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Josh Sbicca

@joshsbicca.bsky.social
2.2K followers 441 following 46 posts

Author | Dreamer | Builder Associate Professor of Sociology | Director of the Prison Agriculture Lab joshuasbicca.com | prisonagriculture.com

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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Prism @prismreports.org · 14/07/2026
‘We were literally slaves': Incarcerated men expose conditions at Arkansas prison & former plantation, @vevalenz.bsky.social reports. Prisons often frame agricultural labor as “rehabilitation,” but incarcerated people say their working conditions are dangerous & dehumanizing.
prismreports.org
Incarcerated men expose forced labor conditions at Arkansas prison
Prisons often frame agricultural forced labor as “rehabilitation,” but incarcerated people say their working conditions are dehumanizing
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Working in agricultural operations inside prison comes with a range of health risks. Across the country, prisoners are subject to extreme heat, air pollution, pesticide exposure, and toxic waste. Check out these case study reports from the Prison Agriculture Lab.
prisonagriculture.com
Environmental Burdens Case Studies
Working in agricultural operations inside prison comes with a range of health risks. Based on publicly available sources, such as government reports, media coverage, and investigations by advocacy …
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
there's an actual genre of analysis that acknowledges that for generations people used to buy and sell other humans, aided by a comprehensive system of apartheid that continued for generations later, but nevertheless blames the resurgence of open bigotry on a decade or so of cringe Tumblr posts
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Such trenchant analysis of the myth of feeding the world is needed now more than ever.
spectrejournal.com
The Enduring Fantasy of “Feeding the World” – Spectre Journal
Members of the Agroecology Research-Action Collective argue against the productivist logic underlying the "feed-the-world" approaches to feed security.
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
dr. thrasher, an american writer in ex(archia)(xile) @thrasherxy.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
RAGE THRAD: Our colleague, CSUCI prof. Jonathan Anthony Caravello, has been kidnapped! This vile framing @ktla.com is grotesque - He did not "throw a tear gas cannister" at police, he removed it from under someone in a wheelchair! ktla.com/news/local-n...
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Lots to consider on this question, both morally and legally. Thanks, @rebeccaflynn712.bsky.social
substack.com
Is U.S. Prison Labor Slavery
Today, nearly two million people are confined in various correctional facilities across the country, with about 800,000 engaged in prison labor, most of it compulsory.
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
The Real News Network @therealnews.com · 05/06/2025
“If you look at the history of agriculture in the United States, it’s built on dispossession, it’s built on enslavement,” says @joshsbicca.bsky.social, director of the Prison Agriculture Lab, and the legacy of that violence lives on in the big business of “agricarceral” farming today.
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
The Real News Network @therealnews.com · 19/05/2025
“If you look at the history of agriculture in the United States, it’s built on dispossession, it’s built on enslavement,” says @joshsbicca.bsky.social, director of the Prison Agriculture Lab, and the legacy of that violence lives on in the big business of “agricarceral” farming today.
therealnews.com
‘Prisons are akin to chattel slavery’: Inside the big business of prison farms and ‘agricarceral’ slave labor
“If you look at the history of agriculture in the United States, it’s built on dispossession, it’s built on enslavement,” says Joshua Sbicca, director of the Prison Agriculture Lab, and the legacy of ...
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
Excellent new special issue in Canadian Food Studies, Exploring Carceral Food Systems
canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca
Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation
Canadian Food Studies is an open-access, online journal about food and food systems, published by the Canadian Association for Food Studies.
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Amistad Law Project @amistadlaw.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
“Feeding yourself is protection, but it’s also declaring sovereignty. And in a prison geography, declaring sovereignty is declaring war.” Nylah Iqbal Muhammad on the struggle for food sovereignty while incarcerated in the latest @hammerandhope.bsky.social hammerandhope.org/article/food...
hammerandhope.org
The Struggle for Food Sovereignty While Incarcerated
Prison food has become a tool of carceral control.
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Hammer and Hope @hammerandhope.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
The sixth issue of Hammer & Hope is now live. It’s morning again in America. Federal agents snatch students off the streets. The White House boasts of banishing hundreds of people to a Salvadoran prison. Head Start and domestic violence shelters await the chopping block. hammerandhope.org
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Cat Brooks @realcatbrooks.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
How do lies and white supremacists run our prisons?… 🎙️ Dissecting the Intersections of White Supremacy and Mass Incarceration A can’t miss episode of Law & Disorder with Brittany Friedman (@curlyprofessor.bsky.social), author of ‘Carceral Apartheid’ open.spotify.com/episode/3Zd6...
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Remember when we heard that “the left” was coming for your hamburger? We’re being gaslit. www.eater.com/24349457/tru...
eater.com
How Trump’s Proposed Tariffs Could Raise Food Costs
Get ready to pay more for avocados, coffee, and other groceries.
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Jennifer Clapp 🇨🇦 @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
Why Canada isn't having the same bird flu/egg price crisis as US: Avg size of Canada's egg farms ~ 23,000 hens Avg size of American egg farms ~ 50,000 to 6 million hens Canadian supply management = more livelihoods, keeps prices stable, and is safer. www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
awkword @awkword.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
“The shift from forced labor… laid the groundwork for the contemporary reliance on incarcerated people to fill labor shortages, not just in prisons but in industries like agriculture” 7 in 10 US farmworkers are foreign born; 40+% are undocumented The Trump deportations will be BIG for prison labor
newrepublic.com
How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Could Fuel a Prison Labor Boom
Lacking an available pool of migrant labor, the United Stated has historically turned to another vulnerable group—incarcerated people.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
It’s all out class war being waged by the wealthy on the poor.
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
I'm working on a couple of upcoming talks and can't get over how simply describing what is happening right now with attacks on the NSF, NIH, Diversity, etc. makes me sound like a raving lunatic. They've launched an all-out assault on empirical reality.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
What’s going to happen in agriculture if lots of farmworkers are deported? Will prisoners become a reserve army of labor forced to prop up the system?
newrepublic.com
How Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Could Fuel a Prison Labor Boom
Lacking an available pool of migrant labor, the United Stated has historically turned to another vulnerable group—incarcerated people.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
In an article about how climate change is contributing to the intensity and frequency of disasters like wildfire the NYT still sneaks in a hedge. The obfuscation of the direct role of climate change only perpetuates public confusion and supports the fossil fuel industry.
“Although it is not possible to say with certainty as any specific weather event unfolds whether it was worsened or made more likely by global warming…
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Grades submitted! Off for a much needed break. Best of luck to everyone finishing up the term.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
We are headed for a time when food system topics are going to be more visible than in recent years. From impact of tariffs on ag products & mass deportation’s effect on food chain work to possible confrontations with junk food makers and deregulation’s effect on climate, there’s lots to address.
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Stuart Gillespie @stuartgillespie.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Thought I'd have a go at this starter pack thing...pls share and let me know if you'd like to join! go.bsky.app/3vj4Fnb
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Mohammad @malsaafin.bsky.social · 08/12/2024
Watching the videos of Syrian prisoners liberated, I’m reminded of the videos of Lebanese prisoners being freed from Khiam after Israel left Lebanon, and I hope for the day we see Palestinian prisoners walking out of Sde Teiman, Ketziot, Ofer, Gilboa, Damon, Megiddo, Petah Tikva.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Welcome to all the new followers. And thanks! It’s great to transition to Bluesky. A little about me: I’m a sociologist who studies food and the environment at a variety of intersections, including social movements, political economy, race, prisons, & cities. I currently run prisonagriculture.com
prisonagriculture.com
Prison Agriculture Lab
A collaborative focused on agricultural practices in the criminal punishment system
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Jennifer Clapp 🇨🇦 @jennifer-clapp.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Let's make this a thing! Folks researching the political economy of food and agriculture. Let me know if you should be added to this list! go.bsky.app/GykU1LD
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Prof Lisa Schipper 🌍🍉💪 @lisaschipper.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
For new people, this is a great way to find environmental social scientists: go.bsky.app/GNpJZBo
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Getting a new starter pack on environmental sociology going. Please reach out or comment below and I’ll get you added. go.bsky.app/ShvPW4g
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
Not sure how these starter packs come to be but here you go food studies friends. go.bsky.app/Evp1Stc
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
DuBois is well known for his work on race, class, urban and rural life and more. But he also had things to say about the environment. Here is one talk he gave about the Housatonic River in his typical reflective poetic style. theberkshireedge.com/w-e-b-du-boi...
theberkshireedge.com
W.E.B. Du Bois: Reflections upon The Housatonic River - The Berkshire Edge
We should rescue the Housatonic and clean it as we have never in all the years thought before of cleaning it, and seek to restore its ancient beauty; making it the center of a town, of a valley, and p...
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
The mass exodus of academic Twitter is happening, huh?
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Abolition Methodologies is here! In the spirit of boundary breaking in the academy and bridging across all sorts of abolitionist work, Carrie Chennault and I offer this article to the discussion of how we do abolition. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... DM for full text or check out Research Gate
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 02/03/2024
Check out this interview with Lawrence Jenkins, an incarcerated farmer, educator, artist, and activist in Washington state. This is part of a series on food and abolition in Mold Magazine. thisismold.com/abolition/fa...
thisismold.com
Farming for Survival Behind Bars - MOLD :: Designing the Future of Food
MOLD’s series on Food and Abolition examines food systems through the lens of abolition. Each story provides insight into the intersections between food systems and the carceral state, as well […]
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Reposted by Josh Sbicca
Jen Sorensen @jensorensen.bsky.social · 11/02/2024
Latest cartoon: Forced labor funnies
FORCED LABOR FUNNIES

1. An AP investigation found that prison labor – often forced – is widespread in the US supply chain. 
A sign reads 13th Amendment Farm with a caption saying former slave plantation. A white prison guard on a horse is watching Black inmates. 
Inmate: Wait, are we doing time or going backwards in time?

2. These jobs can pay pennies and involve dangerous work with few safety protections
Prisoner with arm in machine at chicken processing plant. Machine has warning sign that says "Insert chicken and remove hand quickly"
Prisoner: I’m giving years of my life, but please not my arm.

3. Prisoner-made food is almost certainly at your local grocery store.
Bag of Perp Puffs with slogan ‘Shackle yourself to flavor!’
Box of Convict Crunch cereal

4. But alas, most shoppers have no idea.
Woman holding stick of butter with slogan ‘I can’t believe it’s made with forced labor!’
Woman – I can’t believe it either!
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
12/You can contact Lino Lakes at (651) 717-6100 and the Central Office at (651) 361-7200
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
11/It is something that really bothers me being ontologically othered by the outside community that I love so dearly and want to rejoin."
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
10/At the meeting, I was told, do not hoard water, you will be written up and get Loss of Privileges (LOP). Really? How tone deaf is the executive team at this facility. That is the messaging? My voice is not something people want to hear.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
9/The public lost interest as it cooled down. Next year, the same issue will occur. I just wonder where is the line? Heat, just deal with it. Lead in my water, just drink it??
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
8/The temperature in my living unit was 94° during a recent heat wave. It was the most unbearable heat I have experienced in all my nine years of incarceration without AC. The folks at Stillwater prison made a stand and made the news, yet nothing changed.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
7/As an incarcerated person, I am treated as a second class citizen. I know my voice is but a whisper, if even that. I know I am a prisoner and have lost my rights to engage the public in dialogue, yet this is just too far.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
6/I know you have been consuming alarming levels of lead in you water for who knows how long. The last water test posted in the dinning hall says 2019. I am to quell the panic? This is simply unacceptable.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
5/The news is so major. We have been drinking water with lead in it! Where is is the public outrage, why is this acceptable, does anyone even care? I was given instructions to go back to my unit of 168 people and tell them not to worry.
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Josh Sbicca @joshsbicca.bsky.social · 21/09/2023
4/We have been told we will get one 16.9oz bottle of water at lunch, one at dinner, and five before bed. That is 7 bottles per day. The administration looked disheveled when they gave us 12 representatives (one from every living unit) the news.
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