Table Of Content

FOOD FIGHTS This page intentionally left blank FOOD FIGHTS How History Matters to Contemporary Food Debates Edited by CHARLES C. LUDINGTON and MATTHEW MORSE BOOKER The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill © 2019 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Designed by Jamison Cockerham Set in Arno, Clarendon, Scala Sans, and Avenir Next by codeMantra Cover illustration by Skillet Gilmore. Manufactured in the United States of America The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ludington, Charles, editor. | Booker, Matthew Morse, 1968– editor. Title: Food fights : how history matters to contemporary food debates / edited by Charles C. Ludington and Matthew Morse Booker. Description: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2019019165| isbn 9781469652887 (cloth : alk. paper) | isbn 9781469652894 (pbk : alk. paper) | isbn 9781469652900 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: Food—United States. | Food—Biotechnology. | Food—Safety measures. | lcgft: Essays. Classification: lcc tx360.u6 f675 2019 | ddc 363.19/20973—dc23 lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019019165 Contents Introduction 1 Charles C. Ludington and Matthew Morse Booker Section I Producing Food 13 1 Savior or Monster? The Truth about Genetically Engineered Agriculture 15 Margaret Mellon 2 Born in the U.S.A.: The Americanness of Industrial Agriculture 36 Peter A. Coclanis 3 Food Activism: A Critical History 61 Steve Striffler Section II Choosing Food 79 4 Can “Taste” Be Separated from Social Class? 81 S. Margot Finn 5 The Standard of Taste Debate: How Do We Decide What Tastes Best? 100 Charles C. Ludington 6 What Does It Mean to Eat Right? Nutrition, Science, and Society 124 Charlotte Biltekoff Section III Regulating Food 143 7 Who Should Be Responsible for Food Safety? Oysters as a Case Study 145 Matthew Morse Booker 8 U.S. Farm and Food Subsidies: A Short History of a Long Controversy 162 Sarah Ludington Section IV Gendering Food 187 9 What Should Babies Eat and Whose Business Is It? 189 Amy Bentley 10 Home, Cooking: Why Gender Matters to Food Politics 208 Tracey Deutsch Section V Cooking and Eating Food 229 11 Is Thinking Critically about Food Essential to a Good Life? 231 Robert T. Valgenti 12 A Plea for Culinary Luddism 250 Ken Albala 13 A Plea for Culinary Modernism: Why We Should Love Fast, Modern, Processed Food (With a New Postscript) 262 Rachel Laudan Contributors 285 Index 289 Figures, Tables, and Graph Figures W. O. Atwater’s “Comparative Expensiveness of Foods” 130 Empirical and ethical layers of the Basic 7 Food Guide 133 Patriotic iconography in the post-9/11 obesity landscape 136 Tables 1 Agriculture’s Share of U.S. Labor Force 42 2 Agriculture’s Share of U.S. Gross Domestic Product 43 3 Some Typhoid Epidemics Blamed on American Oysters 149 4 U.S. Population, Percent Increase from Previous Decade, and Percent Farmers 152 Graph Commonly Accepted Age of Introducing Solids 191 This page intentionally left blank FOOD FIGHTS