CFP: 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
ccarstai@uoguelph.ca

Ian Mosby
Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of History
University of Guelph
imosby@uoguelph.ca

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