The objective of this project is to explore food as “contested terrain” (Brisman 2008) within the Canadian federal prison system. Specifically, it will (1) map the key actors and relationships implicated in carceral food systems and (2) to analyze particular moments and sites where food has been taken up as a tool to contest the treatment of prisoners and articulate alternative possibilities.

Carceral food systems is a term used to encompass the various relationships, activities and actors involved in food provisioning within prisons.  By gaining a better understanding of the actors, relationships and activities bound up in the provisioning of food in prisons, this project will identify points of tension and possibility through which to articulate a transformative food justice. In doing so, it will answer the central question: How is food used as a tool of contestation, and a lens through which to imagine and enact transformative food justice?