1GEOG 271: The Geography of Food and Eating Course Web Page: http://students.washington.edu/~cvf/teaching.

html Required Course Reading: o Bell, D. and Valentine, G. (1997) Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat London and New York: Routledge Press o A reading packet is available at Rams Copy Shop on University Ave. and 42nd. 1. Introduction: Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are. Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826) The next time you feel like complaining, remember that your garbage disposal probably eats better than 30 percent of the people in the world. Robert Orben No one knows how to cook any more; no one is cooking any more. Organic farmer, Skagit County, Washington Food is something none of us can live without. Moreover, it shapes who we are and our relationships and with other people and places. Where is our food grown and how? Where do we and where should we shop for it? These questions are fundamentally geographic. Exploring how food is grown and consumed leads to a deeper understanding of societies and environments and their complex relationships. This course examines food production, distribution, and consumption issues across geographic scales, spanning the microcosm of the individual body to the national and global scales. We explore the political, social, cultural and economic dimensions of food and eating in particular spaces, places, environments, contexts and regions. 2. Course Objectives: By the end of the course you will 1) understand more about where your food comes from and a range of political, economic, social and cultural dimensions of food production, distribution, and consumption from the local to global scales 2) understand more about how food carries intrinsic meanings beyond nutrition 3) recognize some of the central research themes in agro-

food studies 4) have further developed your analytic, interpretive and critical thinking skills 5) have further developed your writing and comprehension skills

3. Course Policies: Please use the general E-Post board for general questions regarding the content or administrative aspects of the course. The lecturer and TAs will check this board daily. Please try to use e-mail only for personal matters. You can expect a response from an e-mail within a maximum of 3 days. Disability Accommodation: To request academic accommodations due to disability please contact Disabled Student Services indicating your needs and inform me as soon as possible about special accommodations. Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz, Box 355839, (206) 543-8925 (Voice/TTY), uwdss@u.washington.edu. Academic Integrity: Plagiarism, cheating and other misconduct are serious violations of your contract as a student. You are expected to know and follow the Universitys policies. Handing in written documents constitutes an agreement that you have a back-up copy. Please maintain a collegial atmosphere in class and while working with your classmates. Some of the topics we cover can be serious matter and healthy scholarly debates are encouraged. However, all students have the right to respect in the classroom. All assignments must be completed and turned in on time and IN SECTION, as indicated. If for some reason you are unable to meet this requirement, you must talk to your TA in advance with a compelling reason to be granted a grace period. All grade contestations must be made in writing and must be justified. Contestations will receive a response within one week. The instructor reserves the right to make changes to the syllabus. In the event of a change, the class will be emailed a notification. 4. Course Requirements:
Requirement Weekly E-Post

% 15 %

Students will submit a weekly 150 word e-post to their section e-post site AFTER Wednesday 9am and NO LATER than Thursday at 12 noon. Please see sample strong e-posts on the course website. Do note that late posts, posts in the incorrect section or posts that do not demonstrate a close engagement with at least 1-2 of the weekly readings will be penalized. In-class/ in-section participation (incl. 1 session of reading facilitation) Students are expected to completed ALL assigned readings for section and to come to section prepared to discuss the readings closely. Each student will be responsible for section facilitation once per quarter. Please check course website for further details. Students will sign up for facilitation on day 1 of section. All students are held accountable for the readings but facilitators in particular will be expected to have read and be able to discuss the readings closely. Assignment 1: Personal Food Diary Each student will keep a diary of all the food s/he eats during a 7day period and reflect on his/her own food consumption. Students will be expected to connect their discussion to course readings. Assignment 2: Eating on a Budget Students will plan a weekly menu of three meals per day for a family living on the poverty level. Students will be expected to reflect on the process and connect their discussion to the course readings. Mid-Term and Final Exams Students will answer multiple-choice questions and a series of short written essays in these exams. These questions will be drawn directly from the readings, lecture and film material. Students will be expected to have a strong understanding of the key concepts and themes presented in ALL readings and lectures.

20 %

15%

15%

15% & 20%

5. The Course Schedule The course is divided into 9 thematic sections that examine food production, distribution, and consumption parts across the scales of the body, the household, the community, the nation, and the global. Readings are assigned daily and will be discussed in the lectures and in-depth in section at the end of the week. A weekly e-post discussing one or more of the readings must be submitted AFTER Wednesday 9am and NO LATER than Thursday at 12 noon. Each week different student facilitators will use these e-posts and their own consideration of the readings to facilitate section discussion. The course is structured as follows:
Part 1: From the Body to the Nation Week Beginning Weekly Topic Dates to Remember

27/03

Food and the Body: Living in the Toxic Food Environment Eating-In: Food and the Family Eating my Identity: Food and the Construction of Community Part 1 Thinking Food Nationally Fast Food Nation: The Industrialization of Fast Food

Section: Introductions Assignment 1 set Sign-up for facilitation Assignment 1: Due Friday 14th April Section: Assignment 2 set Mid-term review

2 3 4

03/04 10/04 17/04

IN-CLASS MID-TERM: Week 5 -- Monday 24th April Part 2: Food Politics 5 25/04 Part 2 Thinking Food Nationally Hunger in the US Part 1 Thinking Food Globally Global and Edible Commodity Chains Part 2 Thinking Food Globally International Food Politics Thinking Food across scales: The case of Famine Alternative Food Systems: Think Global, Eat Local May 5th Part 1 of assignment 2 due May 12th Part 2 of assignment 2 due Assignment 2 Due Friday 19th May Extra Credit Assignment: Due LAST SECTION Section: Final exam review

08/05

7 8 9

15/05 22/05 29/05

FINAL EXAM DATE (tentative): June 5th

6. The Course Content Week 1: Food and the Body: Living in the Toxic Food Environment

In the first week of the course we examine the cultural and social dimensions of eating at the microscale of the body. How is who you are shaped by what you eat? How does where you eat shape who you are? We will focus on the US and an examination of the problems of obesity and anorexia/bulimia. Keywords: Toxic food environment, body image, cultural apparatus, bodies as socially constructed, the docile body Related Films: Fat, Killing Us Softly Key Section Questions: How are ideal body types created? How is obesity and anorexia raced, classed and gendered? Daily Readings: M: Bell, D. and Valentine, G. (1997) Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat pp. 21-56. T: Tillmann-Healy, L.M. (1996) A Secret Life in a Culture of Thinness: Reflections on Body, Food, and Bulimia, in Composing Ethnography, pp. 76-108. W: Thompson, B.W. (1996) A Way Outa No Way: Eating Problems Among African American, Latina, and White Women, in E. Chow, D. Wilkinson and M. Zinn, eds. Race, Class and Gender. Los Angles, Sage Publications, pp. 52-69. Th: Critser, G. (2000) Let Them Eat Fat: The Heavy Truths About American Obesity in The Atlantic Monthly, pp.41-47. Week 2: Eating-In: Food and the Family This week we will look at the ways that food is connected to notions of domesticity and home, examining the changes over time from the 1950s to the present day. We will examine how roles and responsibilities of eating-in are gendered. Keywords: Gender division of labor, double day, alternative practices of home Related Films: Babettes Feast; Like Water for Chocolate Key Section Questions: How are the ideals of home space enacted and imagined in family meals? How have these ideals changed over time and why? Daily Readings: M: Bell, D. and Valentine, G. (1997) Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat pp. 57-88 T: Enjironas, E (2001) Processed foods from scratch: cooking for a family in the 1950s in S.A. Inness, Kitchen culture in America: popular representations of food, gender and race.

Week 3: Eating my Identity: Food and the Construction of Community This week we will examine how is food used to construct and reproduce notions of an ethic community and identity. We will also consider the cultural politics of cooking and eating ethnic food. Keywords: Nation/ ethnic/indigenous foodways, banal nationalism, imagined communities Related Films: Soul Food, Dim Sum Key Section Questions: What is the role of food in the construction of ethnic identity, the nation and nationalism? What are some of the ethnical considerations we should consider when we eat ethnic food? Daily Readings: M: Bell, D. and Valentine, G. (1997) Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat pp. 167-183 and 149-161. T: Dodson, J.E. and C.T. Gilkes (1995) Theres Nothing Like Church Food: Food and the U.S. Afro-Christian Tradition: Re-Membering Community and Feeding the Embodied S/spirit(s), Journal of the American Academy of Religion 3:519-538. W: Pilcher, J.M. (1998) Recipes for Patria: National Cuisines in Global Perspective in Que vivan los tamales, pp. 143-161. Th: Heldke, L. (2001) Lets Cook Thai: Recipes for Colonialism in S.A. Inness, ed. Pilaf, Pozole, and Pad Thai: American Women and Ethnic Food, pp. 175-196. Week 4: Part 1 Thinking Food Nationally: Fast Food Nation: The Industrialization of Fast Food This week we will consider the rise of the fast food industry since the late 1970s and early 1980s, considering how the restructuring of meat and vegetable production has affected producers, workers in meatpacking plants and the fast food service sector, and the consumers of fast food. Keywords: conglomeration, consolidation, vertical/ horizontal integration, deskilling, self-regulation Related Films: Supersize Me, Maharaja Burger, Eyes on the Fries,

Fast Food Women, Jamie Olivers School Dinners Key Section Questions: How is the fast food industry is raced, classed and gendered? What are the environmental, social and economic impacts of the industrialization of fast food? How sustainable is the fast food system? Daily Readings: M: Bell, D. & Valentine, G. (1997) Consuming Geographies: We are Where Eat pp. 118-143 T: Schlosser, E. (2001) On the Range in Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, pp. 133-147 and 169-192. W: Schlosser, E. (2001) The Most Dangerous Job in Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, pp. 169-192.

MID-TERM Exam: MONDAY 24TH APRIL Week 5: Part 2 Thinking Food Nationally: Hunger in the US This week we will examine the prevalence of hunger in the US. We will consider who goes hungry and where. We will examine the connections between hunger and specific economic shifts and governmental policies and will close with a critical consideration of non-governmental and governmental responses to hunger in the US. Related Film/ media resources: Bastard out of Carolina, NPR series on Hunger in the US Key Section Questions: How is hunger in the US raced, classed and gendered? What economic and political government structures work to alleviate and entrench the problem of hunger? Daily Readings: M: Nestle, M. (2002) Hunger in the United States in C. Counihan Food in the US pp. 385-399 T: Schwartz-Nobel, L. (2002) Hunger and the Working Poor Growing Up Empty: How Federal Policies Are Starving America's Children HarperCollins W: Schwartz-Nobel, L. (2002) Hunger and the Military Growing Up Empty: How Federal Policies Are Starving America's Children HarperCollins Th: (Optional) Allison, D. (1993) Bastard Out of Carolina: A Novel Plume Books Ch. 6

Week 6: Part 1 Thinking Food Globally: Global and Edible Commodity Chains This week we will consider the globalization of certain commodities, including coffee, potatoes and sushi from the colonial era to the present day. In the contemporary period we will consider the ways that foods are reworked in new places. We will consider how a commodity chain analysis can reveal the globalized nature of food and the socially and environmentally problematic ways in which certain edible products reach our plates. Keywords: Globalization, hybridization, commodity chain analysis, commodity fetishism Related Films: Islas Hermanas, The Future of Food Key Section Questions: How has the production and the consumption of food globalized? What are the social, cultural and economic impacts of the globalization of food? Daily Readings: M: Domosh, M. (2003) Pickles and purity: discourses of food, empire and work in turn-of-the-century USA, Social and Cultural Geography 4:1:7-26 Bell, D. & Valentine, G. (1997) Consuming Geographies: We are Where Eat pp. 189-207 T: Ryan, John C. & Alan Thein Durning. (1997) Selected chapters from Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things. Seattle, WA: Northwest Environment Watch Bestor, T. (2000) How sushi went global, Foreign Policy 121: 54-63 W: Freidberg, S. (2003) Cleaning up down South: supermarkets, ethical trade and African horticulture, Social and Cultural Geography 4:1:27-43 Week 7: Part 2 Thinking Food Globally: International Food Politics This week we will consider some of the key debates raging in the international sphere around food. These include the issue of genetically modified food production, EU and Us agricultural food subsidies and the problems and benefits of Food Aid. Keywords: Genetic modification, biodiversity, food subsidies, food aid Related Films: The Price of Aid, Big Spuds, Little Spuds, The Future of Food Key Section Questions: What are the pros and cons of GM foods? Do you mind eating GM foods? Who benefits from food aid programs and agricultural subsidies? Who loses?

Daily Readings: M: Pollen, M. (2001) Desire: Control; Plant: The Potato in Botany of Desire, pp. 183-238. T: OXFAM (2002) Stop the Dumping!: How EU Subsidies are Damaging Livelihoods in the Developing World Oxfam Briefing Paper 31 pp1-12 W: Zerbe, Noah (2004) Feeding the Famine? American Food Aid and the GMO debate in Southern Africa in Food Policy 29 pp 593-608 Week 8: Thinking Food across scales: The case of Famine This week we will complicated popular notions around the causes of famine. We will examine the social, political, economic and environmental causes of famine focus on a historical political economy of Famine in the Sudan and Ireland. We will consider here the emergent and reoccurring famine in Kenya in this light. Keywords: Political economy of Famine, long term causes and short term triggers, pre-modern, modern, post-modern famines Related Films: Harvest of Despair, The Perfect Famine, Silent Killer, Circle of Plenty Key Section Questions: What are the main causes of famines? How have these readings/ lectures complicated your understandings of the causes of famine? Daily Readings: M: Diner, H. (2001) Outcasts from Lifes Feast: Food and Hunger in Ireland, Hungering For America, pp. 84-112 T: Devereux, S. et al. (2002) The New Famines IDS Bulletin 33:4:111 W: Gazdar, H. (2002) Pre-modern, Modern and Post-modern Famine in Iraq, IDS Bulletin 33:4:63-69

Week 9: Where do we eat from here? Alternative Food Systems -Thinking Global, Eating Local In our last week we will consider a number of alternative food systems

thriving in the Global North and South. We will consider the merits and problems of these alternatives in addressing some of the issues raised through the quarter. Keywords: Community supported agriculture, Related Films: Deconstructing Supper, The Future of Food Key Section Questions: Why is it important to know where your food comes from? What is a sustainable food system? What are the characteristics of movements that emphasize different ways of buying and eating food? How has this course affected the way you think about, and eat, food? Daily Readings: M: Shiva, V. (2004) The future of food: Countering globalisation and recolonisation of Indian agriculture, Futures 36:715-732 T/W: Hull, J.B. (1999) Can Coffee Drinkers Save the Rain Forest? The Atlantic Monthly, pp. 19-21. Selection of readings available on e-reserve TENTATIVE FINAL EXAM: JUNE 5th