Food Systems, Nutrition, and Culture in the Spanish Caribbean: Landscapes and Discourses

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

This panel brings together papers that apply different methodologies and disciplinary approaches to explore the relationship between agricultural patterns, food landscapes, and nutrition discourses in the Spanish Caribbean. Despite the region’s shared historical trajectory, distinct politico-economic organizations during the past century crucially shaped both food systems and the relationship between nutrition and public health. Thus, this panel analyzes examples of the effects of these transformations over the region’s food landscapes and nutritional status. It also examines the historical and contemporary construction of scientific, policy, and popular notions about food and agriculture and their deployment at various levels.

Sub Track

• Agrarian and Rural Life

Session Organizer

• Elisa M González, Columbia University

Chair

• Melissa Fuster, NYU Steinhardt School

Individual Presentations

• "Solving the Medico-social Problem of Our People”: Food, Nutrition, and Rural Hygiene in Puerto Rico during the 1930s - Elisa M González, Columbia University

• Caribbean Public Foodmaps: La Plaza del Mercado in San Juan and El Mercado Modelo in Santo Domingo - Lidia Marte, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Recinto de Rio Piedras

• The MacDonalization of the Home of the Whopper by Wendys: The Geography of North American Fast Foods Franchises in Puerto Rico - Carlos J Guilbe, Universidad de Puerto Rico

• Food, between Taste and Nutrition: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Food Experts in Cuba and Puerto Rico - Melissa Fuster, NYU Steinhardt School

Discussant

• Cruz M Ortiz Cuadra, UPR