Heads up, #InstitutionalFood and #SchoolFood researchers! Can a breakfast be secular? Does lunch have a religion? If you serve halal or kosher food to someone without their knowing it’s halal or kosher, is it? Here’s to injecting a little critical food studies knowledge into our houses of government… Take a look at these two articles on CBC.com and weigh in with your thoughts!

“New secularism bill to ban prayer in schools, restrict offering of religion-based meals” (Nov. 24, 2025): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-21-expansion-quebec-9.6990951

“Quebec's new secularism bill targets daycare workers, prayer spaces and religious meals” (Nov. 27, 2025): https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-secularism-bill-9.6993278

#FoodStudies
#InstitutionalFood
#SchoolFood
#Religion
#Secularism
#Halal
#Haram
#Kosher
#Treyf
#CBC
#Québec
#NationalSchoolFoodProgram

photo: David Szanto

Sad news. 'Besides cooking, [Skye] Gyngell was a prolific writer, serving as a food editor for Vogue until 2003...also published four cookbooks, two of which (2006’s A Year In My Kitchen and 2010’s How I Cook) were award winners.' https://www.standard.co.uk/going-out/restaurants/skye-gyngell-spring-hackfield-place-dead-b1259375.html #foodstudies #chefs

Sad news. 'Besides cooking, [Skye] Gyngell was a prolific writer, serving as a food editor for Vogue until 2003...also published four cookbooks, two of which (2006’s A Year In My Kitchen and 2010’s How I Cook) were award winners.' https://www.standard.co.uk/going-out/restaurants/skye-gyngell-spring-hackfield-place-dead-b1259375.html #foodstudies #chefs

How did Canadian housewives become “housesoldiers”? And can food actually win wars? Read on!

We suggest you start with Jennifer Brady’s review of Ian Mosby’s first book, Food Will Win The War: The Politics, Culture and Science of Food (https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v1i2.46). Then, pair it with The Dorothy Perkins Canadian Garden Book.

https://www.ubcpress.ca/food-will-win-the-war
https://archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-109291-36/

More questions ensue: How does one stake up one’s tomatoes? What are the benefits of a cold frame? And is Dorothy Perkins the author’s real name?

Perkins teaches us how to be productionists in our own back garden on the heels of the first world war, while Mosby explores the whys and wherefores of household production in the second world war.

#FoodStudies
#FoodBooks
#HouseholdProduction
#VictoryGardens
#WarEfforts
#Canadiana
#Tomatoes
#Gardening

What began as a worrisome crop of weeds that popped up at the beginning of summer turned out to be...#TOMATILLOS!! Cooking the dodgier ones down as I type this for use in soups, salsas, and stews. #accidentalgardening #foodstudies #foodhistory #Physalis

What began as a worrisome crop of weeds that popped up at the beginning of summer turned out to be...#TOMATILLOS!! Cooking the dodgier ones down as I type this for use in soups, salsas, and stews. #accidentalgardening #foodstudies #foodhistory #Physalis

Doing a little course planning or looking for reading list additions? Revisit the Canadian Food Studies book reviews for some inspiration!

Start with Taarini Chopra’s review of Growing Resistance: Canadian Farmers and the Politics of Genetically Modified Wheat by Emily Eaton.
https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v1i1.38

Then pair it with Annabel Soutar’s theatre play, Seeds, which brings genetically modified crops into the realm of documentary theatre.
https://porteparole.org/en/plays/seeds/

#FoodStudies
#FoodBooks
#Theater
#DocumentaryTheatre
#GMOs
#GeneticallyModifiedFoods
#Wheat
#Farming
#Farmers
#Agriculture
#FoodPolitics
#SeedSaving

Check out the work of Dr. Jade Crimson Rose Da Costa to learn more about resistance and digital story telling!

Jade currently serves on the Canadian Association for Food Studies Board and on the Communications Committee.

Learn more about their work on their website: https://www.jadecrimson.com/

#MeetTheBoard #FoodStudies #FoodJustice #DigitalStoryTelling #Communications #FoodInsecurity

https://youtu.be/9Q8jT2uEX34

Read a good food studies book lately? Seen a food-art show or a kitchen design expo? Marathoned a food documentary series? Canadian Food Studies is always looking for book, media, art, and event reviews! Email the Reviews Editor (reviews [aht] canadian food studies [dawt] ca) or click on the “Submit a request” button on the journal’s landing page (canadianfoodstudies.ca).

#FoodStudies
#FoodArt
#FoodBooks
#FoodTV
#FoodDesign
#FoodFilms
#BookReviews
#FilmReviews
#TVReviews
#ArtCriticism
#Design
#ResearchCreation

image: David Szanto

Are you exploring Alternative Food Networks? You should check out the work of Dr. Alissa Overend!

Alissa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at MacEwan University. Their 2021 book Shifting Food Facts (Routledge Press) examined the shifting food truths of contemporary dietary discourse and was featured in a webinar on CAFS YT: “The Many Truths of Food and Nutrition.” Their current work explores alternative food networks in Alberta.

Alissa currently serves on the Canadian Associate for Food Studies Board in the role of Membership Engagement.

https://youtu.be/Zm0iiYqoQ5I

#MeetTheBoard #AlternativeFoodNetworks #FoodStudies #CriticalFoodStudies #DietaryDiscourse #CAFS #Sociology #SocialTheory #IntersectionalFeminism #MediaAnalysis #DiscourseAnalysis

Looking for some rich, hearty, and satisfying food studies readings? Check out the latest book reviews from Canadian Food Studies!

Eating Like a Mennonite: Food and Community Across Borders (by Marlene Epp), reviewed by Aqeel Ihsan
https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v12i2.743

Serving the Public: The Good Food Revolution in Schools, Hospitals and Prisons (by Kevin Morgan), reviewed by Jennifer Sumner
https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v12i2.744

Hopped Up: How Travel, Trade, and Taste Made Beer a Global Commodity (by Jeffrey Pilcher), reviewed by Ethan Shapiro
https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v12i2.747

#FoodStudies
#FoodBooks
#Mennonites
#InstitutionalFood
#SchoolFood
#HospitalFood
#PrisonFood
#CarceralFood
#Beer
#Hops
#Brewing

Digesting Food Studies (the CFS podcast)—Episode 101: Introducing Meat Studies.

https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2172561/

Carnivores, herbivores, omnivores unite! Meat Studies has something for everyone (including #pescatarians, #vegans and #frugivores. But is meat a product, a process, or both?

This episode features Élisabeth Abergel and Ryan Phillips, guest editors of the Meat Studies themed section in Vol. 11 No. 1 of Canadian Food Studies. Alexia Moyer talks about the tools we use when eating meat—and how they have evolved over the year—and in the After Taste, grad student Emma Paisley responds to the article, “Meat politics at the dinner table” by Emily Kennedy, Shyon Baumann, and Josée Johnston.

#DigestingFoodStudies
#MeatStudies
#Veganism
#Vegetarianism
#PlantBasedMeat
#FoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#FoodSystems

Digesting Food Studies (the CFS podcast)—Episode 100: Welcome to Food Studies.
https://rss.com/podcasts/digesting-food-studies/2152655/

#DigestingFoodStudies
#FoodStudies
#FoodPodcast
#FoodSystems

Step back in time and listen to the founding editor of Canadian Food Studies, Ellen Desjardins, talk about the creation of the CAFS journal! Plus, meet the CFS co-managing editor, Alexia Moyer, who shares a tasty tidbit from food humanities each episode, in her segment, the Amuse Bouche.

Enjoy the full plenary, "FOUNDATIONS—Food studies in Indigenous Territories and Canada," the first plenary from CAFS/ACEA 20th Annual Assembly: Foundations, Evolutions, Revolutions, held at George Brown College, June 2–5, 2025, here:

https://youtu.be/2Wqic9XsQEA

#Food #IndigenousTerritories #Canada #FoodStudies #AfricanNovaScotians #Mikmaki

Save the date!

2026 Common Ground Food Forum
Building a bigger table: Strengthening our relations
June 15 - 19, 2026

Lakehead University Orillia Campus
500 University Avenue, Orillia, ON

Enregistrez la date !
Forum Alimentaire Terrain d’Entente 2026
Élargir la table : renforcer nos relations
15 au 19 juin 2026

Université Lakehead Campus d’Orillia
500, avenue University, Orillia (Ontario)

https://foodstudies.info/news-conferences/upcoming-conference/

#Food #FoodStudies #alimentaire #EtudesAlimentaires #FoodPolitics #PolitiqueAlimentaire
#TransitionAlimentaire #FoodTransition #AlimentationDurable #SustainableFood #EducationAlimentaire #FoodEducation #Agriculture #CAFS2026 #ACEA2026

"I have always admired Dr. Jennifer Clapp’s work and was fortunate to be able to work with her during my master’s and PhD. Dr. Clapp’s ability to see the big picture and identify causal forces that many overlook is always so impressive to me. Dr. Ryan Isakson is also a scholar that I look up to for his ability to skillfully communicate complex dynamics in our food system. Dr. Isakson is also my postdoctoral supervisor, and I should mention that both Dr. Clapp and Dr. Isakson have written a fascinating book on financialization in the food system, entitled Speculative Harvests." - Phoebe Stephens

The food studies landscape is rich with scholars whose work expands our understanding of the world in which we live. Whose work has challenged and guided your own?

#Mentorship #Research #FoodStudies #FoodScholarship #SpeculativeHarvests #FoodResearch #HigherEd

https://youtube.com/shorts/7GcXgUnqIgs

Why does the Canadian Association of Food Studies matter?

With Rachel Engler-Stringer: "So why does the Canadian Association for Food Studies matter to me? For me, it's about a home, a place where there's enough different disciplinary perspectives that I am sort of stretched and encouraged to think differently, both what it is that I am studying myself and what others are studying. I really like that CAFS stretches the boundaries of what it is that I am thinking about when it comes to food, food systems, food security. Thanks"

What disciplinary perspective do you bring to CAFS?

#Food #FoodStudies #InterdisciplinaryResearch #TransdisciplinaryResearch #Research #FoodSystems #FoodSecurity #Sociology #Nutrition #Geography #PoliticalScience #Anthropology #History

https://youtube.com/shorts/Ai4qrGNJoCw?si=iP97J2dcvat3Q5cF

"Ashanté M Reese, Black Food Geographies. This is my nomination for what should be included in the canon for food studies. In this book, Reese masterfully demonstrates the ways in which anti-Blackness and white supremacy shape access to food and inaccess to food. Very helpfully, talks about geographies of self-reliance and the ways in which people are not determined necessarily by their spatial reality, but ways in which they kind of interact with that reality in ways that inform hope that we can more towards more just and more equitable food systems. Black Food Geographies, Ashanté M Reese"

Michael Classens shares his nomination for what should be included in the food studies canon. What works do you include?

#Food #FoodStudies #FoodScholarship #BooksAboutFood #CurrentlyReading #BlackFoodGeographies #FoodSystems #FoodJustice #WhiteSupremacy

https://youtube.com/shorts/qRFNPD4T9EQ

Chelsea Klinke and Gertrude Korkor Samar share the food studies scholars that have influenced them:

"The ways in which we have come to know, be, and connect has been influenced by three major scholars who have written extensively in the food studies circles . . . "

Who has inspired your scholarship?

#Food #FoodScholarship #FoodStudies #FoodWays #FoodSovereignty #FoodSystems #IndigenousFoodSovereignty #Geography #EnvironmentalStudies #Sustainability

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZsGidXdX3Cs

Support open access food scholarship.
Promote critical, collaborative work in food and food systems.
Become a Canadian Association for Food Studies - L'association canadienne des études sur l'alimentation member today!

#Food #FoodScholarship #FoodStudies #FoodWays #FoodSovereignty #FoodPolitics #Nutrition #Agriculture #GrowingFood #OpenAccess #KnowledgeSharing

https://foodstudies.info/membership/