Food: The Key Concepts

by Warren Belasco

Overview

Food: The Key Concepts presents an exciting, coherent and interdisciplinary introduction to food studies for the beginning reader. Food Studies is an increasingly complex field, drawing on disciplines as diverse as Sociology, Anthropology and Cultural Studies at one end and Economics, Politics and Agricultural Science at the other.

In order to clarify the issues, Food: The Key Concepts distills food choices down to three competing considerations: consumer identity; matters of convenience and price; and an awareness of the consequences of what is consumed. The book concludes with an examination of two very different future scenarios for feeding the world's population: the technological fix, which looks to science to provide the solution to our future food needs; and the anthropological fix, which hopes to change our expectations and behaviors.

Throughout, the analysis is illustrated with lively case studies. Bulleted chapter summaries, questions and guides to further reading are also provided.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350114029
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/08/2019
Series:	The Key Concepts
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Warren Belasco is Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Table of Contents

Overview ix

1 Why Study Food? 1

Chapter Summary 13

2 Identity: Are We What We Eat? 15

Cuisine 15

Madeleines: Food and Memory 25

Chapter Summary 34

3 The Drama of Food: Divided Identities 35

Food and Sexuality 35

Food and Gender 41

Embattled Food 52

Chapter Summary 53

4 Convenience: The Global Food Chain 55

Inside Gigantic 67

The Eight Fs 70

Chapter Summary 78

5 Responsibility: Who Pays for Dinner? 79

Health Costs: Food-borne Illness 84

Health Costs: Fatness 88

Confronting the Externalities 96

Chapter Summary 103

6 The Future of Food 105

Scenarios 113

The Technological Fix: Business as Usual 114

The Anthropological Fix: Back to the Future 118

Chapter Summary 123

Questions for Essays and Class Discussion 125

Notes 129

Bibliography 135

Index 151

Editorial Reviews

Belasco's prose is easygoing and professorially humane.'” —The New York Times

From the Publisher

Belasco's prose is easygoing and professorially humane.'

The New York Times