Writing about Food: Resources to use with Food MattersHolly Bauer

There are many great resources available to use in a writing course that focuses on food. Instructors may consider bringing in a documentary, film, novel, memoir, or nonfiction book. Here are some choices that would pair effectively with Food Matters:

Documentary Films:

Food, Inc.

Food Matters

Forks Over Knives

The Future of Food

King Corn

Super Size Me

Food Fight

The Harvest

Books:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver

Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser

The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, Marion Nestle

The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, Peter Singer and Jim Mason

Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé

Stuffed and Starved, Raj Patel

Tomatoland, Barry Estabrook

My Year of Meats, Ruth Ozeki

Ways to Integrate Films and Books:

  • Begin the course with a book from the list above, and ask students to consider how the author answers (or might answer) all five questions around which Food Matters is organized. Use this to introduce the themes of the course, and then use the book as you move through each section, thinking about how the essays or images in that section speak to issues raised by the book.
  • Select a book that crosses many themes, and read the book in parts throughout the course. For example, Michael Pollan’sThe Omnivore’s Dilemma could be divided up this way: Section One with the first two sections of Food Matters; Section Two with the third section of Food Matters; and Section Three with the last two sections (especially the one on ethics) of Food Matters. Also, different chapters of Singer and Mason’s The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter could be used with different sections of Food Matters.
  • Consider using a novel, such as My Year of Meats, which raises many ethical issues and offers a different way to consider food choices and moral choices.
  • Barbara Kingsolver’s memoir of her year of eating locally, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, would be particularly useful to a course in which the instructor wanted to talk about narrative. It is carefully and elegantly written and is thus a great model for students.
  • Show a film on a day when a major paper is due. This can be used to introduce the topic or theme of the next section and offers something to discuss without having to have reading due on the same day a major paper is due.
  • Have students view and discuss the films together outside of class as a way to extend the classroom community.