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What is food? What is the agrifood system? Why should we care? How do we study the agrifood system? Food is ‘hot’ at the present, as few topics elicit such fascination, dialogue, activism, or tension as food and agriculture. This course will begin studying food and society through a Micro-sociological perspective, “Food and Identity”, “Food and Spectacle.” And it moves to larger scale to examine and agrifood system which is dominant in the globe--- its design, function, dysfunction, and possibility. Then, it extends to topics related to China: the food system transaction and China’s food safety problem, to discuss food futures including AFNS, GMOS, and nano food in globalization. This course is designed to embed students in the historical origins of the agrifood system as well as to expose them to the major trends taking place, along with the primary concepts and theories used to explain agrifood structure and social change.
This book is an introductory text to the field of food sociology. It begins with recent development of agriculture under capitalism and neoliberal regimes and the transformation of farming and peasant agriculture from a small-scale, family-run way of life to a globalized system. Topics such as the global hunger and obesity challenges, genetically modified foods and international trade and subsidies are assessed as part of the world food economy. The final section concentrates on the themes of sustainability, food security and food sovereignty. The book concludes on a positive note, examining alternative agri-food movements aimed at changing foodscapes at levels from the local to the global.
This book focuses on the food system. Examining how concentrated the system has become, the book reveals the impact of market concentration on prices, innovation, the environment, health and society. Focusing on the United States, the book draws comparisons between key commodities- such as soy beans, pork and milk- at each major stage of the food system, covering foaming, packaging, distributing and retailing. The final chapter highlights how this concentration of power is challenged and resisted as well as the small but positive changes some of the most dominant firms have made in response.
This book focuses on how the transformation of children’s food habits, the result of China’s transition to a market economy and its integration into the global economic arena, has changed the intimate relationship of childhood, parenthood, and family life. Topics include the effects of new foods on children’s health; the consumption of prestige foods; the social implications of commercialized children’s food on a Chinese Islamic community; the adaptations of Kentucky Fried Chicken in response to indigenous fast-food companies; the generation gap in attitudes toward food consumption; the significance of religion and nutrition in feeding and healing children; the creation of baby-friendly hospitals to promote breastfeeding and scientific childcare methods; etc.
This book presents a repast of thoughts about the multiple roles of food in history and culture, covering food experiences of the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Canada. Addressing issues ranging from the global phenomenon of Coca-Cola to the diets of American slaves, this book shows how our choices about food are shaped by a vast and increasingly complex global economy. It demonstrates that our food choices have enormous and often surprising significance. Much of the book contemplates the connection between capitalism and sugar, a topic explored with striking originality in Mintz's Sweetness and Power.
This book is about how the food industry influences what we eat and, therefore, our health. It exposes the ways in which food companies use political processes to obtain government and professional support for the sale of their products. Its twofold purpose is to illuminate the extent to which the food industry determines what people eat and to generate much wider discussion of the food industry’s marketing methods and use of the political system. The themes occurring include the social consequences of food overabundance; the conflict between scientific and other kinds of belief systems; and diet is a political issue.
