Harnessing the Trajectory of Food Transitions to Better Feed the World

• Main Author: Tung, Catherine
• Format: Others
• Published: Scholarship @ Claremont 2014
• Subjects: food; food politics; food landscapes; dietary transition; modernization and well being; feeding the world; Comparative Nutrition; Food and Drug Law; International and Community Nutrition; Nutritional Epidemiology
• Online Access: http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/966; http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1841&context=cmc_theses

This thesis examines the trajectory of food politics and its relationship with modernizing food landscapes. Today’s food politics discussions in the US and other high-income countries lean towards concerns with social issues, while in the recent past it was more focused on producing enough food to feed the growing population – two different situations with important concerns. The question this thesis explores is whether the modernization of society has given us a higher level of wellbeing and a better world through food landscapes and food policy, and how we came up with the current food situations we face today. It looks into the food landscape and policies of the US and its implications on wellbeing, and the dietary transition of Japan, comparing it to other modernized countries. It is important to look at these factors of food politics to see how other countries may handle a food transition, and whether or not there is a direction all countries can go in that will better benefit its food landscapes. Concerns not only lie in producing sufficient yields but also in wellbeing, cultural values, and true consumer demands. Only when true consumer demands are acknowledged individually can the trajectory of food politics be better harnessed and guided to a more desirable outcome than it has been going in so far.