Food in a Just World with Tracey Harris and Terry L. Gibbs

CBU professors, Tracey Harris and Terry Gibbs, colleagues and friends, are excited to launch their first book together, Food in a Just World: Compassionate Eating in a Time of Climate Change. Neither being originally from Cape Breton, Tracey came to the University in 1999, and Terry shortly after in 2004. After working together for nearly 20 years, Tracey and Terry found themselves inspired to collaborate on a book that allowed them to share their passion with the world.

Food in a Just World was released on February 15, and examines the violence, social breakdown and environmental consequences of our global system of food production, distribution and consumption. “While emphasizing the urgent need for change, the book points the way to building resilient communities and a more compassionate society,” says Tracey. To bring the book to life, Tracey and Terry interviewed 28 advocates, activists, researchers, workers and policy makers who helped them explore the politics of food in the context of capitalist globalization and the climate crisis.

Both Tracey, an Associate Professor of Sociology, and Terry, a Professor of International Politics, had been conducting research around the broad themes of global citizenship, climate change, and building resilient and compassionate communities. In 2021, Tracey found herself diving into a project focused on the consequences of COVID-19 on the animal-intensive food system. It was while telling her colleague, Terry, about this project that the pair realized their desire to work on something together.

From there, Tracey got in touch with her publisher at Polity Books and before long Terry and Tracey were expanding the former project as co-authors and began diving into the expansive research required. “In the book, we sought to give equal space to workers in this system, consumers, other animals and the natural world,” says Terry. “The amount of research we had to familiarize ourselves with was enormous.”

It wasn’t just the research that proved challenging for Tracey and Terry; finding ways to cope with the emotionally challenging topics they had to discuss didn’t always come easily. “An often-overlooked challenge of this type of intersectional research is the emotional labor of researching and writing about difficult issues such as climate disaster, inequality, violence against humans and other animals, crises and so on,” shares Terry. “The big picture of climate change and the very devastating scientific analyses we were coming across were at times very depressing.” Tracey and Terry say there were times during the project that they really struggled with the weight of what they were learning and making sure they were honoring those experiences appropriately in their work. Tracey and Terry say they were thankful to have one another to lean on during the difficult times. “It was really helpful that we have worked on other projects together in the past and that we’re very good friends,” Tracey says. “Being able to share our thoughts and feelings and helping each other navigate them was a very rich experience.”

Now that the book has been released, Tracey and Terry hope it will provide a solid framework for understanding the various social justice issues that affect both human and nonhuman animals and that intersect with food justice in the context of climate change. They have positioned the question of food within a broader framework of interwoven issues such as colonialism, poverty, inequality, housing, healthcare, well-being and the rights of workers and other animals.

“We hope the book inspires people to see that they have the capacity to work for a better world no matter where they find themselves,” Terry says. “In highlighting the hopeful stories of people around the world working for change, our book is also a celebration of the human spirit and our potential to live in peace and ecological harmony on this planet.”

Tracey and Terry will be holding an event at On Paper Books on April 11th, at 6:30pm and invite members of the community to come out and learn more about the book. Those interested in attending can RSVP by contacting tracey_harris@cbu.ca or terry_gibbs@cbu.ca.