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.These are precisely the kinds of groups haveless ability to claim and provide resources in university programs, based ontheir limited resources and degree of cultural connections.This has impli-cations for who are considered legitimate audiences of these programs andwhich kinds of research agendas are likely to be funded.Stevenson and oth-ers (1994) also suggest that research projects include representatives oforganizations such as labor unions and citizens groups in the communityof researchers.This would also be a way to foster deeper connectionsamong practitioners, academics, and activists.These kinds of connectionshave always been a part of alternative agrifood movements, although therehas at times been a disdain for the ivory tower. Nonetheless, those who are in professional functions as intellectuals canand do play important roles in social movements by helping to articulateconcerns and placing them in broader frameworks, which can lend socialactions deeper meaning or significance (Eyerman and Jamison 1991).Broader frameworks can be kept at the forefront by organic intellectu-als, a concept developed by Antonio Gramsci, while he was imprisoned inItaly during the fascist era.Gramsci did not mean intellectual in an elitistsense, but rather counterposed traditional and organic intellectuals, theformer being those who maintain the status quo and the latter those who 216 Together at the Tablechallenge it.At the time of his writing, intellectuals were considered theenemies of the people.Gramsci s intent was to point out that the relevantdistinction is not between intellectual and nonintellectual, but the purposefor which intellect is used.The organic intellectual is not necessarily a per-son; it can be a collective body that is able to articulate concepts and pri-orities of movements for social change.Organic intellectuals work towardforms of collective action that can bring into being a worldview that canhelp toward transformation of the structures that keep some people mar-ginalized.The job of organic intellectuals is to study and frame social prob-lems and put them in historical and political economic context.Perhapsthese kinds of topics can be addressed through a virtual or face-to-face sum-mit on sustainability and sustenance that would convene the differentgroups that constitute the American alternative agrifood movement.Alternative agrifood institutions and movements are crucial to the futureof humankind.As the twenty-first century begins, it is clear that we needfundamental change in the global food and agriculture system.Currentconditions in food and agriculture evidenced by deteriorating environ-mental, economic, and social circumstances create the material need forand possibility of social transformation as embodied within alternative agri-food movements.Developing a food movement that works toward socialand environmental justice requires developing a coherent vision thatencompasses an understanding of the contradictions of the current systemand includes all relevant constituencies in the movement.Alternative agri-food movements need to explicitly and critically address questions of whois included, who is left out, which problems are worthy of consideration,and which methods are appropriate in seeking solutions.Given the cen-trality of food for human existence, efforts to achieve sustainability andsecure sustenance for everyone has to be comprehensive simultaneouslyscientific and political, natural and social, based upon coherent theories andpolitically effective actions.In the present moment, alternative agrifood movements are capable ofbecoming truly democratic and transformative, closing the gap between rhet-oric and reality, principles and practice.Achieving agricultural sustainabilityand food security requires both the development of alternative practice anda political struggle over rights, justice, and equity.For Flacks (1995), the fateof democracy and the chances for social justice will depend on the capacityof social movements to take responsibility for the future
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