Social stability demands a public's access to adequate, affordable, and safe food.
Resolution of these issues, however, occurs at the local level. Through various kinds of food activism, local publics, especially women, buffer themselves from centralized policies that can result in uneven distribution or excessive prices of food. These central policies can be socialist or capitalist. In either case, it is local activism that defines food needs and problems and the local strategies necessary to safeguard local food security. This includes concerns about contaminated food supplies caused by urban, industrial, and agricultural pollution.