Food Security: Challenges & Risks for the 21st Century in Asia

INTL 190

Capstone Seminar

Winter 2022

Prof. Jana Fortier, PhD

Contact & Questions: Use Canvas mail tool 

jfortier@ucsd.edu

Zoom: https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/3043391783

RBC 3203, Weds., 12:30-3:20pm

Off hrs: 11-12 T/Th or by appt 

Class Access: http://canvas.ucsd.edu/

version 01/02/22  

This course is designed to deepen your knowledge of key issues in food studies as an emerging field of significance in international studies. Students will delve into weekly topics concerning some challenges of food culture with attention to topics such as food security, food markets, restaurant and commercial foods, foods among diaspora communities, the origins of key crops, the future of genetically modified foods, trends in health foods, and problems of malnutrition. While we’ll discuss concerns of people in various world areas, the focus will be on food traditions of South Asia in particular and Asia in general. Some of the questions we’ll ask include, 'How has food insecurity influenced geopolitical conflict?'; ‘How do trade policies affect food producers and commodities markets?'; ‘How are cultural tastes for authentic home-cooked food satisfied in Asian diaspora communities?'; 'Why is rice fundamentally significant across Asian cuisines?'; ‘What are the costs and benefits of producing genetically modified crops?’. Students should plan on writing a research paper on a central issue involving a significant topic such as history, politics, cultural significance, trade relations, or future trends of an Asian cuisine. While we will be reading about South Asia’s food culture, you may either focus on this world area or write a comparative paper which includes another world area.

Learning Outcomes

•Recognize the dimensions of physical geography, climate issues, and weather influences on agricultural regions of South Asia

•Become familiar with basic geopolitics, demographics, migrations, & communities in class readings

•Appreciate diversity of foods & cultures, their significance in class readings

•Become familiar with sustainable food & food security issues

•Become familiar with basic concepts surrounding food studies 

•Master key ideas and conceptual frameworks in food studies

•Appreciate the role of significant food plants and animals in regions under discussion 

•Recognize food trade issues of significance in this world region

•Become familiar with regional food nutritional values and dietary issues such as malnutrition

Course Requirements  You will probably have a day or two when you feel unable to get to your lectures, or finish a weekly question, or join in discussions. Don’t get discouraged! Just email or ask to conference with me. Let me know if you need help with a research paper topic, if you want me to review your writing, or if you don’t understand some concepts. Sometimes I miss seeing an email, too, so don’t be shy about sending a request twice.        

1. Attendance & Participation. Be prepared to attend sessions in person when UCSD allows on-campus classes. You are expected to be on time for class, complete your readings before class, & prepare with questions and comments for discussion. Class participation is encouraged and considered in your performance. This includes offering ideas, talking with fellow students, asking thoughtful questions, etc. Class participation may involve sharing highlights from your WQs during class, doing an activity in class, or reflecting on films and media in group discussions. 20pts/meeting session. Students who miss class or assignments for the purpose of quarantine, religious observance, job interview, illness, or an unexpected problem are permitted to make up course work. You will need to submit a 1-2 page (250-500 word) summary from the posted zoom class lecture. Please email me through Canvas about your situation ahead of time or in a timely manner. We expect students to attend all classes and to schedule other meetings and appointments during non-class times.

2. Weekly Reading Review (RR). Write a short summary of your weekly readings and include a couple of questions for class discussion. For example, read Week 2 assigned readings and turn in your RR for the Week 2 meeting. In your RR, write up some of the questions you have about our weekly readings and lectures. Typically, you might write thoughtfully about a follow-up question you have, or a key idea that needs more clarification for you, or simply some idea from lecture or the readings that you want us to talk about more. You can write a question for all the readings, or a longer question for just one of the readings as you prefer. Elaborate on your questions enough so that you write about 2 pages (400-500 words). This is where we have a chance to connect relevant topics in the news with our lectures & readings. I look forward to reading these, so try to come up with some interesting thoughts and ideas! Turn RRs into the Assignments tab in Canvas by Monday, 6 pm PST each week (except for Week One). 20 pts each.

3. Powerpoint Presentation - Students will present a PPT presentation of about 10 minutes during the last few weeks of class. Topics will focus on issues pertaining to your capstone research paper. See the grading rubric in the PPT folder for more details. Also, we will have about 10 minutes of follow-up discussion after student PPT presentations. Use active listening skills when others are giving presentations. Develop one question to ask of other students after their presentations. 50 pts.

4. Research Paper. Your research paper will be based on a research question with sections for the background,  data, and analysis concerning the paper’s topic. Details and guidance will be given in class and will be personalized so that you can do research on a topic of your interest. Research papers will be about 4,000-5,000 words. Altogether your paper will be about 20 pages, double spaced, including a cover page, body of text, tables, maps, figures, references, and any footnotes. 

Preparing the Research Paper. Details will be given in class, but this is an overview of the process of building your research paper. Due each week:

Week 4 - Research Proposal. Write a one page summary about your intended subject. 20pts

Week 5 - Literature Review. Write 1-2 pages about the articles you intend to use for your paper. Choose 2 readings from class syllabus as references. In addition, choose 2-10 articles from outside reading of your topic. For each article, write a couple sentences about why this article is best for your paper. Choose peer-reviewed journals and books which are relevant to your topic and information. Ask me to approve any other references, from blogs or newspapers for example. Submit your lit review in Chicago reference style preferably. 20pts

Week 6 - Data Collection. Describe what kind of data, facts, and information you will be using. This may be information you collect through an interview with someone, or data you collect from a published database, such as data that you gather from relevant government agencies or non-governmental organizations (NGOs). 20pts

Week 7 – Outline of Research Paper – Explain the significance of your research topic; the titles of your paper’s sections; and 3-4 highlights that you plan to include in your paper. and why you will analyze and present each type of data that you collect.  20pts

Week 8 - Figures, Maps, and Tables. Choose 2-3 of these to include in your paper. 20pts

Week 9 & 10 – Give a 10 minute PPT presentation about your research. 50pts

Finals Week – Research Paper is due Monday, Mar. 14th, midnight. 250 pts

Other Information

Written work is graded with attention to depth, breadth, clarity, creativity, and examples. In other words, given the parameters of written assignments, write with attention to appropriate depth of ideas for your topic, with choosing appropriate breadth of points you can cover, and write with clarity of thought and grammar. Your writings should always aim for some lively creativity and showcase examples to highlight your topic or main points. Avoid unnecessary wordiness and spoken idioms!

Extra Credit You will need to ask me for extra credit & it will be offered under the Assignments tab. You may do these if you missed an WQ or other assignment. Using an assigned YouTube video for guidance, you can make a banana leaf plate, for example. 

Extra sites such as Google Drive, Google Sites, and Mendeley. We have a Google webpage site to share or store video or audio clips,  PDF articles, writing drafts etc. For viewing: https://sites.google.com/view/southasiafoodculture/home

Evaluation Policy: For D.S.P.S. students, reasonable accommodations will be made. It is the responsibility of the student to present their situation to the instructor during the first Session of the session so that a learning support plan of action can be put in place. Student rights, responsibilities and administrative due process is also enumerated in campus policies. Students agree that by taking this course required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. Such submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the terms of use agreement posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Video: When watching films through the UCSD library, first turn on your computer device’s VPN (Virtual Private Network) connection to UCSD. Details are available at https://library.ucsd.edu/computing-and-technology/connect-from-off-campus/. You can then access by clicking on the video links in the UCSD library film and video webpage (http://roger.ucsd.edu/search~S3). Type in the name of the film/video or click on the video name in this syllabus. If you lose your VPN connection or the film stops, you can often “Reload” (Command+R) and this gives the video more time to download so you can pick up where you left off. 

Summary of Canvas Organization PDF articles are in Files; Past Zoom Lectures are in Media Gallery; Weekly Written Question and Final Paper are in Assignments; Discussions and group talks are in Discussions. Attendance will be entered by me in the gradesheet. The Pages folder contains optional material.

Summary of Grading 20pts/each session for attendance; 20pts for each RRs; 400pts Research Paper, including the various components.

A/A- = 91-100%; B+/B/B- = 81-90%; C+/C/C- = 71-80%; D+/D/D- = 61-70%

SYLLABUS

Please read your assigned materials for a total of about 3-4 hours each week. If you can’t read every article within this time frame, please skim the article’s highlights until you get a good idea of the main points from the article abstract, section headings, first sentences of paragraphs, and conclusion. In addition, set aside some time to look at the media for each week. You can optionally include the media materials in your written Reading Reviews.

Week 1 Jan 6 Overview of South Asia’s Geography & Foods

Readings:

Sen, Colleen Taylor. Food Culture in India. Read Chapter 1- Available on Google Books.

Srinivas, Tulasi. 2021. ‘‘Swiggy it!’’: Food Delivery, Gastro Geographies, and the Shifting Meaning of the Local in Pandemic India” Gastronomica vol.21, no.4, pp.17–30.

Media:

Watch a Video: Our Choices Matter and/or The Wounded Souls of Rann

Explore a website: Ishita Unblogged: Celebrating Pongal (millet porridge) with Sakkarai Pongal

Week 2 Jan 13 Food Security in the Region

Readings: 

Sachs, Jeffrey and Ban Ki-Moon. Chapter 10 ‘Food Security’. The Age of Sustainable Development. Columbia Univ Press

Panter-Brick, Catherine, and Mark Eggerman. "Household responses to food shortages in western Nepal." Human Organization (1997): 190-198. 

Taheri, Fatemeh, Hossein Azadi, and Marijke D’Haese. "A world without hunger: organic or GM crops?." Sustainability 9, no. 4 (2017): 580.

Media:

UCSD Library Video (log-in first): Fishing: In the Sea of Greed  and/or a video about Lepcha farmers in Sikkim, Our Seeds, Central to Food, Life, and Culture

Explore a website: Sustainable Development Goals ; Global Food Security Index ; Afghanistan’s Farmers, Herders desperate ; Action Against Hunger

Week 3 Jan 20 Food Diversity in the Subcontinent

Readings:

Mintz & Schlettwein-Gsell 2002. "Food Patterns in Agrarian Societies: The Core-Fringe-Legume Hypothesis". Gastronomica 1.3 (2001): 40-52

Fortier, Jana 2009 Kings of the Forest Univ. of Hawaii Press, Chapter 5 

Appadurai, Arjun 1988. “How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India.” Comparative Studies in Society and History. 30: 3-24

Kanjilal, Sucharita. "Beyond Bourdieu: What Tomatoes in Indian Recipes Tell Us about “Taste”." Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 21, no. 3 (2021): 1-12.

Sen, Colleen Taylor. Food Culture in India. Chapter 2

Media:

Watch a Video: Excerpt from Jungle Nomads of the Himalayas and/or Village Food Kitchen by Lajim Budha Episode 9: The Last Nomad of Nepal

Explore a website: Darjeeling Aloo: Exploring a quintessential evening snack in the hills and/or Archaeological Ruins at Moenjodaro

Week 4 Jan 27 Food Purity & Impurity

Readings:

Ferro-Luzzi, Gabriella Eichinger. "Food Avoidances of Indian Tribes." Food, Ecology and Culture: Readings in the Anthropology of Dietary Practices. Gordon and Breach. pp. 385-406 only.

Roncaglia, S. " Bombay-Mumbai and the Dabbawalas: Origin and Development of a Parallel Economy" in Feeding the City: Work and Food Culture of the Mumbai Dabbawalas. Ch 1.

Srinivas, Tulasi. "As Mother Made It': The Cosmopolitan Indian Family, 'Authentic' food And The Construction Of Cultural Utopia." pp.191-197 only.

Doniger, W. "Varuna's Son Goes to Hell" and " Rebirth, Nonviolence, And Vegetarianism"; in The Hindus. 

Media:

Watch a Video: Excerpt from The Lunchbox and/or A World of Food: Tastes & Taboos in Difference Culturesand

Explore a website: Mrs. Balbir Singh: Indian Cookery

Week 5 Feb 3 Food, Cooking, & Identity

Readings:

Jhala, Angma. 2012. “Cosmopolitan Kitchens: Cooking For Princely Zenanas In Late Colonial India.” In Curried Cultures: Globalization, Food, and South Asia (2012): 49-72. 

Appadurai, Arjun. "Gastro‐Politics in Hindu South Asia." American ethnologist 8.3 (1981): 494-511.

Mahadevan, Meena, Dorothy Blair, and Emily Rose Raines. "Changing Food Habits in a South Indian Hindu Brahmin community: A Case of transitioning gender roles and family dynamics." Ecology of food and nutrition 53.6 (2014): 596-617.

Sen, Colleen Taylor. Food Culture in India. Chapter 3

Kannan, Smruthi Bala. "Making Rasam by the Eye during Uncertain Times." Gastronomica 20, no. 3 (2020): 41-42.

Online Video: Oshi Palav, a traditional meal and its social and cultural contexts in Tajikistan

Explore a website: DeccanTiffin

Week 6  Feb 10 Food in Public: Eating Out, Cooking Shows, & Public Culture

Readings:

Ray, Krishnendu. "SOAS Address: Rethinking Street Vending." Gastronomica 20, no. 1 (2020): 1-15.

Simi, Demi, and Jonathan Matusitz. "Glocalization of subway in India: How a US giant has adapted in the Asian subcontinent." Journal of Asian and African Studies 52.5 (2017): 573-585.

Dolphijn, Rick. 2006. “Capitalism on a Plate: The Politics of Meat Eating in Bangalore.” Gastronomica. 

Sen, Colleen Taylor. Food Culture in India. Chapter 5

Watch a Video: Exotic Indian Street Food Tour in Mumbai, India and/or Mug cake recipe in cooker | eggless chocolate mug cake in pressure cooker

Explore a website: Mint Lounge’s Food section

Week 7  Feb 17 Sustainable Agriculture in South Asia

Readings:

Ali, Abu Muhammad Shajaat. "Homegardens in Smallholder Farming Systems: examples from Bangladesh." Human Ecology 33.2 (2005): 245-270.

Ramesh, P., et al. "Status of Organic Farming in India." Current Science 98.9 (2010): 1190-1194.

Muenster, Daniel. 2018. "Performing alternative agriculture: critique and recuperation in Zero Budget Natural Farming, South India."

Watch a Video: Hunza People in Chipursan valley, Pakistan

Explore a website: Almost Heaven Farms or The Kamala Foundation: Regenerative Development in Nepal

Week 8  Feb 24 Native Foods: Resilient Cultivars

Readings: 

Fuller, Dorian Q., et al. "Across the Indian Ocean: The prehistoric movement of plants and animals." Antiquity 85.328 (2011): 544-558.

Dixit, Anjali A., et al. 2011. "Incorporation of whole, ancient grains into a modern Asian Indian diet to reduce the burden of chronic disease." Nutrition reviews 69: 479-488.

Deb, Debal. "Rice Cultures of Bengal." Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 21, no. 3 (2021): 91-101.

Sen, Selina. 2018. “Urban Gardening: As Indian cities grow congested, the only space left for gardens is up – on rooftops”, Scroll.in  at https://scroll.in/magazine/890669/as-indian-cities-grow-congested-the-only-space-left-for-gardens-is-up-on-rooftops

Watch a Video: Nar Bayrami: Traditional pomegranate festivity & culture

Explore a website: UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage

*This information comes from Azerbaijan, a southern Asian country

Explore a website: Asian Food Fest

Week 9  Mar 3 The South Asian Food Trade 

*No Reading Reviews this week

PPTs - Presenters please provide me a link to an article on your PPT topic. I will share it  with your classmates to review before your presentation. 

Readings:

Kraig, Bruce, and Colleen Taylor Sen. "Commonalities and Convergences in World Street Market Food." in Food & Markets: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Prospect Books, 2015. 

Besky, Sarah. "Colonial Pasts and Fair Trade Futures: Changing Modes Of Production And Regulation On Darjeeling Tea Plantations." in Fair Trade And Social Justice: Global Ethnographies (2010): 97-122.

Optional: Arijit Sen (2016) "Food, Place, And Memory: Bangladeshi fish stores on Devon Avenue, Chicago" Food and Foodways, 24: 67-88

Watch a Video: Amazon Prime Video: Masala Chai (preferred) Or YouTube Video: Tea in the Land of Thunder

Explore a website: RosieLovesTea

Week 10 Mar 10 Promoting Healthy Foods in Medicine & Health

*No Reading Reviews this week

PPTs - Presenters please provide me a link to an article on your PPT topic. I will share it  with your classmates to review before your presentation. 

Readings: 

Sarkar, Preetam, et al. "Traditional and Ayurvedic Foods of Indian origin." Journal of Ethnic Foods 2.3 (2015): 97-109.

Optional: Tamang, Jyoti Prakash. Himalayan fermented foods: microbiology, nutrition, and ethnic values. CRC Press, 2009. pp. 1-31.

Watch a Video: Conversations with the Veddha

Explore a website: The Ayurvedic Chef or The Eat Foundation

Final paper is due Monday Mar. 14th, midnight. Remember to format your 4,000 – 5,000 word paper with page numbers, a cover page with a title and your name. You may use either single or double spacing. You can use any standard citation format (APA, Chicago, Harvard) but be consistent. Upload as a .docx file.