Philosophy of Food Course Research Questions

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1. What is Food?

2. What does the "deep history" of human experience of food tell us about the place of food in culture and the problems humans have had with food?

3. What is food culture and what is distinctive about food as a form of culture?

4. How do foodways and gastronomy shape food cultures?

5. What are the challenges of nutrition science as a field of knowledge and what is the state of knowledge about nutrition, broadly?

6. What is a nutritious diet?

7. How did the US food system develop? What are some of it's characteristic problems?

8. How do our food choices raise ethical, environmental, and social justice concerns? Should we eat local, stop eating meat, eat food that was produced under just conditions?

9. How do our food choices raise aesthetic questions and questions about subjective satisfaction? How does the history of gastronomy inform this question?

10. How should I critically assess my own food practices in light of the values associated with food? Should I change my diet? What criteria should I use to develop healthy and just food practices?