The Importance of Political Pragmatism in Food Democracy Politics

This presentation provides an overview of political pragmatism and its significance in the transformation to food democracy. It begins by defining political pragmatism as an American philosophy that focuses on facts and reality rather than theory and ideology. The presentation contrasts idealism with pragmatism in politics, highlighting the pragmatic leader's focus on practical solutions. It then introduces the concept of food democracy, emphasizing the right to safe and nutritious food and the involvement of ordinary people in establishing rules for safeguarding resources. The core argument is that pragmatism is essential for achieving sustainability and that a pragmatic approach with the right skills can provide a transformative path towards food democracy. The presentation concludes that food democracy, embracing political pragmatism, can be a method for making choices when values conflict and consequences are uncertain, ultimately transforming societal practices and values. The presentation cites several works to support its claims.

POLITICAL PRAGMATISM
- A brief presentation on its importance in the politics of
transformation to food democracy.

INTRODUCTION TO THE POLITICAL
PRAGMATISM
 Tocqueville during his American journey, observed political
pragmatism, which is an American philosophy.
 Instead of focusing on the theory and ideology, it focuses on the
fact as well as the reality.
 It is a logical and at the same time, reasonable way of thinking
about any problem or doing action based on the situation and not
on the theory or ideology (Good et al. 2017).

IDEALISM VS. PRAGMATISM IN
POLITICS
 There is a difference between idealism and pragmatism.
 The leader of pragmatism, focus on the practical and whereas,
focus of idealist leaders is on the theory and visionary.
 In order to get the end result, pragmatic leaders view the
entire picture as it is a linear approach of thinking and taking
action (Hassanein 2012).

WHAT IS FOOD DEMOCRACY
 Food democracy emphasizes the right of human being in
getting safe as well as nutritious food.
 It is an idea of gaining the momentum across the communities
of all over the world.
 In this way, ordinary people are in action of establishing the
rules which will encourage the safeguarding of water, soil and
ecosystem (Levkoe 2014).

IMPORTANCE IN THE POLITICS OF
TRANSFORMATION TO FOOD
DEMOCRACY
 In order to achieve the sustainability, food democracy is necessary.
 Pragmatism is considered as the center of democratic politics.
 For a transformation to food democracy, a pragmatic approach with
right skill and ingredients provides a transformative path.
 In order to acquire the incremental change embracing the pragmatic
approach is affirmative as it supports with practical alternatives
(Scherb et al. 2016).

CONCLUSION FROM THE FINDINGS
 When values come into conflict, and when consequences of
any decisions are not certain, in that case food democracy can
be a method for making choice by embracing political
pragmatism.
 Establishing a strong food democracy, it is possible to
transform the societal practices as well as values because it
contains political pragmatic approach (Scherb et al. 2016).

WORKS CITED
Good, R.M., Rivero, J.J., Zitcer, A., Umemoto, K., Lake, R.W., Baum, H., Forester, J. and Harrison, P., 2017. Confronting
the challenge of humanist planning/Towards a humanist planning/A humanist perspective on knowledge for planning:
implications for theory, research, and practice/To learn to plan, write stories/Three practices of humanism and critical
pragmatism/Humanism or beyond?. Planning Theory & Practice, 18(2), pp.291-319.
Hassanein, N., 2012. Practicing food democracy: a pragmatic politics of transformation. Taking food public. Redefining
foodways in a changing world, pp.461-474.
Levkoe, C.Z., 2014. The food movement in Canada: A social movement network perspective. Journal of Peasant
Studies, 41(3), pp.385-403.
Scherb, A., Palmer, A., Frattaroli, S. and Pollack, K., 2016. Exploring food system policy: A survey of food policy
councils in the United States. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2(4), pp.3-14.