Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern

• 2024 Fall
  • FST 303 Food Movements
  • FST 997 Masters Thesis
  • FST 310 Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern is a human geographer and food systems scholar. She is an associate professor of geography and the environment and graduate director of food studies at Syracuse University.

Minkoff-Zern’s research and teaching broadly explores the interactions between food and racial justice, labor movements, and transnational environmental and agricultural policy. Her forthcoming book “Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain” (UC Press), looks at labor across food sectors, exploring at the intersections between social movements in United States food systems and labor organizing.

In addition to her first monograph, “The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability” (MIT Press, 2019), she has also published in journals such as Geoforum, Human Geography, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Food, Culture, and Society, Antipode, Agriculture and Human Values, and Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, among others.

Minkoff-Zern earned a Ph.D. in geography from the University of California, Berkeley.  

"Enhancing Interagency Collaborations And Food System Resiliency", Sponsored by National Institute of Food and Agriculture/USDA.

"Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Thought Leadership Partnership with Syracuse University's Lender Center", Sponsored by MetLife Foundation.

"Mental Health, Economic Well-Being, and Experiences of Farming in Resettled Refugees in Syracuse, NY", Sponsored by Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation.

"The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race and the Struggle for Sustainability", Sponsored by Association of American Geographers.

• Books
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability. M.I.T. Press, 2019.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., The New American Farmer: Race, Immigration, and the Struggle for Sustainability. The MIT Press, 2019.
• Journal Articles
  • Mares, T. M., Minkoff-Zern, L., "The essential work of feeding others: connecting food labor in public and private spaces." Agriculture and Human Values, 2024.
  • Gangamma, R., Walia, B., Minkoff-Zern, L. and Tor, S., "Role of Gardening in Mental Health, Food Security, and Economic Well-Being in Resettled Refugees: A Mixed Methods Study." Journal on Migration and Human Security, 2024.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Walia, B., Gangamma, R. and Zoodsma, A., "Food sovereignty and displacement: gardening for food, mental health, and community connection." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2024.
  • Dudley, M. J., Minkoff-Zern, L., Tynan, M. and Zoodsma, A., "Thinking across agrarian class hierarchies in guest worker programs: Limitations to worker and farmer collective strategies." Human Geography, 2024.
  • Dudley, M., Minkoff-Zern, L., Tynan, M. and Zoodsma, A., "Agrarian Hierarchies in Guest Worker Programs: Temporal and Spatial Limitations to Worker and Farmer Coping Strategies." Human Geography, 2024.
  • Goldberg, H., Minkoff-Zern, L., "Teaching labor in food studies: challenging consumer-based approaches to social change through student research community partnerships." Food, Culture & Society, 2022.
  • Zoodsma, A., Dudley, M. J. and Minkoff-Zern, L., "National food security, immigration reform, and the importance of worker engagement in agricultural guestworker debates." Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2022.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Dudley, M., Zoodsma, A., Walia, B. and Welsh, R., "Protracted dependence and unstable relations: Agrarian questions in the H-2A visa program1." Journal of Rural Studies, 2022.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Bellows, A., Welsh, R. and Kiernan, M., "In Remembrance of Our Colleague Evan Weissman: Scholar, Community Leader, Mentor, and Friend." Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2021.
  • Weiler, A. M., Sexsmith, K. and Minkoff-Zern, L., "Parallel Precarity: A Comparison of U.S. and Canadian Agricultural Guest Worker Programs." International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 2021.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Welsh, R. and Ludden, M. T., "Immigrant Farmers, Sustainable Practices: Growing Ecological and Racial Diversity in Alternative Agrifood Spaces." Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2020.
  • Sbicca, J., Minkoff-Zern, L. and Coopwood, S., "“Because they are connected”: Linking structural inequalities in farmworker organizing." Human Geography, 2020.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Welsh, R. and Ludden, M. T., "Immigrant farmers, sustainable practices: growing ecological and racial diversity in alternative agrifood spaces." Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2020.
• Book Chapters
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Sloat, S., "Labor and Legibility: Mexican Immigrant Farmers and Resource Access at the United States Department of Agriculture." In The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America. Agyeman, J., Giacalone, S. (eds.) M.I.T. Press, 2020.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Crossing Borders, Overcoming Boundaries: Latino Immigrant Farmers and a New Sense of Home in the United States." In Food Across Borders: Production, Consumption and Boundary Crossing in North America. Dupuis, M., Mitchell, D. and Garcia, M. (eds.) Rutgers University Press, 2017.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Farmworker-Led Food Movements Then and Now: The United Farmworkers, The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Potential for Farm Labor Justice." In The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action. Alkon, A., Guthman, J. (eds.) University of California Press, 2017.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Farmworker-Led Food Movements Then and Now." In New Food Activism. University of California Press, 2017.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Peluso, N., Sowerwine, J. and Getz, C., "Race and Regulation: Asian Immigrants in California Agriculture." In Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class and Sustainability. The MIT Press, 2011.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Agribusiness." In Green Food, An A-to-Z Guide. Mulvaney, D. J., Robbins, P. (eds.) Sage Publications, 2010.
• Book Reviews
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Wilted: Pathogens, Chemicals, and the Fragile Future of the Strawberry Industry." Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, 2020.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Free Food For All: Fixing School Food In America." Food and Foodways, 2013.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States." Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 2013.
• Editorials
  • Bellows, A., Welsh, R., Weissman, E., Kiernan, M., Brann, L., Bruening, K., Beckwith, N. M., Charles, C., Johnson, E., Minkoff-Zern, L., Horacek, T., Raj, S., Redmond, J., Rindfuss, N., Uzcategui, J., Voss, M. and Wilkins, J., From farm to factory to table, coronavirus pandemic challenges US food system. , 2020.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Levkoe, C., Sant, L., Johnson, L., Sbicca, J., Gallaher, C., Hammelman, C., Block, D. and Hedberg, R., "Uncertain Future for U.S. Food System." Op. Ed. Finger Lakes Times, 2017.
• Policy Brief
  • Luxton, I., Minkoff-Zern, L., "The Meatpacking Industry Needs Stronger Worker Protections and Enhanced Oversight.”." Policy Brief Series, 2024.
• Policy Report
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Robinson, J. A. and Sarfo, , F., Food Policy Councils and Food Chain Labor: Setting the Table for Labor Justice. Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, 2024.
• Reference Entry
  • Mares, T., Minkoff-Zern, L., "Worker-Driven Social Responsibility in the Food System." In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Food Studies. Oxford University Press, 2024.
• Research Brief
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Gangamma, R., Walia, B. and Zoodsma, A., "Refugee Gardening: An Opportunity to Improve Economic Conditions, Food Security, and Mental Health." Population Health Research Brief Series, 2022.

Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, Food Policy Council Network, "Food Policy Councils and Food Chain Labor: Setting the Table for Labor Justice.” " (December, 2024)

The U.S. Farm Bill: What’s at Stake for Our Food Security, Farmers, and Environment?” , Center for Policy Research, The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University (October, 2024)

Joint Conference of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, "Automation, Labor, and a Just Agri-Food Future" (June, 2024)

Joint Conference of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, "Food Policy Councils and Frontline Food Workers: Opportunities and Challenges for Labor Advocacy" (June, 2024)

Joint Conference of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, "Practicing Food Studies: Established Experiences and Emerging Perspectives" (June, 2024)

Metlife Racial Wealth Gap Symposium, Lender Center for Social Justice, Syracuse University, "Food Policy Councils as a Vehicle to Address the Racial Wealth Gap in Food System Labor" (March, 2024)

LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History Big Book Forum: Awaiting Their Feast: Latinx Food Workers and Activism from World War II to Covid-19, LABOR: Studies in Working-Class History (2024)

American Association of Geographers (AAG) Fellowship, Early/Mid-Career Award, American Association of Geographers (AAG) (2024 - 2024)

Annual Book Award (for The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race and the Struggle for Sustainability), The Geographies of Food and Agriculture Specialty Group (GFASG) (2020 - 2020)