The Politics of Food and Sustenance Justice

Sor Juana lived within colonial hierarchies that determined who could eat what and who served whom. Food practices were never merely nutritional but political expressions of power. Contemporary industrial animal agriculture perpetuates this logic: animals are treated as resources, their bodies converted to commodities, their suffering rendered invisible in supply chains that obscure moral responsibility. A Sor Juana-inspired ethics of animal rights examines food systems as sites of justice or injustice. Plant-based diets, regenerative agriculture, and food sovereignty movements align with her vision of intellectual freedom and dignity extended to all beings. This concept doesn't demand purity but rather consciousness: understanding that every food choice participates in systems of domination or liberation. Sor Juana's own restricted diet as a nun becomes relevant here not as asceticism to emulate but as a model of thoughtful consumption. Sustenance justice means asking which beings must die for our living, and whether we can arrange our nutrition to minimize such necessities while maximizing dignity for all.