Entrepreneurial endeavors: (re)producing neoliberalization through urban agriculture youth programming in Brooklyn, New York

Driven by social and environmental criticism of the neoliberalization of agro-food systems, urban agriculture today enjoys renewed interest throughout the United States as a primary space to engage the politics of food. Using Brooklyn, New York as a case study, I employ mixed qualitative methods to investigate the contradictions that arise in tensions between the goals of urban agriculture and its practice. Education and youth development programming figure prominently in Brooklyn’s urban agriculture movement and provide insights into understanding the neoliberalization of food politics, especially an emphasis on market mechanisms as central to human well-being and the disciplining of youth in the skills and modes of conduct required by the neoliberal economy. Although current trends indicate that urban agriculture youth programming works to (re)produce neoliberalism and undercuts the political efficacy of Brooklyn’s urban agriculture, these projects simultaneously produce openings for building political solidarities.