Food systems past, present and future
Our food systems past, present and future research explores the long-term effects of food systems, addressing how they have shaped the spaces, places, and landscapes of today.
The turn towards whole systems thinking in sustainability research has invited renewed discussions on how long-term perspectives on change when unified with multidisciplinary collaboration can offer holistic solutions for addressing significant societal challenges.
Food Systems: Past, Present, and Future will bring together researchers from across the University of 91直播 and a network of external partners to explore the long-term effects of food systems, addressing how they have shaped the spaces, places, and landscapes of today.
Bringing together researchers from a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds, the theme will help foster the cross-pollination of methods, findings, and emerging questions in cognate disciplines on food and drink-related research to help think about how knowledge of the past might inform our understandings of the present (and vice versa). While emphasising the legacy and impact of 鈥渉istorical鈥 contexts, this will be defined and applied in a variety of conceptualisations, from deep-time visions of food system change over millennia, to condensed thematic 鈥渕icrohistories鈥, to recent targeted case studies.
Equally, by including ideas, impressions, and real-world concerns expressed by modern practitioners involved in the food and drink industries, the theme will aim to utilise bodies of historical information for practical solutions and interventions. Accordingly, the interlinks and ramifications of food production and consumption will be explored through different social, historical, and cultural settings, and investigating how historical events resonate and echo in contemporary society.
Key projects
The '' project explores the politics of the English grain supply from 1315-1815 against the background of fluctuations in the balance of population and food supply, from famine susceptibility through a period of self-sufficiency to the beginnings of structural dependence on imports. This five-year (AHRC) funded project was based at the University of 91直播 for three years, and has since moved to the University of Oxford. The project is also partnered with the University of Utrecht. The distinctive contribution of the project lies in integrating the following three strands of empirical work in a broad and multifaceted context: Miling, Regulation and Attitudes to Millers; Cultural History of the Meaning Attached to Bread and Grain; History of the Baltic and North Sea Grain Trade.
Umberto Albarella鈥檚&苍产蝉辫; supports the writing of a book that will be published by Bloomsbury entitled 鈥淐ompanions. A History of Britain in 20 Animals鈥. This is a book about the contribution of animals to British History from the end of the last Glaciation to the Modern days. Food is a prominent topic covered by the book.
aims to use history and literature in innovative ways to address challenges linked to local communities and food sustainability in India. The project, funded by the (GCRF)- (AHRC) (2019-23) and (HEIF) (2022-25), brings food historians, literary scholars, sociologists and plant scientists into dialogue with public practitioners engaged in India鈥檚 food and local heritage sector 鈥 including local historians, heritage practitioners, authors, chefs, farmers, performers, filmmakers and street vendors. Together, Forgotten Food鈥檚 activities have invigorated local heritage agendas to bring economic and cultural benefits to struggling communities and regions in India, while also fostering social cohesion and the mediating of differences between religious groups.
鈥楢 Bountiful Spread: Eating and Etiquette in Muslim South Asia鈥 is the topic of Siobhan Lambert-Hurley鈥檚&苍产蝉辫; (2024-27). It starts from the premise that what and how Muslims eat is of vital importance in India now. At a time when Hindu nationalism projects fixities around food and identity, this project offers the first, sustained study of evolving culinary practices among Muslims in modern South Asia. Its aims have contemporary and historiographical significance: underlining the importance of neglected Muslim histories and Urdu-language sources, to how eating and etiquette have been negotiated 鈥榦n the ground鈥.
