Food Science in Community-Based Food Systems

Abstract

Far before there was a field called “food science,” and humans have been making observations about food and manipulating it to enhance or alter its properties. From processing and making goods out of grain to cutting and curing meat and to preserving vegetables and other foods, the principles of food science have been practiced and shared among people in familial, geographic, and cultural communities for generations. Through the United States’ history with settler colonialism, genocide of Indigenous peoples, and human enslavement, the practice of manipulating and moving food through our communities has become largely controlled by industry for profit. Here in what is now known as the United States, food apartheid manifests that history. To work toward food sovereignty and security means to carry the responsibility of acknowledging and fighting the unjust way food is manipulated for profit and moves throughout our communities while simultaneously building new, just pathways.