Food Systems

This two-volume resource covers the history of food and nutrition: foods that have been hunted, gathered, cultivated, and domesticated; their nutritional make-up and uses; and their impact on cultures and demography. It offers a geographical perspective on the history and culture of food and drink and takes up subjects from food fads, prejudices, and taboos to questions of food toxins, additives, labelling, and entitlements. Volume 2 contains A Historical Dictionary of the World’s Plant Foods.

Information on foods and drinks, types of diet, sports and activities, exercises, physiology, training methods, and calorie requirements. New entries covering advances in the science of health and diet such as genetic disposition and nutrigenomics, high-profile diets such as the five–two and palaeo, fitness tracking and technologies, and developments in food labelling and the psychology of diet and fitness.

Brief and more substantive entries consider both a catalog of foods and commentary on the culture of food, whether expressed in literature and cookery books, or as dishes peculiar to a country or community. Find entries on specific foods, individual countries, types of cooking (e.g, white trash cooking, cajun, sitr-fry, etc.), and meta-issues that involve food (e.g., globalization, slow food, etc.).

This handbook provides a sample of that philosophical work across multiple areas of food ethics: conventional agriculture and alternatives to it; animals; consumption; food justice; food politics; food workers; and, food and identity.

Places existing works in historiographical context, crossing disciplinary, chronological, and geographic boundaries, while also suggesting new routes for future research. The 27 essays are organized into five basic sections: historiography and disciplinary approaches as well as the production, circulation, and consumption of food.

Covers the application of the core theoretical and methodological approaches of the economics of food consumption and policy, policy issues related to food consumption, the theoretical and conceptual issues relevant in food markets, and issues of particular interest to the consumer-end of the food supply chain.

Entries on food, nutrition, diet, and health. Coverage spans types of food, nutritional information, vitamins, minerals, and areas including metabolism and genomics. Includes food safety and relevant organizations, and nutritional information.

Covers individual foods and food items as well as the significant events, inventions, and social movements that have shaped the way Americans view, prepare, and consume food and drink. Entries range across historical periods and the trends that characterize them.

To view extra content (bibliographies, periodicals, and more resources): On the landing page, click the "ALL CONTENTS" tab and then select "End Matter."