Welcome

Food systems research is a growing field. This may be because transitioning away from corporate, industrial food production and unhealthy food habits is at the centre of sustainable community building.

Food is the key to self-reliance and self-sustenance. Food choices and relationships can be a political statement.

The food movement is alive online. The internet is documenting cyber-geography of the food movement and gives us information and perspective on food issues within a range of climates and socio-economic environments.

People all over the world are engaged in production, research, innovation, education, policy-making, reflection, discussion, and organizing around food. People are blogging, vlogging, video producing, submitting theses, producing formal and informal documents, campaigning, distributing educational material, publishing books, creating documentaries, and reporting about food from a variety of perspectives all over the world.

There has been a mass realization about the centrality and importance of food.

This is a forum for collecting and connecting all of these resources.

Search food.

The Food System: Simplified.

I'm a huge fan of The Story of Stuff Project. Annie Leonard perfectly and succinctly presents the facts, the issues that surround them, and how they all relate, in the most clear and simple manner. She can make anyone understand.

I've been hoping that Annie's next story would be about food, as it is obvious that our food system is in danger, and we all need to be clear on that. Food has been industrialized and commodified, and the negative implications are spiraling out of control.

Food is the foundation of our social, political, and economic systems. Food is central to cultural and religious traditions. It is the reason astronomy began, and thus the reason we now know how small and delicate our planet actually is, suspended amongst other planets and stars in infinite space. But most important: food sustains life, and represents our direct physical connection with the earth.

There are so many issues from so many points of view that revolve around food, and they are all connected in some way or another.

Finally, after researching food all summer, I found "The Story of Food." It's not Annie's story -- it has been produced by USC Canada (Unitarian Service Committee of Canada). But, like the others, it does make the important connections quickly and efficiently.

The Story Of Food from USC Canada on Vimeo.

Alright, so the style is quite different from the other Story ofs... but, personally, once I got past the floating cooked chicken and loud noises at the beginning, I thought the story did a great job at explaining the main issues currently plaguing our food system. I also liked some of the more discrete points made, like how we've been seduced by the industrial food system ("Wow, it's huge! And so red...").

A shocker to me was how much biological diversity the planet has lost: "about 75% in the last 100 years." Now that's scary. We've got to move fast.

Visit the Food Studies DATABASE to find out more about the growing food movement and how you can get involved!