ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Empires in the Global History of Nutrition Science

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

English Abstract

This roundtable promises a lively discussion of the historical relationship between nutrition science and imperialism. The past two centuries have witnessed the rise and partial fall of imperialism as well as the global spread of scientific ideas and practices about healthy eating; both phenomena impacted the lives of people worldwide. Has this coincidence influenced the content of nutrition science, and if so, how? Has nutrition science served as a tool of empire, facilitating conquest and control? On the other hand, have the ideas, bodies, and foodways of colonized peoples challenged the assumptions of a science that originated in a Euro-American context and institutionalized, in many places, under imperial authority? How can we build a global history of modern nutrition science that accounts for the political and economic inequities of the world in which it developed?

The six scholars participating in this roundtable have researched nutrition science in diverse historical contexts. Based in Asia, Europe and North America, the speakers bring varied experience and perspectives to this topic. Sun explores the interconnection between nutrition studies and the reality of food resource management in the Japanese empire. Hopson focuses on the history and legacy of nutrition science's transwar transformations as Japan went from metropole to colony. Vargas-Dominguez examines the application of nutrition standards in Mexico to evaluate populations and support global interventions. Nott interrogates the history and political economy of nutrition in Anglophone Africa, with particular focus on the intersection of food economics and nutrition science. Levy focuses on nutrition science's hidden influence in postwar Micronesia, and the seeming mismatch between the explosion in lifestyle-related disease and the lack of intensive state-driven nutritional intervention. Finally, Smith proposes the term “nutritional imperialism” to describe attempts to change the bodies and foodways of people outside of Europe and North America.

Each speaker will briefly introduce their own work, and then the group will engage the audience in further discussion of common themes, debates, and unanswered questions.

Sub Unit

• Roundtable

Participants

• Joel Vargas Dominguez, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Iztapalapa)

• Nathan Edwin Hopson, University of Bergen

• Josh Levy, Library of Congress

• John Nott, University of Edinburgh

Session Organizers

• Hilary A. Smith, University of Denver

• Jing SUN, The University of Tokyo