Around the world, attention is being paid to unfamiliar ingredients emerging from Pre-Columbian Latin American foodways. Often these ancient foods are marketed for their nutritional value, exoticism, and "authenticity." Global interest in crops such as quinoa and amaranth has created an economic boom for producers, but often with the effect of driving the rural villagers who traditionally consumed these crops out of the marketplace in favor of first-world gourmets. While a great deal of traditional farming knowledge was lost during the Columbian Exchange, most of the ingredients being "discovered" today have enjoyed a long history of uninterrupted cultivation and consumption in their lands of origin. This class seeks to address the culture of colonialism and globalization that allows such ingredients to be simultaneously "discovered" and exploited, and the various issues of agency, ownership, and social justice that underlie the adoption of new foods from Latin America.
Prerequisites
College Writing (LITC-100).