#food

You might have noticed this headline circulating on the Internet:

As graduate students, we wish! These claims stem from an interview with Yale neuroscientist Dr. Gordon Shepherd on his new book, Neuroenology: How the Brain Creates the Taste of Wine. Unfortunately for wine lovers, these articles ran away with Dr. Shepherd's take on the complex nature of taste.

I'm behind! We just wrapped up our first book club reading Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System by Raj Patel. Instead of writing individual posts I opted to write one final summary of my take on our discussions guided by the author's main points. After finishing the book we were left with one overarching thought: There is more to the food system than meets the eye. And it's not all about feeding people.

Gluten-free diets are all the rage. I mean, if your yogurt label says "gluten-free" then gluten must be bad right? But wait, what about those recent headlines claiming there's arsenic in gluten-free foods? Is it safe to eat literally anything? If you feel this way trying to navigate nutrition advice, you're not alone.

In chapters 2 and 3 we continue working our way through the food chain from farmer to consumer. 

We start by examining the farmer. In these chapters, Patel walks us through different scenarios involving farmers in countries Patel calls the "global south". We are introduced to the plight of the rural farmer in India, Mexico and Korea as examples of the widespread failure to protect and uplift our growers around the world. Particular emphasis (and criticism) is placed on the trade and economic connections between these countries and the economic powers-that-be like the World Bank.

As we went around the table introducing ourselves we noted a major theme arising in our motivation to join the bookclub. We all joined to learn more about the entire food system, and how our college major or thesis work or personal background fits in. We are all students at UC Davis. Some of us are in graduate school, a couple of us are undergraduate students. We are studying things like global disease, animal science, cell biology, biochemistry, plant biology and plant breeding (with a minor in Spanish!). All subjects pertinent to the conversation of food on some level.

The Woman's lifestyle magazine M2Woman recently ran the headline "Science reveals that this commonly used kitchen staple is carcinogenic" The accused kitchen staple is vegetable oil: canola, sunflower, and olive specifically. M2Woman claims these common cooking emollients are "proven to be carcinogenic".