ENGLISH 429 Dr. David S. Shields FOOD FIGHT
Welsh 207. Phone 803 629 3407. Office Hourse 1-3 M & Tuesday
I have already announced the required texts. Links to enable their purchase are
found below.
FOOD FIGHT explores the literature of agriculture, belles lettres, cookbooks, official
documents, and creative non-fiction concerning the issues of production and
consumption of food in the United States. It attempts to provide a historical
framework for a number of questions and issues—what constitutes an ideal farm?
What constitutes food quality? What is food security? What perils attend our food
production, processing, and consumption? I am not so much intent on arguing a
particular path forward in terms of food politics. Rather I want to suggest certain of
the complexities attending discussing what is the best way to grow and eat.
There will be a mid-term (20%) and final exam (20%). There will be a research
exercise for submission to the class (15%), an argumentative paper advocating a
course of action concerning some dimension of food (20%), and a research paper
(20%). I reserve 5% for adducing the quality of your class participation. Protocols
for the papers will be posted on blackboard indicating specifics of contents, format,
and time of submission. All exercises will employ primary & secondary sources that
will be annotated by either Chicago or MLA styles of reference. One of the papers
can be rewritten for an adjusted grade. There will be a 7% reduction in grade for
every day late in submission. All papers will be submitted to me via e-mail to
dshileds@mailbox.sc.edu.
READINGS: The following texts appear either on the WWW or in the course content
collection of the blackboard site for this course, or derive from the assigned four
books. The readings will be discussed in the order indicated below, though I will not
assign specific class sessions in which they will be featured since discussion of
certain of these items may require more than one class session.
AMERICAN FARMS, FIELDS, and GARDENS
Jesse Buel, “Address . . . to the Agricultural and Horticultural Societies of New Haven
County,” The Farmer’s Companion (1836) 261-282
http://books.google.com/books?id=zFIMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=jesse
+buel&source=bl&ots=xKNdbTUUi&sig=Z5x2RLB3AWVqfFv9E8qBxXcJORo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ewIgUJz6MMGr6QHX8
YGYAg&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=jesse%20buel&f=false
Wendell Berry, “The Pleasures of Eating,” What are People For? (1989)
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/pleasures-eating/
Robert Buist, Family Kitchen Gardener (1847) Introduction & descriptions of your
favorite vegetables
http://books.google.com/books?id=T1MMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=bui
st+kitchen+garden&source=bl&ots=I43zxmXO7C&sig=ntpcOsPHnFrHFQYA3jsC9I0_
BiM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uAUgUMnVD4Xu0gH1xoCIBQ&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAA#v=onep
age&q=buist%20kitchen%20garden&f=false
Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
http://www.shsu.edu/~eng_wpf/authors/Hawthorne/Rappaccini.htm
Alice Waters, A Delicious Revolution
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/delicious-revolution/
Authors at Google
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue2U90VJJ3I
Critique of A. W.:
Caitlan Flannagan, “Cultivating Failure,” The Atlantic Jan-Feb 2010
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/cultivatingfailure/7819/
THE IDEAL OF HAUTE CUISINE
Jules Arthur Harder, Physiology of Taste—Artichoke, Asparagus, Potatoes, Peas
http://books.google.com/books?id=eYYPAAAAYAAJ
American service, in Charles Ranhofer, The Epicurean 1-30
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ps1QAQAAIAAJ
Lucius Beebe, Along the Boulevards
http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/1940s/1946/04/alongtheboulevards?current
Page=1
MEAT & MEAT MARKETS
Thomas F. DeVoe The Market Assistant (1867)—Preface&section on Meat. Course
Section-pdf edition.
Meat 2010: The U. S. Meat Industry at a Glance
http://www.meatami.com/ht/d/sp/i/47465/pid/47465/
The Future of Beef Production in North America
http://animalfrontiers.fass.org/content/1/2/29.full
Industry Defenses Lit:
http://www.heartlandwq.iastate.edu/NR/rdonlyres/F6E4ABDB-6A8E-4775-97BE99E20FB3CAC0/159548/Capper.pdf
HEALTH
Sylvester Graham, A Defense of the Graham System of Eating
http://books.google.com/books?id=ODRlD83ww9IC
Physical Culture Movement: Bernarr Macfadden: Strength from Eating
http://books.google.com/books?id=AusPAQAAMAAJ
Hunger—World Fact Sheet
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.
htm
Obesity-Center for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/index.html
VISIONS OF THE FUTURE
Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto
http://www.amazon.com/In-Defense-Food-EatersManifesto/dp/1594201455/ref=pd_sim_b_6
Gerald Steinter, Monsanto’s “Feed the Future” Program
http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/Pages/Feed-the-Future-Initiative.aspx
Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security
http://www.foodsecurity.org/PrimerCFSCUAC.pdf
Barry Estabrook Tomatoeland
http://www.amazon.com/Tomatoland-Industrial-Agriculture-DestroyedAlluring/dp/1449401090/ref=pd_sim_b_40
Rowan Jacobson, American Terroir
http://www.amazon.com/American-Terroir-Savoring-Flavorsebook/dp/B003Y3BBAS/ref=tmm_kin_title_0
Gary Nabhan, Coming Home to Eat
http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Home-Eat-Pleasuresebook/dp/B0030CMKK8/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1344274136&sr=1-2