Kelmenson Sophie
Department of City and Regional Planning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, New East Building, CB3140, Chapel Hill, NC 27599 USA.
Agric Human Values. 2023;40(1):317-358. doi: 10.1007/s10460-022-10362-x. Epub 2022 Oct 21.
Advocates for structural change in the food system see opportunity in alternative food systems (AFS) to bolster sustainability and equity. Indeed, any alternative to industrial labor practices is assumed to be better. However, little is known about what types of jobs are building AFS or job quality. Failing to understand job quality in AFS risks building a sustainable but exploitative industry. Using a unique and large data set on job openings in AFS, this paper narrows this gap by providing an assessment of labor demand and job quality for AFS in the United States between 2010 and 2019. Job advertisements are matched to 2018 Standard Occupation Codes to characterize work. Wages are compared to living wage standards and median incomes by occupation and local labor market. Considering living wage tests and local labor market competitiveness together, the potential for high job quality in AFS is mixed. Optimistically, higher prices in occupation that are close to consumers and experiencing significant labor demand, like food service and sales, saw more competitive wages. However, these roles frequently failed to offer living wages. Farm work occupations underperformed compared to local labor markets. In addition, uncompetitive senior-level jobs may indicate low-quality career pathways for leadership roles charting paths forward in AFS. These results suggest more institutional action are necessary to enhance labor quality within these spaces and more broadly across the food system. These results also raise questions about who is able to participate in AFS development and whether barriers to participate may replicate equity blind spots.
食品系统结构变革的倡导者们认为，替代食品系统（AFS）有机会促进可持续性和公平性。事实上，人们认为任何替代工业劳动实践的方式都会更好。然而，对于构建替代食品系统的工作类型以及工作质量，我们却知之甚少。如果不了解替代食品系统中的工作质量，就有可能建立起一个可持续但却存在剥削性的行业。本文利用一个关于替代食品系统职位空缺的独特且庞大的数据集，通过对2010年至2019年美国替代食品系统的劳动力需求和工作质量进行评估，缩小了这一差距。将招聘广告与2018年标准职业代码进行匹配，以描述工作性质。将工资与生活工资标准以及按职业和当地劳动力市场划分的中位数收入进行比较。综合考虑生活工资测试和当地劳动力市场竞争力，替代食品系统中高质量工作的潜力参差不齐。乐观地看，与消费者距离较近且劳动力需求旺盛的职业，如食品服务和销售行业，工资更具竞争力。然而，这些职位往往无法提供维持生计的工资。与当地劳动力市场相比，农场工作职业表现欠佳。此外，缺乏竞争力的高级职位可能表明，在替代食品系统中引领前进道路的领导角色的职业发展路径质量较低。这些结果表明，需要采取更多的制度行动来提高这些领域以及更广泛的食品系统中的劳动力质量。这些结果还引发了一些问题，比如谁有能力参与替代食品系统的发展，以及参与的障碍是否会重现公平盲点。
