• 2024 Spring
  • FST 703 Transnational Food, Health and the Environment
• 2023 Fall
  • FST 601 Seminar in Food Studies and Systems
  • FST 310 Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain
• 2023 Spring
  • FST 307 Feeding the World: Global Agri-Food Governance
  • FST 997 Masters Thesis
• 2022 Fall
  • FST 997 Masters Thesis
  • FST 601 Seminar in Food Studies and Systems
  • FST 310 Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain
• 2022 Spring
  • FST 204 Food, Identity, and Power
  • FST 797 Practicum in Food Studies and Systems

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern is a human geographer and food systems scholar. She is an associate professor of geography and the environment and graduate director of food studies at Syracuse University.

Minkoff-Zern’s research and teaching broadly explores the interactions between food and racial justice, labor movements, and transnational environmental and agricultural policy. Her forthcoming book “Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain” (UC Press), looks at labor across food sectors, exploring at the intersections between social movements in United States food systems and labor organizing.

In addition to her first monograph, “The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability” (MIT Press, 2019), she has also published in journals such as Geoforum, Human Geography, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Food, Culture, and Society, Antipode, Agriculture and Human Values, and Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, among others.

Minkoff-Zern earned a Ph.D. in geography from the University of California, Berkeley.  

"Food Policy Councils as a Vehicle to Address the Racial Wealth Gap in Food System Labor:_Subproject for Institution # 33231", Sponsored by MetLife Foundation.

"Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food Chain", Sponsored by Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Engagement (SOURCE) Research Assistant Grant.

"Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Thought Leadership Partnership with Syracuse University's Lender Center", Sponsored by MetLife Foundation.

"Agricultural Guestworkers and the New Immigrant Economy", Sponsored by CUSE Grants - Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant.

"Mental Health, Economic Well-Being, and Experiences of Farming in Resettled Refugees in Syracuse, NY", Sponsored by Fahs-Beck Fund for Research and Experimentation.

Sponsored by Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Engagement (SOURCE) Research Assistant Grant.

• Book
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability. M.I.T. Press, 2019.
• Journal Articles
  • Dudley, M., Minkoff-Zern, L., Tynan, M. and Zoodsma, A., "Agrarian Hierarchies in Guest Worker Programs: Temporal and Spatial Limitations to Worker and Farmer Coping Strategies." Human Geography, 2024.
  • Mares, T., Minkoff-Zern, L., "The Essential Work of Feeding Others: Connecting Food Labor in Public and Private Spaces." Agriculture and Human Values, 2024.
  • Gangamma, R., Walia, B., Minkoff-Zern, L. and Tor, S., "Role of Gardening in Mental Health, Food Security, and Economic Well-being in Resettled Refugees: A Mixed Methods Study." Journal on Migration and Human Security, 2023.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Walia, B., Gangamma, R. and Zoodsma, A., "Food Sovereignty and Displacement: Gardening for Food, Mental Health, and Community Connection." Journal of Peasant Studies, 2023.
  • Zoodsma, A., Dudley, M. and Minkoff-Zern, L., "National food security, immigration reform, and the importance of worker engagement in agricultural guestworker debates." Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2022.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Dudley, M., Zoodsma, A., Walia, B. and Welsh, R., "Protracted Dependence and Unstable Relations: Agrarian Questions in the H-2A Visa Program." Journal of Rural Studies, 2022.
  • Goldberg, H., Minkoff-Zern, L., "Teaching labor in food studies: challenging consumer-based approaches to social change through student research community partnerships." Food, Culture & Society, 2022.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Bellows, A., Welsh, R. and Kiernan, M., "In Remembrance of Our Colleague Evan Weissman: Scholar, Community Leader, Mentor, and Friend." Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2021.
  • Weiler, A. M., Sexsmith, K. and Minkoff-Zern, L., "Parallel Precarity: A Comparison of U.S. and Canadian Agricultural Guest Worker Programs." International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 2021.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Welsh, R. and Ludden, M. T., "Immigrant Farmers, Sustainable Practices: Growing Ecological and Racial Diversity in Alternative Agrifood Spaces." Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 2020.
  • Sbicca, J., Minkoff-Zern, L. and Coopwood, S., "“Because they are connected”: Linking structural inequalities in farmworker organizing." Human Geography, 2020.
• Book Chapters
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Sloat, S., "Labor and Legibility: Mexican Immigrant Farmers and Resource Access at the United States Department of Agriculture." In The Immigrant-Food Nexus: Borders, Labor, and Identity in North America. Agyeman, J., Giacalone, S. (eds.) M.I.T. Press, 2020.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Crossing Borders, Overcoming Boundaries: Latino Immigrant Farmers and a New Sense of Home in the United States." In Food Across Borders: Production, Consumption and Boundary Crossing in North America. Dupuis, M., Mitchell, D. and Garcia, M. (eds.) Rutgers University Press, 2017.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Farmworker-Led Food Movements Then and Now: The United Farmworkers, The Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Potential for Farm Labor Justice." In The New Food Activism: Opposition, Cooperation, and Collective Action. Alkon, A., Guthman, J. (eds.) University of California Press, 2017.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Peluso, N., Sowerwine, J. and Getz, C., "Race and Regulation: Asian Immigrants in California Agriculture." In Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class and Sustainability. Alkon, A., Agyeman, J. (eds.) M.I.T. Press, 2011.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Agribusiness." In Green Food, An A-to-Z Guide. Mulvaney, D. J., Robbins, P. (eds.) Sage Publications, 2010.
• Book Reviews
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Wilted: Pathogens, Chemicals, and the Fragile Future of the Strawberry Industry." Gastronomica: The Journal for Food Studies, 2020.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Free Food For All: Fixing School Food In America." Food and Foodways, 2013.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States." Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography, 2013.
• Editorials
  • Bellows, A., Welsh, R., Weissman, E., Kiernan, M., Brann, L., Bruening, K., Beckwith, N. M., Charles, C., Johnson, E., Minkoff-Zern, L., Horacek, T., Raj, S., Redmond, J., Rindfuss, N., Uzcategui, J., Voss, M. and Wilkins, J., From farm to factory to table, coronavirus pandemic challenges US food system. , 2020.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Levkoe, C., Sant, L., Johnson, L., Sbicca, J., Gallaher, C., Hammelman, C., Block, D. and Hedberg, R., "Uncertain Future for U.S. Food System." Op. Ed. Finger Lakes Times, 2017.
• Magazine/Trade Publications
  • Meade, S., Minkoff-Zern, L., Market Offers Wealth of Tradition—and Veggies—for Immigrant Farmers and Shoppers. , 2013.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., "Care about Your Food? Then Care about Your Farmworkers Too." YES Magazine (Online), 2013.
• Research Brief
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Gangamma, R., Walia, B. and Zoodsma, A., "Refugee Gardening: An Opportunity to Improve Economic Conditions, Food Security, and Mental Health." Population Health Research Brief Series, 2022.
• Resource documents
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Land Ownership in Guatemala. , 2004.
  • Minkoff-Zern, L., Local and Alternative Practices for Soil Fertility in San Lucas Tolimán, Guatemala. , 2004.
• White Paper
  • Gillon, S., Minkoff-Zern, L. and Thistlethwaite, R., Grounding Ourselves: Innovative Land Tenure Models in California and Beyond. California Food and Justice Network Working Paper. Community Food Security Coalition, California Farmlink, 2007.

Lender Center for Social Justice Convening on Addressing the Racial Wealth Gap, National Press Club (October, 2023)

Workshop on Migrant Labour and Land, Production and Social Reproduction: Implications for Social Justice Movement and Struggles, College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD) China Agricultural University, Beijing, "The Value of Land in Cross Border Farming Communities: Land Ownership and Access Among Immigrant Workers and Farmers in the United States" (October, 2023)

Food Justice, Aesthetics, and Morality Workshop, Hamilton College, "A New Opening for Worker Justice in the Food System: Reconsidering Essential Work and Essential Workers" (September, 2023)

Migrants, Environmental Knowledge, and Consumer Society Symposium, German Historical Institute, The University of California, Berkeley, "Migration and Agrarian Knowledge: Farming Across Borders" (September, 2023)

Joint Conference of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, "A New Opening for Worker Justice in the Food System: Reconsidering Essential Work and Essential Workers" (June, 2023)

Joint Conference of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, "Agrarian Hierarchies in the H-2A Guestworker Program: Temporal and Spatial Limitations to Worker and farmer Coping Strategies" (June, 2023)

Joint Conference of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, "Can We Know Food Without Knowing Workers?" (June, 2023)

Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, "A New Opening for Worker Justice in the Food System: Reconsidering Essential Work and Essential Workers" (March, 2023)

Maxwell School, Syracuse University, "Essential: How the Pandemic Transformed the Long Fight for Worker Justice" (2023)

Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers (Virtual), "Cultivating Food Justice: Reflections and Visions 10 years On" (2022)

Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, "Food and Migration" (2022)

Joint Conference of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, "Protracted dependence and unstable relations: Agrarian questions in the H-2A visa program" (2022)

Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Virtual, "The Racialized Geographies of Pandemic Vulnerabilities" (2022)

Good Work for Good Food Conference (Virtual), Cardiff University, "A Food Systems Framework for Labor Justice" (2021)

American Association of Geographers, Virtual, "Author Meets Critics: The New American Farmer" (2021)

American Association of Geographers; Virtual, "Building a Radical Food Geography Praxis Panel Discussion" (2021)

Joint Conference of Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society, Virtual, New York University, "New Books in Critical Food Studies" (2021)

University of California, Berkeley (Virtual), "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2021)

Imagining Futures Speaker Series (Virtual), Common Ground Research Networks, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2021)

Plant it Forward (Virtual), "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2021)

The Hudson Valley Food System Coalition, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2021)

USDA Committee on Hispanic American Cultural Effort (HACE), (Virtual), "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2021)

Virtual Colloquium Series in Geography (Virtual), University of New Mexico Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and The Department of Geography, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2021)

Food Justice Symposium. Environmental Justice Lecture, SUNY-ESF (2020)

American Association of Geographers, "Refugee Gardening as Place Making: Reclaiming Food Sovereignty and Agrarian Identity in Central New York" (2020)

Brown University. Department of Environmental Studies, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2020)

Binghamton University, Sustainable Communities Transdisciplinary Area of Excellence Program, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2020)

The New School (New York City), (Virtual), "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2020)

Bennington College. Speaker Series on Migration and Displacement, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2020)

Department of Horticulture Seminar Series (Virtual), Cornell University, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2020)

M.E. John Seminar Series of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education (Virtual), Pennsylvania State University, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2020)

American Association of Geographers, "Global Migration, Labor, and Food Production: Agricultural Guestworkers Past and Present" (2019)

Association of American Anthropologists Annual Meeting, "Hungry for Change: Critical Interventions in Contemporary Food Studies" (2019)

Association of American Anthropologists Annual Meeting, "Immigrant Farmers, Sustainable Practices: Growing Ecological and Racial Diversity in Alternative Agrifood Spaces" (2019)

American Association of Geographers, "Parallel Precarity: A Comparison of United States and Canadian Agricultural Guestworker Programs" (2019)

Syracuse University. Maxwell School, "Public Diplomacy Symposium 2019: Gastrodiplomacy Panel" (2019)

University of British Columbia. Department of Land and Food Systems, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2019)

Middlebury College. Howard E. Woodin Environmental Studies Colloquium Series, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2019)

The Boston Book Festival, "The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability" (2019)

American Association of Geographers (AAG) Fellowship, Early/Mid-Career Award, American Association of Geographers (AAG) (2024 - 2024)

Annual Book Award (for The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race and the Struggle for Sustainability), The Geographies of Food and Agriculture Specialty Group (GFASG) (2020 - 2020)

Student Research Paper Award, Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society (2011)