food service, and processing lines can reveal the unequal power relations in food systems, they can also run the risk of reducing the autonomy of those voices in the media discourse. Focusing especially on indigenous voices and perspectives in food discourse, the author argues that the food media need to self-reflectively challenge established routines and recalibrate techniques of storytelling by applying inclusive concepts of food sovereignty and voice. These value-based principles provide a new standard that respects diversity, highlights equality, and better positions food media to foreground vital and complex issues such as the relationship between food, people, and climate change.