Ph.D. Candidate, Environmental Studies Department
University of California, Santa Cruz

B.S. Resource Ecology Management
School of Natural Resources and the Environment University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

My research examines agroecological and social sustainability in three urban agriculture organizations in the East Bay of California. I explore the history of the US Sustainable Agriculture Movement in general, focusing on the Community Food Security movement and recent turns by some community food organizations to the language of food justice in place of community food security. This shift represents a refocus of food access as a basic human right, and ties in issues of racial equality and social justice as part of the structural underpinnings of poverty and food insecurity. Lastly, drawing from the experiences of the three organizations in this study, I examine what pieces come together to best effect social change in the US food system - specifically focusing on how US urban garden organizations can effectively serve and empower disenfranchised people of color.

Contact Hilary Melcarek by email: melcarek@gmail.com