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Good morning. I am Arien Mack, a Professor of Psychology at the Graduate Faculty of the New School. and, more to the point, Editor of Social Research, the journal of the Graduate Faculty for almost sixty five years which despite its age, continues to have sufficient appetite to organize a conference on food. Thank you for coming and welcome to the New School's conference, Food: Nature and Culture.
This conference is the sixth in a continuing series of Social Research conferences which began in 1988, and before turning the microphone over to the distinguished participants in this opening session, I would like to tell you something about this series. This series was founded on several basic assumptions. First, that even the most urgent contemporary events and issues are rarely unprecedented in human history; Second, that earlier experiences and ideas, despite their obvious capacity to illuminate the present, are frequently forgotten in the heat of public controversy. At the same time, this series recognizes that there is an unfortunate growing tendency to address difficult and complicated matters with narrow expertise, even when insights and possible answers may be found by bringing to bear a wider range of perspectives and ideas.
In response to this, we see our mission as the fostering of an ongoing public forum in which matters of grave interest and concern can be explored not only in terms of their immediate import; but also within their rich historical and cultural contexts. More than reaffirming the maxim that to forget history is to risk repeating it, we seek through this effort to assure a more intellectually inclusive, reflective and calmer understanding of the "hot" issues of the day.
To realize our mission, these conferences bring together scholars and practitioners from a broad array of fields and disciplines, guaranteeing that topics will not be examined through a single lens, but rather from a virtual kaleidoscope of perspectives ranging from the historic, political, social, economic, and scientific to the philosophical, legal and aesthetic. This intellectual breadth is reinforced through our collaborations with other cultural institutions that bring their own special expertise and resources to bear on our search for understanding. Thus none of our conferences, including this one, has been a stand-alone event. Instead, each has benefitted from a collaboration between the New School, which is the venue of the actual conference, and major NY cultural institutions, which sponsor their own related exhibitions, lectures, readings. We take pride in setting a new standard for such inter-institutional collaborations.
So the first conference, In Time of Plague: The History and Social Consequences of Lethal Epidemic Diseases examined the AIDS epidemic in light of the past, and was accompanied by an exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History. The next event, Home: A Place in the World, which explored the meanings of home and belonging in the context of present-day homelessness and the loss of homeland, was a collaboration with five major New York City museums. The third in the series, Rescue: The Paradoxes of Virtue, celebrated the founding of the University in Exile at the New School and the fourth, In the Company of Animals, explored the present controversy over our proper relationship to other animals in partnership with four museums and the Academy of American Poets This was followed in the Winter of 1997 by Technology and the Rest of Culture which explored how cultures generate and transform technologies which in turn transform the rest of culture at a time of great concern over the likely consequences of rapidly emerging new technologies. It included a poetry reading, public programs at the Metropolitan Museum, and several programs at other divisions of the New School.
Now let me turn to the subject of this conference, Food: Nature and Culture. Our title was chosen to reflect the two primary dimensions of food, each of which is generally discussed in isolation from the other. But at a time when, despite advancing technological sophistication, increasing numbers of people around the globe and here at home are suffering from malnourishment and hunger convening a conference to celebrate the complex social meanings of food could not be done in the absence of a full discussion of the scarcity and unequal distribution of food and the tangle of political issues that more often than not lie at the roots of these painful situations.
No one needs to be reminded that food is both essential to human survival and to everyday life. It is much more than nourishment. It informs every aspect of human activityCour histories our cultures, our social arrangements, the structure of our societies, our feelings, our spirit. Dietary preferences define ethnic groups and whole societies and go hand in hand with the growing globalization of tastes and foodstuffs. The symbolic and mythic importance of food is as evident in the story of The Fall as it is in Snow White or the Aesop's the Fox and the Grapes.. It is embedded in our language, in our literature and in our art and has been throughout history
What we eat, how we provision ourselves, the ceremonies and observances with which we surround food and eating, the power and joy of plenty and the fear and misery of famine and deprivationCall are occasions for reflection about the human condition. So to understand food is to understand ourselves.
The history of food production- from the domestication of animals and the deliberate cultivation of plants to the ever emerging reliance on genetic engineering of food productsCnot only reflects our relation to the natural environment but has been a major force in modifying it. The business of producing food- the agribusiness- coupled with new technologies of food production (although occupying ever fewer workers) remains a powerful part of the nation's economy and is increasingly an important part of multinational business.
However, while we are bombarded by images of food and its abundance, we are simultaneously confronted by headlines and televised pictures of hunger, famine and starvation even in our own streets. Surely, the persistence of hunger in a world where many experts believe there is food enough for all is one of the most urgent moral and political issues of our time. Why is the production and distribution of food so starkly out of joint with its consumption? What roles do power, science and ideology play in this heart-rending dilemma? What is the role of historically determined cultural food preferences? And most important, what can science and technology or economic and political initiatives do to address these tragic occurrences?
We have convened this conference to consider these critical questions, and to explore as well the historical and cultural aspects of food and foodways. Our purpose is to create a forum that links discourse about hunger, diet, and food security with discourse about the history, culture and political economy of food, and, by so doing, to elicit new perspectives on and approaches to the significant problems that confront all of us.
Like all our previous conferences, Food: Nature and Culture is surrounded by a citywide collaboration among eleven of New York City's most prestigious intellectual and cultural institutions. These institutions have created three months of fascinating and exciting public programs, exhibits and performances, which illuminate and expand upon the themes addressed at the conference. The participating institutions holding public programs and exhibits as part of the project are the Academy of American Poets; the Asia Society; the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum; The James Beard Foundation; the Japan Society; The Jewish Museum; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Museum for African Art; El Museo del Barrio; the New York Academy of Medicine; and the New-York Historical Society. We are also fortunate to have been joined in this effort by are the New School's Culinary Arts Program, the New School's Writing Program and the New School's Milano School, Nonprofit Management Program. The events hosted by our many collaborators are listed in the calendar of events available in the lobby, where you can also find flyers describing their programs.
We have dedicated this conference to the elimination of hunger and invite you to join us in this by bringing a non-perishable food item with you and placing it in the container in the lower lobby. The food collected will be given to City Harvest to be distributed in NYC. In addition as part of this effort we are joined today by the Urban Horizon Food Company which is catering today's sessions. Urban Horizons is an economic development business of the Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation, which provides employment training and job readiness preparation for women preparing to make the transition from welfare to employment. We hope you will enjoy their refreshments which are there for the taking but we also hope that you will consider making a donation to them in support of their work.
At this evening's Key Note session we will be joined by representatives from Doctors Without Borders who will distribute symbolic Malnutrition Bracelets, which they are encouraging us to wear in support of their work providing aid to those suffering from the famine in the Sudan. They will be here again tomorrow, along with representatives of a number of other organizations whose mission it is to fight hunger in NY. These organizations: City Harvest, Food for Survival, the Hunger Action Network of New York State, and the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, will have information available about their programs as well as volunteer opportunities and other ways in which you can help to support their work.
You may also have noticed our posters around the city announcing that the conference is Dedicated to Eliminating Hunger. Copies of the poster, which was designed for us by James Victore, are available to anyone who makes donation of $10 or more to Urban Horizons.
I'm almost done but I do have a few announcements. There will be a Food Conference reception to which I hope you will all come. You are all invited. It will be tomorrow afternoon at 5:30 following the closing of the afternoon session and will be held at the New School's Graduate Faculty building located at 65 Fifth Avenue. Following the reception there is a poetry reading at 8:00 pm in the Swayduck Auditorium at 65 Fifth. It is jointly sponsored by the Academy of American Poets and the New School Writing Program and has been organized by the eminent poet, John Hollander, who will be joined in reading by Martha Hollander, and J. D. McClatchey.
Finally, as I am sure you can guess none of these conference would be possible without the very generous support of others and I would like to take this opportunity to offer my own and the New School's profound thanks to The Rockefeller Foundation, to The Ford Foundation, to The Continental Grain Foundation, the to Organic Commodity Product Company and to The Earth Pledge Foundation for their generous support of this conference.
Part I: Everyday Life: Ordinary pleasures, rituals and taboos
Robert Adams, Secretary Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution, is currently professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. The most recent of his numerous publications is Paths of Fire: An Anthropologists Inquiry into Western Technology(1996).
Leonard Barkan is the Samuel Rudin Professor of the Humanities at New York University, Director of the New York Institute for the Humanities and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is wine editor of Gambero Rosso, and author, most recently, of Transforming Passion: Ganymede and the Erotics of Humanism (1991).
Maurice Bloch, currently professor of anthropology at the University of London, has also held the posts of Convener of the Anthropology Department at the London School of Economics and Associate Research Fellow at the Centre D'epistemologie Appliquee Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. His newest publication is How We Think They Think: Anthropological Studies in Cognition, Memory and Literacy (1998).
Gordon Conway is President of the Rockefeller Foundation and was previously Vice Chancellor at the University of Sussex as well as Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). His published works include After the Green Revolution: Sustainable Agriculture for Development (1990).
Wendy Doniger is Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of History of Religions in the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. Among her forthcoming publications are The Bed Trick: Myths of Sexual Masquerade (U. Chicago) and The Implied Spider: Politics and Theology in Myth (Columbia).
Judith Friedlander is Dean and Eberstadt Professor of anthropology at the New School University's Graduate Faculty.
Betty Fussell, has been writing and speaking about food, cooking, and travel for over 30 years. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Connoisseur, Journal of Gastronomy, and Bon Appetit, among others, and her books include Crazy for Corn (1995) and Home Bistro (1997).
Richard Goldman is the Director for the Program on Macroeconomic Policy and Management at the Harvard Institute for International Development and a lecturer in economics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. His recent articles include "Agricultural Growth and Food Issues in Asia" (background paper for HIID study) and "Emerging Asia: Changes and Challenges" (Asia Development Bank, 1997).
Steve Heller is the Senior Art Director for The New York Times Book Review. He is Chairperson and Instructor for the School of Visual Arts MFA/Design program and Editor of the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design. His many books include Food Wrap: Packages That Sell (PBC International) and That's Entertainment: Graphic Design for Popular Culture (PBC).
John Hollander is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University, Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and Secretary of the American Institute of Arts and Letters. He is the author of The Gazer's Spirit (1995), The Work of Poetry (1997) and The Poetry of Everyday Life (forthcoming, U. of Michigan Press) as well as numerous volumes of poetry and anthologies.
W. David Hopper is an agricultural economist and the former Senior Vice President for Policy, Planning, and Research at The World Bank.
Robert W. Herdt is the Director of the Agricultural Sciences Division for the Rockefeller Foundation.
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is professor of performance studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, as well as a Folklore Fellow of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. Her publications include "The Kosher Gourmet in the Nineteenth-Century Kitchen," in the Journal of Gastronomy, and the book, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage (1998).
William McNeill is Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Chicago. His works include Plagues and Peoples (1976) and The Global Tradition: Conquerors, Catastrophes and Community (1992).
Sidney Mintz is William L. Straus Jr. Professor Emeritus of anthropology at The John Hopkins University. He edits the journals Food and Foodways and Journal of Gastronomy, and has published numerous books and articles, including Sweetness and Power (1985) and Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom: Excursions into Eating, Culture, and the Past (1996).
Anne Murcott is professor of the sociology of health at South Bank University, London and Director of the Economic & Social Research Council (UK) Research Programme on the Social Science of Food Choice. Her publications include the co-authored The Sociology of Food: Eating, Diet and Culture (1983) and, most recently, the edited volume The Nation's Diet (1998)
Marion Nestle is professor and Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University. Among other appointments, Dr. Nestle was Senior Nutrition Policy Advisor in the Department of Health and Human Services, with principal responsibility as Managing Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health.
David Pimental, professor of ecology and agricultural science at Cornell University, has authored Techniques for Reducing Pesticide Use: Economic and Environmental Benefits (1997) and co-edited with Marcia Pimental Food, Energy, and Society (1996). He has sat on committees for the National Academy of Science and U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Energy, among others.
Per Pinstrup-Andersen is Director General of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). His prior positions include Director of the Cornell University Food and Nutrition Program and member of the Technical Advisory Committee to the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Claude Rawson is the Maynard Mack Professor of English at Yale University. He is the editor of the Blackwell Critical Biography series and the author of many books and articles, including Satire and Sentiment, 1660-1830 (1994) and Jonathan Swift: A Collection of Critical Essays (1995).
Paul Rozin is professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and member of the Editorial Boards for Appetite and the Journal of Gastronomy. He has authored or edited numerous books and articles, including "Body, Psyche and Culture: The Relationship Between Disgust and Morality" (forthcoming in The Cultural Construction of Social Cognition) and Morality and Health (in press).
Ismail Serageldin is Vice President for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development for The World Bank and Chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). He has designed and managed a range of poverty-focused projects in developing countries and is an internationally published author on many development-related topics.
Raymond Sokolov, Editor of the Arts and Leisure Page of The Wall Street Journal, has worked as a reporter, book reviewer, columnist, and editor for many national publications, including Natural History, Food & Wine, and Cuisine. His books include Why We Eat What We Eat: How the Encounter Between the New World and the Old Changed the Way Everyone on the Planet Eats (1991) Fading Feast: A Compendium of Disappearing American Regional Foods (in press).
Margaret Visser, a popular food historian worldwide, is the author of such books as The Way We Are (1997), The Rituals of Dinner (1991), and Much Depends on Dinner (1989), winner of the 1990 Glenfiddich Award in Britain for the Food Book of the Year. Her six-part series on everyday life in six European cities was broadcast by BBC Radio Four in early 1998.
