CMN 124 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Food Systems, Marshall Sahlins, Industrial Revolution
Document Summary
This week we will look at historical origins of the modern food system. As we discussed earlier, sociology tends to look at the big picture and follows a systems view. Changes in the food system reflect changes in the ecological, social and demographic trends and economic and political structures of the society. What have people been eating, how they have been producing what they ate, who has been involved in this process, how the products are distributed have changed over time. By reviewing these changes we will be able to understand what is unique about the way we produce and distribute food in the modern society. Let us begin with the big picture, that we call a food system. A food system refers to complex web of social relations, processes, structures and institutional arrangements that cover human interaction with nature and with other humans throughout the food cycle from production to consumption and even further.