What We're Reading: October 26, 2015

For many Brown students, food might represent the fuel to be consumed between classes, or the glue that bring friends together, or perhaps the tasty incentive to attend a club meeting.  For the most part, though, we only think about whether and how we consume food.  Expanding our scope to thinking about how we produce and distribute food, however, may expand our perspectives on food.  Where does our food come from? What kinds of food do we have access to?  These kinds of questions, which are discussed in the following three articles, may help us think of our food as a political tool, with social implications that reverberate beyond the communities we live in. 

Island Fresh.  Puerto Rico’s local food movement flourishes as cooks and farmers come together to put local ingredients on the menus of trendy restaurants.

Food Deserts.  A coalition of black pastors and farmers launches an initiative to improve food security in Baltimore.  

Paradise Farmed.  James Trimarco explores the political challenges and cultural implications of growing food locally on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i.