Black, White, and Green, a new book released by the UGA Press, explores the dimensions of race and class as they relate to farmers markets and the green economy.
With a focus on two Bay Area markets in California-one in the primarily white neighborhood of North Berkeley, and the other in largely black West Oakland-Alison Hope Alkon investigates the possibilities for social and environmental change embodied by farmers markets and the green economy.
Drawing on ethnographic and historical sources, Alkon, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of the Pacific, describes the meanings that farmers market managers, vendors and consumers attribute to the buying and selling of local organic food.
She mobilizes this research to understand how the green economy fosters visions of social change that are compatible with economic growth while marginalizing those that are not.
