Happy Meals
As a child growing up in the city of Chicago, I never gave much thought to where the food I ate came from. While I … Read More
health
Labeling to Distract
Vermont, Maine, and Connecticut recently passed legislation requiring companies to label foods that contain genetically modified (GM) ingredients, and roughly half of all state legislatures … Read More
Revolutionizing Food And Space
Is it possible to develop diversified, sustainable agriculture in cities? Will Allen believes that it is. In 1995 he founded Growing Power, Inc., based on … Read More
The Joy of Cooking?
Sociologists Sarah Bowen, Sinikka Elliott, and Joslyn Brenton offer a critique of the increasingly prevalent message that reforming the food system necessarily entails a return to the kitchen. They argue that time pressures, tradeoffs to save money, and the burden of pleasing others make it difficult for mothers to enact the idealized vision of home-cooked meals advocated by foodies and public health officials. Read More
Big Business in the School Cafeteria
Sociologist Ivy Ken questions the activities of two non-profit organizations that broker agreements with food companies to provide healthier products for schools. Read More
Why Poor People Buy Bottled Water
During the past 15 years bottled water consumption in the United States has doubled— to an average of 30 gallons per person annually. And bottled … Read More
Not-So-Sweet Charity
The 2013 Farm Bill proposes to cut $8 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as food stamps. While the $5-20 monthly … Read More
The Marriage Diet
Corey FieldsGetting married may lead to weight gain—and not just because of that extra piece of wedding cake. Newlyweds’ … Read More
Challenging Motorism In New York City
Public contention over recent changes in New York City's streetscape, allocating more space and priority to pedestrians and cyclists, illuminates an underlying conflict between a belief system regarding motor vehicles as central to American life—the windshield-perspective assumptions here termed Motorism—and dissenting beliefs questioning the rationality of automotive monoculture. New York-based writer Bill Millard argues that during the twentieth century, Motorism attained a level of dominance thorough enough to be unrecognized and unquestioned in most locales; though it encounters enough opposition to be visible as an ideology only in a few places (particularly New York), its ill effects on the environment, the economy, health, and other values are increasingly apparent, suggesting that the New York "streetfight" has social ramifications extending well beyond New York. Read More
C-Section Epidemic
How can we explain the exponential increase of the cesarean section in the U.S. in recent decades? Drawing from 130 in-depth interviews with women, obstetricians, midwives, and labor and delivery nurses, sociologist Theresa Morris explains the epidemic that affects the lives, health, and families of every woman in America. Read More
