Food & Justice Publications

Food and Climate Justice Publications

Christopher Bacon has helped to develop the field of agroecology, including describing the role of participatory action research in helping farmers to develop a more sustainable and just global agrifood system.

Bacon, C. M., & Gliessman, S. R. (2026). Food systems and COP 30: Backsliding and bright spots in Belém. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 50(3), 451–456.

Bacon, C. M., & Gliessman, S. R. (2024). Food Systems and climate crisis on the table at the COP 28 negotiations, but substantive change is off the menu thus far. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 1-5.

Bacon, C.M., Flores Gomez, M. E., Shin, V., Ballardo, G., Kriese, S., McCurry, E., Martinez, E., & Rivas, M. (2023). Beyond the bean: Analyzing diversified farming in relation to food security, dietary diversity, and gender in Nicaragua’s smallholders coffee cooperatives. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 47(4), 579-620. 

Guzmán Luna, A., Bacon, C. M., Méndez, V. E., Flores Gómez, M. E., Anderzén, J., Giménez Cacho, J. M. T., Hernández Jonapá, R., Rivas, M., Duarte Canales, H. A.,  & Benavides González, A. N. (2022). Toward food sovereignty: Transformative agroecology and participatory action research with coffee smallholder cooperatives in Mexico and Nicaragua. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 6, 810840.

Bacon, C. M. (2021/2022). Agroecology and Participatory Action Research for Food and Water Justice in Central America. Promotio Iustitiae, 132, 48-54.

Méndez, V. E., Bacon, C. M., Cohen, R., & Gliessman, S. R. (Eds) (2015). Agroecology: A transdisciplinary, participatory, and action-oriented approach. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Chappell M.J., H. Wittman, C.M. Bacon, B.G. Ferguson, L. García-Barrios, R. García-Barrios, D. Jaffee, J. Lima, V.E. Méndez, H. Morales, L. Soto-Pinto, J. Vandermeer & I. Perfecto (2013). Food sovereignty: An alternative paradigm for poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation in Latin America. F1000Research, 2:235. 

Kremen, C. Iles, A. and C.M. Bacon (Eds) (2012). Diversified farming systems: An agroecological, systems-based alternative to modern industrial agriculture. Ecology and Society 17(4): 44.  

Bacon, C. M., Méndez, V. E., Gliessman, S. R., Goodman,  D., & Fox, J. A. (Eds.) (2008). Confronting the coffee crisis: Fairtrade, sustainable livelihoods and ecosystems in Mexico and Central America. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Bacon, C., Méndez, V.E., & Brown, M. (2005) Participatory action research and support for community development and conservation: Examples from shade coffee landscapes of El Salvador and Nicaragua.  Santa Cruz, CA: Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS), University of California. Santa Cruz.

Gliessman, S. R., Guadarrama-Zugasti, C., Mendez, V. E., Trujillo, L., Bacon, C., & Cohen, R. (2004). Agroecología: Un enfoque sustentable de la agricultura ecológica. Sevilla, Spain: Universidad Internacional de Andalucia.

Christopher Bacon, Iris Stewart-Frey, Ed Maurer, William Sundstrom, and colleagues from the US and Central America have coordinated several community-based action research projects to analyze strategies that small-scale farmers could use to eliminate hunger and improve access to safe water as they face climate change and other hazards. Funding is from the National Science Foundation and the Agropolis Foundation.  

Bacon, C.M., L. C. Kelley, and I. T. Stewart. (2022). Toward a feminist political ecology of household food and water security during drought in northern Nicaragua. Ecology and Society 27(1):16.

Bacon, C. M., Sundstrom, W. A., Stewart, I. T., Maurer, E., & Kelley, L. C. (2021). Towards smallholder food and water security: Climate variability in the context of multiple livelihood hazards in Nicaragua. World Development, 143, 105468.

Bacon, C. M., Sundstrom, W. A., Stewart, I. T., & Beezer, D. (2017). Vulnerability to cumulative hazards: Coping with the coffee leaf rust outbreak, drought, and food insecurity in Nicaragua. World Development, 93, 136-152.

Bacon, C. M., Sundstrom, W. A., Gómez, M. E. F., Méndez, V. E., Santos, R., Goldoftas, B., & Dougherty, I. (2014). Explaining the ‘hungry farmer paradox’: Smallholders and fair trade cooperatives navigate seasonality and change in Nicaragua's corn and coffee markets. Global Environmental Change, 25, 133-149. 

Maurer, E. P., Roby, N., Stewart-Frey, I. T., & Bacon, C. M. (2017). Projected twenty-first-century changes in the Central American mid-summer drought using statistically downscaled climate projections. Regional Environmental Change, 17(8), 2421-2432.

Bacon, C.M., L. C. Kelley, and I. T. Stewart. (2022). Toward a feminist political ecology of household food and water security during drought in northern Nicaragua. Ecology and Society 27(1):16. 

Bacon, C.M. Sundstrom, W. Stewart, IT., Maurer, E. and Kelley, L. (2021). Towards Smallholder Food and Water Security: Climate Variability in the Context of Multiple Livelihood Hazards in Nicaragua. World Development.143, 105468.

Christopher Bacon has conducted extensive community-based participatory research on fair trade coffee certifications and their implications for smallholder farmers in Latin America.

Bacon, C. M. (2015). Food sovereignty, food security and fair trade: The case of an influential Nicaraguan smallholder cooperative. Third World Quarterly, 36(3), 469-488.

Bacon, C. M., Rice, R. A., & Maryanski, H. (2015). Fair trade coffee and environmental sustainability in Latin AmericaFair trade coffee and environmental sustainability in Latin America. In L. T. Raynolds & E. A. Bennett, Handbook of Research on Fair Trade (pp. 388-404). Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Bacon, C.M. (2010). Who decides what is fair in Fair Trade: Agri-environmental governance of standards, access and price. Journal of Peasant Studies 37(1): 111–147.

Méndez, V. E., Bacon, C. M., Olson, M., Stillings, K. S., & Shattuck, A. K. (2010). Agrobiodiversity conservation and shade coffee smallholder livelihoods in Central America.  Professional Geographer. 62(3): 357–376. 

Méndez, V. E., Bacon, C. M., Olson, M., Petchers, S., Herrador, D., Carranza, C., ... & Mendoza, A. (2010). Effects of Fair Trade and organic certifications on small-scale coffee farmer households in Central America and Mexico. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, 25(3), 236-251.

Bacon, C. M., Ernesto Mendez, V., Gómez, M. E. F., Stuart, D., & Flores, S. R. D. (2008). Are sustainable coffee certifications enough to secure farmer livelihoods? The Millennium Development Goals and Nicaragua's Fair Trade cooperatives. Globalizations, 5(2), 259-274.

Bacon, C. (2005). Confronting the coffee crisis: Can fair trade, organic, and specialty coffees reduce small-scale farmer vulnerability in northern Nicaragua? World Development, 33(3), 497-511.

Rhiney, K., Guido, Z., Knudson, C., Avelino, J., Bacon, C. M., Leclerc, G., Aime, M.A. Bebber, D. P. (2021). Epidemics and the future of coffee production. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(27)

Kelley, L.C., Pitcher, L. and Bacon, C.M., (2018). Using Google Earth Engine to Map Complex Shade-Grown Coffee Landscapes in Northern Nicaragua. Remote Sensing, 10(6).

Christopher Bacon and Gregory Baker published the first study that maps private food assistance from soup kitchens and food pantries to community needs.

Chen, S., Vollmer, L., Sotnik, G., Diekmann, L., & Bacon, C. (2025). Advancing local food systems despite deep federal budget cuts: An example from Silicon Valley, California, USA. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 15(1), 103–108.

Bacon, C., Gleicher, A., McCurry, E., & McNeil, C. (2024). Toward a justice approach to emergency food assistance and food waste: Exploring pantry–urban gardener partnerships in California’s Santa Clara County. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 13(3), 1-22.

Amore Rojas, A., Pugh, M., Svendahl, E., Holland, J, Duffy, K., Felix, P,Key, T., Wood, K., & Bacon, C.M. (2023). The 3rd Annual Assessment of Food Security and Basic Needs at Santa Clara University 2022-2023. Report. The Agroecology, Climate Resilience, and Food Justice Lab. Santa Clara University.

Bacon, C. M., & Baker, G. A. (2017). The rise of food banks and the challenge of matching food assistance with potential need: Towards a spatially specific, rapid assessment approach. Agriculture and Human Values, 34(4), 899-919.

Iris Stewart-Frey has examined disparities in school gardens. 

Stewart, I. T., Purner, E. K., & Guzmán, P. D. (2013). Socioeconomic disparities in the provision of school gardens in Santa Clara County, California. Children Youth and Environments, 23(2), 127-153.