Urban food sovereignty: urgent need for agroecology and systems thinking in a post-COVID-19 future

The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought attention to challenges associated with our dominant industrial food system in the U.S. The general public now has more appreciation for farm workers and meatpacking employees, as well as those in grocery stores and in food transportation who are suddenly recognized as essential frontline workers. It apparently takes a crisis for us to focus clearly on the fragility of this system and the lives of people on whom we depend. In this commentary we discuss the definition of food sovereignty, how it manifests in urban areas, and how the COVID-19 pandemic can trigger viable responses to increase urban food sovereignty. While recognizing and appreciating the value of trade and comparative advantages of some regions with long seasons to produce food for others, there is strong reason to explore the potentials of local and urban production and governance to avoid serious impacts of unexpected interruptions in the world order

Introduction

This introductory chapter examines the intersections between embodiment, material culture, and Charlotte Brontë’s life and writing. It charts the evolution of Brontë studies following the rise of New Historicism and seminal scholarship from the 1990s and early 2000s by critics and biographers such as Christine Alexander and Jane Sellars, Juliet Barker, Lucasta Miller, Sally Shuttleworth, and Margaret Smith. The chapter goes on to discuss how the “material turn” and recent theories of embodiment inform twenty-first -century approaches to the presentation and reception of Brontë’s art, life, and legacy. Focusing on the interdisciplinary conversations that comprise the volume, the editors discuss how book history, cultural heritage, the history of dress, literary criticism, and museum curation prove vital to understanding the ways in which readers have responded to Brontë’s work from its original publication to the present day