We Are Fed up: Politico-Ecological Coalitions for Food

The paper aims to understand about the power of food to intermediate new alliances between consumer groups, environmentalists, farmers, youth movements and development aid in the German campaign Meine Landwirtschaft (My agriculture) since 2011. In dialogue with theories of gender and environment and feminist political economy, we suggest the concept of postcapitalist political-ecological coalitions to analyse the role of animals to bridge the consumer-producer divide in demonstration Wir haben es satt (We are fed up) that the campaign organizes annually in Berlin. Based on a rich description of the march, on a qualitative analysis of text and images, and interviews with the leaders of the organizations behind the campaign, we argue that the animals have been engaged in this political-ecological coalition – not without conflict – due to the power ascribed to them in articulating various forms of injustice present at the agrofood industrial model, crossing identity, categorical, geographical and spatial borders. We also assess the limits and possibilities of electing this topic to create solidarities between consumers and producers and beyond.