Food Justice and Agriculture: introduction

International audienceThe renewal of the relations between urban and rural areas has been marked, in recent years, by the emergence of many initiatives for the solidarity of urban spaces or their reconnection with agricultural environments, via the food register (as found with local markets or agricultural shows for example). However, while agriculture has never been so widely talked about – urban and peri-urban agriculture in particular (Poulot, 2014, 2015) – a gap persists between some disadvantaged areas and agricultural spaces, even when these are close (Alkon and Agyeman, 2011; see also Beisher and Corbett in this issue). As a result, we wanted to focus on a notion which is rather well-established in Anglophone research but only emerging in Francophone research, that of food justice, as well as its links with agriculture. Consequently, this issue of JSSJ seeks firstly to increase our understanding of the notion of food justice, by placing relations with agriculture at the centre of its definition, and secondly to think about processes linked to agriculture and contributing to food justice. Is it because of its links with agriculture, and the potentially special place granted by it, that food justice differs from other endeavours to implement a more equitable food system? Considering the different approaches to food justice, we intend first of all to review the definition of food justice and its issues. The various articles will then identify which role gives the food justice movement to agriculture and on which spaces the notion focuses. Finally, suggesting that a more agri-food and spatial justice should be defended brings us to think about educational, empowerment and governance plans and their practical role in the construction of more equitable food systems