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Top view of person serving themself a rice dish from a table of food

Food for Thought: Diet in History

… How and what we eat defines who we are. Food is both everywhere and nowhere, so normal that we … consider how radically the production and consumption of food have shaped not only human culture but the environment as well (and how radically the production of food has changed over time). Sample a little food history …
seedlings

Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future

… company Monsanto came to have outsized influence over our food system. Monsanto, a St. Louis chemical firm that became … Teaching Excellence … Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future … Dr. Nicholas Breyfogle  Welcome to Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future, brought to you by the History Department, the …

Feast and Famine: The Global Food Crisis

… In June 2009, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that, … a nineteen-year high, and over thirty countries experienced food riots. "Hunger seasons" have become the norm in many … parts of the global south, and women bear the brunt of this food shortage. According to ActionAid International, women …
In Mauritania, Aissata Abdoul Diop shows how the maize ears have dried in the drought stricken garden, 2012. 

Hunger Is Not Eradicated: The Food Crisis in Africa

… reached 8 billion, the United Nations announced “the worst food crisis in modern history.”  The phrase “ global … inflation, and extreme weather.  A 2022 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (2022), begins with …
Plate of enchiladas at a Mexican restaurant.

Mexican Food in the United States

… change over time. This is certainly the case for Mexican food in the United States, which has undergone many … for dishes like chili and tacos increasingly brought these foods into the American diet. As Mexican immigrants arrived in new locales, various forms of regional Mexican food, including barbacoa and birria, became widespread in …
United States soldier distributes food aid to a Afghanistan province

Food for Peace Must Remain an American Priority

… The United States says it will be scaling back food donations to impoverished countries because of soaring food prices. This announcement deals a devastating blow to the survival of many countries who depend on food aid. In nations like Sudan and Afghanistan, peace and …
A woman on the outskirts of Kyiv carrying a bucket of apricots

Eating at You: Food and Chernobyl

… and berries of all kinds. Before the locavore, organic food movement emerged, villagers and townspeople in Ukraine … of growing, cooking and preserving fresh, local, organic food. Food—getting it, husbanding it, putting it up—formed a major …
This photo shows Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDR), which was transported from bases in the U.S. and air dropped to regions of Afghanistan where the displaced people are at risk of starvation.

Democracy’s Vital Ingredient — Food

… warning and rally the international community to increase food aid to the Afghan government. Following World War II, food shipments were an integral aspect of the Marshall Plan. … Afghan government made a drought appeal for international food donations. To date, this appeal has not been fully …
Vegetables from ecological farming.

Bringing Democrats and Republicans Together over Food

… generation, which well understood the relationship between food and peace abroad.   The immediate postwar era provides … reconstruction program could get under way, there had to be food aid for several European nations.  This interim aid … the Congress with bipartisan support and sent much-needed food and supplies to Europe.  One report called the food
Poster with a patriotic theme to save food (1917), issued when domestic food restrictions were applied to support the war effort.

The “Invisible Guest” World Food Campaign of the 1920s Should Be a Model for Us Today

… War left destruction far beyond the battlefields of Europe. Food supplies were devastated, and recovery would not come … Relief Administration, led by Herbert Hoover, provided food aid to Europe’s hungry long after the guns fell silent … following the 1918 Armistice.   In 1920, because Europe’s food production had not rebounded enough for them to feed …
Globe on a plate with knife and fork next to it

Diet for a Large Planet

… We are facing a world food crisis of unparalleled proportions. Our reliance on … and the health of our planet. Solutions from lab-grown food to vegan diets to strictly local food consumption are often discussed, but a central question …
a can of Spaghetti-Os

Spaghetti in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

… the taste of the pasta and sauce. In this sense, it is a food source that completely disconnects “food” and “source.” During the 19 th  century, Americans … that only the most ignorant consumers would buy their food without knowing where it came from. Americans knew …
A girl stands amid the graves of 70 children on the outskirts of Dadaab. The long desert journey to the relief camps has claimed many lives.

Famine Strikes Again. Will America Respond?

… has overwhelmed aid agencies. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) says that more than 11 million people desperately need life-saving food aid. Will Americans respond? History suggests that they … Millions were forced to flee their communities in search of food, but there was little to find. A letter published by …
Ration distribution point.

The Other War in Pakistan

… 1945, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower warned of the consequences of food shortages in Belgium and Holland, noting “the result … and disorders.” The United States and its allies provided food for the hungry even during the push to finish off the … part of the Netherlands. U.S. and British planes airlifted food, and days later Canadian truck convoys helped bring …
Cover A Revolution in Taste The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650–1800 by Susan Pinkard.

Bon Appetit, Historically Speaking

Review of A Revolution in Taste: The Rise of French Cuisine, 1650-1800 , by Susan Pinkard (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009)
… In an age of the Food Network, Gourmet magazine, and Bon Appétit podcasts, it … as it is about cuisine.  The changes occurring in French food were intimately connected with the radical shifts in … University, Pinkard describes a revolution in the way food was conceived and produced over the course of seven …
male nurse holding syringe over small baby

Feast and Famine: Exploring Differences in Global Food Cultures

… activity where students will consider the question of how food cultures differ around the world. The bulk of the … the original article that highlights the effects of the food disparity around the world. Following this, students … … Feast and Famine: Exploring Differences in Global Food Cultures …
A wheat field in Ukraine resembles the colors on the country's flag.

Ukraine: The Breadbasket of Europe

… on February 24, 2022, international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United … to the world price of staples such as wheat and to the food security of developing countries.   While one would … expect an organization such as the FAO to be informed on food questions, the sheer number of stories in the popular …
Cover of Famine: A Short History by Cormac Ó Gráda.

Famine: A Short History

Review of Famine: A Short History, by Cormac O Grada (Princeton University Press, 2009)
… would result as human populations exceeded the supply of food.  In 1968, Paul Ehrlich predicted that hundreds of … as the normal crops failed, they had to rely on "famine foods": edible but unappetizing fruits, vegetables, seeds, leaves, pods, and shoots.  When food was available but expensive, people often purchased …
The flag of Ethiopia under the rule of the Derg, 1975-1987

Blind Aid: Lessons (Not Learned) from the Ethiopian Famine

… patients and then called for increased international food aid for the Ethiopians. “I am not a politician,” she … response to the Ethiopian famine: massive amounts of food aid but little concern for the local and global … organizations decided to funnel the majority of food aid through the Ethiopian government in the south …
School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America's Favorite Welfare Program, by Susan Levine Book Cover

Playing Politics with Our Children's Health

Review of School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America's Favorite Welfare Program, by Susan Levine (Princeton University Press, 2008)
… Erin Burnett ominously described "the skyrocketing price of food" and its effect on Americans' budgets. According to the report, the pain of rising food costs extends beyond the nuclear family to the nation's … Burnett that he can no longer afford fresh vegetables, seafood, and other nutritious items. "We used to have fresh …
"Freedom From Want" - NARA poster 1943

The Spirit of 1947: This Thanksgiving Feed a Silent Guest and Build World Peace

… across America, stopping in cities and towns to collect food that would be shipped overseas. The Friendship Train … students took the initiative to organize collections of food for the train.   Americans knew that winning the war … grim reality, Congress is proposing to reduce international food aid.   Revisit 1947. Americans chose not to let hunger …