History 595F - S-Food, Culture & Policy

The food systems that we all participate in are products of historical processes. We will historically contextualize practices of food production, distribution, and consumption through a range of topics, such as trends in food advertising, the rise of the supermarket, the mass production of prepared foods, the creation of nutritional norms, changing agricultural policies, the farm labor movement, and the contemporary popularity of organic foods. This class will allow students to research, critique and write about the ways in which our current food system developed by understanding what came before and how things have changed. We will work with primary sources, including materials like cookbooks, government reports, personal narratives, ephemera, and advertising.

Open to Seniors and Juniors in History, Middle East and Judaic majors only.