CFP: Foodscapes of Plenty and Want
Title:
Foodscapes of Plenty and Want: Historical Perspectives on
Food, Health and the Environment in Canada
Dates/Location:
Late June 2013
University of Guelph
CFP:
In the context of the global crises of widespread hunger
and malnutrition in the developing world, near constant warnings of an ‘obesity
epidemic’ in the developed world, and a growing awareness of the environmental
costs of globalized and high- technology food production, the stark reality of
food’s place as an essential determinant of the health of individuals and
communities alike has never been more clear. Even within Canada, itself, the
growing income gap has increasingly meant that hunger and the struggle to put
enough food on their tables has become the reality for too many, with nearly
900,000 Canadians depending on food banks each month in 2011. This vast
disparity between plenty and want – combined with a growing recognition that
our current industrial food system has increased our exposure to many deadly
foodborne illnesses, dangerous chemical food additives, and environmental
contaminants ranging from pesticides to radioactive materials – it is
increasingly apparent that what we eat has, perhaps, a determining effect on
our overall health and well being. Also, we still know little about the
long-term health effects of genetically modified foods and the other twentieth
century agricultural revolutions.
Organizers are seeking to place some of these
contemporary food crises within their broader historical context by holding a
workshop on food, health, and the environment at the University of Guelph at
the end of June 2013.
Papers from this workshop will be published in a special
issue of the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History (CBMH). In recent years, Food
History has become a growing and important field in Canada and internationally.
Yet, while much of the recent Canadian literature has focused on the social and
cultural history of food, there has been less emphasis on the historical
relationship between food history and the history of health, medicine and the
environment.
The goal of this workshop and the special issue of the
CBMH is therefore to explore some of the new research being done on topics
ranging from – but not limited to – the history of nutrition education and
policy; food security and malnutrition; food safety and perceptions of
environmental risk; the regulation of food additives and processed foods; the
transformation of institutional feeding in asylums, prisons, hospitals, and
residential schools; food in relation to treaty and Aboriginal rights; food
activism; food and the welfare state; the transmission of foodborne illnesses;
the history of obesity; and the transformation of the Canadian diet.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words along
with a one page cv to Ian Mosby imosby@uoguelph.ca
by 30 July 2012.
For Further Information Contact:
Kristin Burnett
Associate Professor
History Department
Lakehead University
Co-Editor-in-Chief Canadian Bulletin of Medical
History/Bulletin canadien d'histoire de la médecine kburnett@lakeheadu.ca
Catherine Carstairs
Associate Professor
Department of History
University of Guelph
Ian Mosby
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of History
University of Guelph
Keywords:
Food Security and Malnutrition
Nutritional Deficiency Diseases
Nutrition Policy
Food Safety and Environmental Risk
Food Additives and Processed Foods
Food Banks and Soup Kitchens
Institutional Food (Asylums, Prisons, Hospitals,
Residential Schools) Food and the Cost of Living Global Hunger and Malnutrition
Producer Marketing Boards Treaty and Aboriginal rights Country/Store food Food
activism The Cooperative Movement Food charters Food Mapping