Pigging Out: The Cultural Politics of Food

Catalog description

Examines cultural influences of food while linking class, geography, and ethnicity to food practices. Investigates link between overeating and cheap food, under-eating and expensive food; discrepancy between cost and quality; changing diets in US and elsewhere; current debates regarding food production, specifically in the U.S., Americas, Africa and Asia. Discussion of Cargill companies' restrictions on spread of their hybrid grains; questionable agricultural practices, e.g. animal cruelty, overuse of pesticides, condition of migrants. Environmental policies examined in relation to pursuit of such industrial agricultural practices. Will include hands-on experiments with food preparation and tasting.