Knowing Food: Insights from Around the Table

The 2023 Conference of the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS) and the Agriculture, Food & Human Values Society (AFHVS). BU MET’s graduate programs in Gastronomy & Food Studies and Programs in Food & Wine have been guided by the idea that you cannot know food unless you know food—by which we mean that our material interactions with food inform our intellectual engagement with food, and vice versa. We can read about food cultures or policies, but they come to life when we get involved at the hands-on level, whether that’s in a garden planting seeds, in the kitchen cooking with people, or among the community engaging in food systems. Conversely, if we cook without knowing why certain foods are in our kitchens or collaborate for change without understanding how food systems are organized, we only get half the picture. Without the full picture, we cannot make meaningful change. The ASFS and AFHVS invite interested scholars and practitioners to engage with the idea of knowing food—join us at the table to gain new insights that bring you closer to knowing food and its role in society.