History 263: From Farm to Fork: Slow Food Fast Food, and European Foodways

Over the last two centuries food production moved from peasant subsistence level to our contemporary factory farms and mass production of food.  How and why did this happen? What role did urbanization, expanding markets, and globalization play? How important was the US in shaping European agriculture norms? This course explores the shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy and its impact on food, farms, and national food cultures. Concentrating on France and Great Britain, we’ll look at the relationship between factory farms and artisanal production.  We’ll parse the powers of technology, the state, producers, and consumers.  From agricultural science to back to the land movements to European Union regulations and how these shape farmers’ choices, we’ll explore how modern developments changed farming, eating, and the land.  Based in the reading and discussion of primary and secondary sources, this seminar requires class presentations, short papers, and a final short research project. May be taken for credit toward the core requirement for the History-Environmental Studies major.