Extending food studies’ reach across the table and aisle

Reflections from a “square peg” on contemporary silos hindering food system transformation

Abstract

Food studies is both a unifying discipline and post-discipline, in that it brings together and transforms perspectives with origins in sociology, geography, planning, dietetics, public health, environmental management, immigration studies, and community development, etc. Food is a platform for bridging worldviews, lived experiences, disciplinary, and sectoral silos, and scalar jurisdictional perspectives. Food is a platform for relational understanding and common ground amongst diverse interests. Nonetheless, key silos persist and provide a challenge for food scholars, practitioners, and activists to overcome. What follows is a reflection, offering examples where we need to make ongoing efforts to reach across the table and aisle to build novel relationships and thus elicit transformative change.