A Short History of Feeding the World: American Universities and the Changing Discourses of Food March 3, 2011

This roundtable discussion kicks off the two day symposium, "How We Talk About Feeding the World," with panelists who will discuss how universities have come to be invested in "feeding the world." That can include talking about the origins of agricultural schools, the creation of the land grant university, more recent investments in the green revolution, and the institutional flowering of departments and programs associated with feeding and food. How have universities come to be so invested in the notion of feeding the world and what is the legacy of that investment? Panel participants will include Maggi Adamek, Clare Hinrichs, and Richard Wilk, and the conversation will be moderated by IAS director, Ann Waltner.

The symposium as a whole focuses on the topic of social order and the politics of food and will provide a framework for broad interdisciplinary engagement with the complex and often contentious issues surrounding the production and consumption of food and will serve as a springboard to future collaborations. Drawing from historical and comparative cultural accounts of food and food-related work, we will consider such themes as the gendered division of food labor and the ways in which agricultural policies intersect with social orders. Invited presenters represent disciplines in the sciences, humanities, and social sciences; they have published on such topics as social choice theory, food and power, and food system sustainability, and they have practical experience in areas of food policy, livable communities and system change, and international trade.

Thursday, 4:00 p.m., 125 Nolte Center
Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Nolte Center
Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., Campus Club West Wing, Coffman Memorial Union, Fourth Floor
Cosponsored by the College of Food, Agricultural & Natural Resource Sciences and the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota with funding from a Minnesota Futures Grant.

Official Website: http://z.umn.edu/FeedtheWorld