Food utopias: hoping the future of agriculture

Abstract

When one walks the aisles of a typical America, Australian or German wealthy supermarket, the shelves are teeming with food-- cans, bags, packages, fruits, vegetables, freezers and refrigerators teeming with safely sealed meat packages, deli counters with gruyere and potato casserole, edamame salads, swimming lobsters-- a literal cornucopia of food. For many in the developed and wealthy classes of the world, this vision of access to any and all kinds of varieties of food is the norm. In contrast to our book Food Systems Failure (2011), which chronicled the most recent international food crises prompted by high staple crop prices, Food Utopias aims to highlight the various stories that food tells us about ourselves, both critical and hope-filled.