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SMC|Global Citizenship|Food

Food

The Santa Monica College Global Citizenship Council chose Food as the campus's global-citizenship theme for 2010–11.

Food For Thought lecture series, 2009

  • Pete Morris, professor of Geography, "Beer: Global Beverage, Local Passion," March 12 (also available in .html)

  • Jacki Horwitz, professor of Communication, "Sandwiches Worldwide: Think Inside the Bread," April 2

  • Walter Meyer, professor of Art History, "Food, Consumption, and Consumer Culture: From Vanitas Still-Life to Flying Spam," May 14

  • Karlyn Musante, professor of Psychology, "Food: Italian Style," September 17

  • Makiko Fujiwara-Skrobak, professor of Japanese, and Maria Montero, professor of Political Science, "Cultural Serendipity," November 5

Recommended Reading


As the following reading list shows, even though it is far from comprehensive, there has been an explosion of writing about the subject of food in the last decade or two. This includes studies of food history, food culture, food science, and, of course, food politics. Over the course of our food year, we would like to develop an annotated bibliography of food writings--a critical reader's guide for the Santa Monica College community. As you review these and other works, please share your thoughts with your colleagues and students, and forward any ideas to the Global Citizenship faculty leader, geographer Pete Morris (morris_pete@smc.edu).

At a minimum, we encourage everyone to become familiar with the work of Michael Pollan, the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. In fact, the Global Citizenship Council has chosen his recent short primer, Food Rules, as our official book of the year.
  • E. N. Anderson, Everyone Eats: Understanding Food and Culture (NYU Press, 2005)
  • Sarah Beth Aubrey, The Profitable Hobby Farm: How to Build a Sustainable Local Foods Business (Howell, 2010)
  • Thomas J. Bassett and Alex E. Winter-Nelson, The Atlas of World Hunger (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2010)
  • Warren Belasco, Food: The Key Concepts (Berg, 2008)
  • Warren Belasco, Meals to Come: A History of the Future of Food (Univ. of California Press, 2006)
  • Wendell Berry, Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food (Counterpoint, 2009)
  • Judith Ann Carney, In the Shadow of Slavery: Africa's Botanical Legacy in the Atlantic World (Univ. of California Press, 2010)
  • Judith Ann Carney, Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas (Harvard, 2002)
  • Novella Carpenter, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer (Penguin, 2009)
  • Linda Civitello, Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People (Wiley, 2007)
  • Jennifer Clapp and Doris Fuchs, eds., Corporate Power in Global Agrifood Governance (MIT Press, 2009)
  • Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik, eds., Food and Culture: A Reader (Routledge, 2007)
  • Janine De La Salle and Mark Holland, Agricultural Urbanism: Handbook for Building Sustainable Food & Agriculture Systems in 21st Century Cities (Green Frigate, 2010)
  • Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food (Simon and Schuster, 2002)
  • Paul Freedman, ed., Food: The History of Taste (Univ. of California Press, 2007)
  • Julie Guthman, Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California (Univ. of California Press, 2004)
  • C. Clare Hinrichs and Thomas A. Lyson, eds., Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability (Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2008)
  • Henry Hobhouse, Seeds of Change: Six Plants that Transformed Mankind (Counterpoint, 2005)
  • George Kent, ed., Global Obligations for the Right to Food (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007)
  • Barbara Kingsolver, et al., Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (Perennial, 2008)
  • Kenneth F. Kiple, A Movable Feast: Ten Millennia of Food Globalization (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007)
  • Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History (Penguin, 2003)
  • Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (Penguin, 1998)
  • Rachel Laudan, The Food of Paradise: Exploring Hawaii's Culinary Heritage (Univ. of Hawaii Press, 1996)
  • Lucy M. Long, Regional American Food Culture (Greenwood, 2009)
  • James E. McWilliams, Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly (Little, Brown and Co, 2009)
  • Erik Millstone, The Penguin Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why (Penguin, 2003)
  • Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (Penguin, 1986)
  • Moby, Gristle: From Factory Farms to Food Safety (New Press, 2010)
  • Massimo Montanari, Food Is Culture (Columbia Univ. Press, 2006)
  • Gary Paul Nabhan, Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Food (W. W. Norton & Co., 2009)
  • Marion Nestle, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (Univ. of California Press, 2007)
  • Michel Nischan, et al., Sustainably Delicious: Making the World a Better Place, One Recipe at a Time (Rodale, 2010)
  • Darrin Nordahl, Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture (Island, 2009)
  • Carlo Petrini, Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair (Rizzoli Ex Libris, 2007)
  • Carlo Petrini, Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures of Food (Chelsea Green, 2001)
  • Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Food in World History (Routledge, 2006)
  • Michael Pollan, Food Rules: An Eater's Manual (Penguin, 2009)
  • Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (Penguin, 2009)
  • Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (Penguin, 2007)
  • Michale Pollan, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education (Grove Press, 2003)
  • Michael Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (Random House, 2002)
  • Marie-Monique Robin and George Holoch, The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of the World's Food Supply (New Press, 2010)
  • Julie Rodwell and June Eding, eds., The Complete Book of Raw Food: Healthy, Delicious Vegetarian Cuisine Made With Living Foods; Includes over 400 Recipes from the World's Top Raw Food Chefs (Hatherleigh, 2010)
  • Pamela C. Ronald and Raoul W. Adamchak, Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food (Oxford Univ. Press, 2010)
  • Lawrence C. Rubing, Food for Thought: Essays on Eating and Culture (McFarland, 2008)
  • Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the American Meal (Harper Perennial, 2009) 
  • Peter Scholliers, Food, Drink and Identity: Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe Since the Middle Ages (Berg, 2001)
  • Tom Standage, An Edible History of Humanity (Walker and Co., 2009)
  • Tom Standage, A History of the World in Six Glasses (Walker and Co., 2005)
  • Jae Steele and Paul DeCampo, Ripe from Around Here: A Vegan Guide to Local and Sustainable Eating (No Matter Where You Live) (Arsenal Pulp, 2010)
  • Tristram Stuart, Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal (Norton, 2009)
  • Woody Tasch, Inquiries in the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered (Chelsea Green, 2008)
  • Hervé This, Molecular Gastronomy: Exploring the Science of Flavor (Columbia Univ. Press, 2008)
  • Hervé This, Kitchen Mysteries: Revealing the Science of Cooking (Columbia Univ. Press, 2007)
  • Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, A History of Food (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008)
  • Jack Turner, Spice: The History of a Temptation (Vintage, 2005)
  • Karl Weber, ed., Food, Inc.: How Industrial Food is Making Us Sicker, Fatter, and Poorer--And What You Can Do About It (Public Affairs, 2009)
  • David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding, Eat This, Not That! 2010: The No-diet Weight Loss Solution(Rodale, 2009)