A severe drought has plagued East Africa since mid-2011. The drought, the region’s worst drought in past 60 years, wreaked havoc on crops and livestock for the pastoral regions and up to 100,000 people died as a result of the drought between April and August of 2011. In September 2011, the UN reported that 13.3 … Read more
America is suffering from two serious health crises that initially seem contradictory. Levels of obesity have risen to epidemic proportions in recent decades, while the high frequency of eating disorders has become cause for serious concern. Healthcare professionals are now charged with the difficult task of simultaneously fighting two diseases located on opposite ends of … Read more
When Michelle Obama planted a community garden in the South Lawn of the White House in 2009, the First Lady made clear the priorities she would have as first lady: food and nutrition. Michelle’s advocacy of healthy eating at the national level is symbolic of the expanding role of the government in twenty-first century food … Read more
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is on a crusade to make New York a healthier place. Following his prohibition on smoking indoors and at public parks and his barring of restaurants from cooking with trans fats, the Mayor proposed restricting the use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as the food stamp program, to … Read more
In his 2008 book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Michael Pollan advised people to restore simplicity to food practices. Pollan’s message, clearly encapsulated as, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” resonated strongly with the myriad groups and differentiated movements that have morphed into “the food movement.” In stressing simplicity, these recent efforts … Read more
Thinking through the farm bill more carefully. Every five years, Capitol Hill authorizes funding for American agricultural policy through a concoction of tax credits, regulation, and developmental programs. Most recently, in 2008 Congress passed a 700 page farm bill, whose contents impacted food prices paid by American consumers and global commodities markets. Though originally narrow … Read more
The battle to save Florida’s natural treasure. When I fly home to Ft. Lauderdale International Airport, I always look out the window. The view is spectacularly beautiful and mechanistically awe-inspiring. Vast fields of marshes, swamps, and saw grass stretch out past the horizon’s end, accompanied by a harsh grid of concrete canals that scar the … Read more
Humans have been genetically modifying foods since the beginning of agriculture by simply selecting crops that are nutritious and have high yields. With the recent advent of transgene technology, scientists have been exploring new ways to modify a plant’s genes without relying on the slow process of artificial selection. The development of these “genetically modified … Read more
Will China Get Fat Before it Gets Rich? With the American public increasingly wary of obesity and diabetes, sales of unhealthy food products in the US have slowed over the past few years. Nevertheless, the profits of American food corporations continue to grow, due in large part to the corporate focus on emerging markets. Particularly … Read more
Any attempt to define American food culture leads, inevitably, to a realization that no singular, overarching food culture exists in America. Harvard professor Joyce Chaplin, who teaches a course on American food history, explains, “One of the big points about American food culture is that there isn’t one.” Chaplin is not indicating that America has … Read more