The COVID-19 pandemic has widely been discussed as a crisis that impacts daily life on a global scale, including food security, global supply chains, consumer behaviour and nutrition. In this crisis, providing food became an even more essential service, agricultural work became an essential activity, and with this, farm workers became so-called essential workers. In Germany, this topic was broadly taken up by local and national newspapers. Due to immense media interest during the first lockdown, the working conditions in the food sector and especially the marginalized status of farmworkers were rendered visible to a broader public. This paper analyses the discourses and how food production in times of the pandemic affects pre-existing workers‘ inequalities and lack of workers’ rights, revealing migrant workers as one of the most vulnerable groups in the German food system. It concludes by demonstrating that the mechanisms of Covid-19, which have been exacerbating existing inequalities in the food sector during the pandemic, are part of a structural socio-economic and socio-political crisis that must be regarded in the context of global capitalism and intersectional inequalities.

Die von dem Bündnis Meine Landwirtschaft organisierte Großdemonstration Wir haben es satt! findet seit zehn Jahren zum Auftakt der Agrarmesse Grüne Woche in Berlin statt. Das Bündnis setzt sich für eine nachhaltige, faire Landwirtschaft und Lebensmittelproduktion ein und unterstützt deutschlandweit bäuerliche Betriebe. Am 18. Januar 2020 haben Forscher*innen der Freien Universität Berlin in Kooperation mit dem Institut für Protest- und Bewegungsforschung eine umfassende Befragung der Beteiligten der Wir haben es satt!-Demonstration durchgeführt. Die so gewonnenen Daten geben Aufschluss darüber, wer die Demonstrant*innen waren, was ihre Anliegen und politischen Haltungen sind und, nicht zuletzt, wie sie durch ihr eigenes Verhalten in Konsum und Lebensführung eine andere Landwirtschaft unterstützen. Ein Großteil der Befragten der Wir haben es satt!-Demonstration identifizierte sich als weiblich und ordnete sich politisch als links der Mitte ein. Ältere Kohorten waren insgesamt etwas stärker vertreten. Wie bei vielen Protesten in Deutschland stellen die Befragten einen spezifischen sozio-ökonomischen Ausschnitt der Bevölkerung dar: zwei Drittel geben an, einen Universitätsabschluss zu haben, die meisten verfügen über ein mittleres bis hohes Einkommen. Vor allem waren die Demonstrant*innen stark politisch engagiert; viele von ihnen sind Mitglieder in politischen Organisationen, sehr erfahrene Demonstrant*innen und vertraut mit den gesellschaftspolitischen Kämpfen zu Klima- und Umweltpolitik. Für weniger als zwei Prozent war dies die erste Demonstration überhaupt. Da es bei der Demonstrationsbefragung nicht möglich war, auch den an die Wir haben es satt!-Demonstration angegliederten Traktoren-Umzug fußläufig zu befragen, handelt es sich zudem bei den Teilnehmer*innen der Befragung vor allem um Konsument* innen. Nur sehr wenige der Befragten produzieren selbst Lebensmittel zu kommerziellen Zwecken. Diese spezifische Gesellschaftsgruppe kann als ernährungsbewusst bezeichnet werden. Sie trifft ethische Kaufentscheidungen und hat ein großes Interesse daran hat, die eigenen Anliegen zu äußern.

Esta publicação analisa os efeitos da pandemia da Covid-19 sobre a alimentação da população brasileira, com relação à situação de segurança alimentar e ao consumo de alimentos. Os dados analisados aqui foram coletados por meio de uma pesquisa de opinião pública realizada entre os meses de novembro e dezembro de 2020, por meio de coleta telefônica, junto à amostra representativa da população brasileira. Esta pesquisa foi coordenada pelo Grupo de Pesquisa Alimento para Justiça: Poder, Política e Desigualdades Alimentares na Bioeconomia, da Freie Universität Berlin (Alemanha), em parceria com pesquisadoras/es da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) e Universidade de Brasília (UnB). Os resultados demonstram que 59% dos domicílios entrevistados estavam em situação de insegurança alimentar durante a pandemia e parte significativa deles diminuiu o consumo de alimentos importantes para a dieta regular da população - 44% reduziram o consumo de carnes e 41% o consumo de frutas. Assim, os dados coletados corroboram informações anteriores da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílio que indicavam o aumento da insegurança alimentar no Brasil nos anos de 2017/2018 em relação aos padrões anteriores, de 2013. Conclui-se que as instabilidades socioeconômicas geradas pelas crises política e econômica vividas nos últimos anos no país agravaram-se com a pandemia da Covid-19, acentuando as desigualdades alimentares entre uma parcela da população brasileira, sobretudo, quanto ao acesso a alimentos de forma regular e em quantidade e qualidade satisfatórias.

The Junior Research Group Food for Justice examines normative questions of inequalities, justice, and democracy that arise in disputes surrounding the question “how are we going to feed the world?”. Increasingly, citizens perceive the global food system as part of the historical causes of the ecological crisis and persisting hunger in the world. Although the reasons for these causal links have long been known (the use of food for profit, the gap between production and consumption, conflicts over land and water, exploitative labour relations, the energy matrix and waste generation, among others), research on food security and the bioeconomy tend to rely on the same solutions i.e searching for technological fixes toward a profit-oriented model that exploits living matter. What is needed in order to complexify the debate and contribute to socio-environmental transformation is more knowledge about which food system citizens desire, which alternative knowledges and technologies already successfully handle such claims for justice within food politics, and how to redirect public policies towards a democratic, ecological and just food system. Combining theoretical perspectives on global entangled inequalities with social movement research, Food for Justice looks at challenges and solutions both in Europe (focusing on Germany) and in Latin America (focusing on Brazil). The research consists, on one hand, of case studies of social mobilization targeting injustices in the food system and, on the other, case studies of alternative food initiatives, knowledges and technologies, such as agroecology and alternative food networks. Food for Justice aims at providing a theoretical and conceptual framework – grounded on empirical research – to analyse social and political projects that address inequalities based on class, gender, race, ethnicity, rurality, citizenship, and categorical divisions between humans and more-than-humans, thus building democratic, ecological and just food politics.