An Intimate Portrait of Your Lunch: biological, ecological, and environmental aspects of food production
An Intimate Portrait of Your Lunch: biological, ecological, and environmental aspects of food production
(32) An Intimate Portrait of Your Lunch: biological, ecological, and environmental aspects of food production - Stephanie Strand, Department of Biology
Do you know where your food comes from? The eating and sharing food with friends and family is a basic and defining aspect of people’s identity and culture, yet we are often completely divorced from an understanding of how food is grown. As Michael Pollen suggests in the Omnivore’s Dilemma, we “need investigative journalists to tell us where our food comes from,” and intense debates about industrial farming, local organic farming, and urban foraging rage throughout the popular press. Using the Omnivore’s Dilemma, as well as several other popular novels and memoires, we will look at the biological, ecological, and environmental aspects of several mechanisms of food production. Through discussion, experiential learning in gardening and cooking, and writing, you will come to understand the “portrait” of what you eat as having broad implications beyond how the meal looks and tastes.