Royal Geographical Society - Geography resources for teachers

David is Professor of Environmental Politics and co-director of the Sydney Environment Institute, and is interested in the environment, climate justice and the theory, tactics and organisation of justice movements. Luke is a PhD student exploring how to make food systems more socially justice and environmentally sustainable. They are based the University of Sydney.

What does environmental justice mean and how do we define it? In this RGS-IBG podcast we spoke to David and Luke about their research into environmental justice, sustainable food communities and the motivations behind social movements that seek to challenge existing political system in pursuit of food justice.

Key words

Social justice
Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society.

Food systems
The food system includes all those activities involving the production, processing, transport and consumption of food – including the governance and economics of these processes and its relation to the natural environment.

Lesson Ideas

Students should research statistics about food inequality in the UK context. In groups, prepare an infographic to display these facts. In doing so, consider, which organisations and movements are trying to facilitate a fairer system?

Outlining a daily diary, students should examine the different food systems they have engaged with that week and think about the spaces they use to access that food. This should encourage students to think about how their everyday, local behaviour is part of a broader food system.