The State of Modern Food: Science, Systems, and Who Feeds Us
Chapter 1. Setting the Stage: Who Grows Food, What Are We Eating, and Why Is Science So Important?
This chapter introduces the book’s goal to drive urgent conversations on critical food and nutrition issues pertinent to everyday eaters (and students of food-related disciplines), from farm to fork and far beyond. It discusses contemporary farming and food production, highlighting the roles of Big Food, Big Ag, and factory farming in today’s agrifood systems—and the roles women, children, forced labor, and immigrants play. It contrasts traditional plant-based diets with meat-centric Western diets filled with ultra-processed foods (UPFs). It clarifies that nutrition is a science based in biochemistry, utilizing the scientific method to understand how diet impacts health, disease, sustainability, and well-being. It introduces the nutritional ecology framework (health, environment, economy, and society) and the importance of dietary patterns rather than individual nutrients in creating healthy, sustainable diets. And food is so much more than medicine; our diets are a source of pleasure, celebration, and culture, central to the human experience.
Core Topics This Chapter Addresses
Guiding Questions
⮞ What’s this book about, and who should read it?
⮞ How can you trust this book to be factual, and what data sources were used?
⮞ What does the world eat, and how do traditional and contemporary diets differ?
⮞ What is a food system, who runs it, and where are all the farms?
⮞ Who produces our food, and what roles do women and children play?
⮞ What exactly is nutrition, and how do we know what we know about food and health?
The Foundations of Our Diets
In chapter 1, discover how evidence, science, and food policy shape our diets—consider this chapter foundational for both course designs and current reporting on nutrition trends.