Author Archives: annazeide

After working for the past few months to lay the foundation, we officially launched the Virginia Tech Food Studies Program this past week! It has been great to usher this into the community, and begin to share some of our projects. We’ve built a new website: https://liberalarts.vt.edu/research-centers/food-studies-program.html The program was profiled in a recent VTContinue reading “Launching VT Food Studies”

After six years in Oklahoma, with a great experience and wonderful colleagues at Oklahoma State, this is my first fall semester at a new institution, kicking off a new phase at Virginia Tech. We are excited to be here, among the Appalachians, the mythical Hokie Bird mascot, kind neighbors and new friends, and the lushContinue reading “New Beginnings”

Today’s the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and I’m thinking a lot about what this moment means, in the light of these twin crises we find ourselves in today: COVID-19 and the climate crisis. One may feel much more pressing, much more a problem of right-now. But the other—the continuing increase in carbon dioxide inContinue reading “50th Anniversary of Earth Day”

Seeking diverse contributors for an anthology about the history of food and environment We are editing an anthology about the origins of the modern food system, focused on the period between the 1870s and 1930s. The contributors already onboard all work at the intersection of food and environmental history. The book, tentatively titled “Acquired Tastes: StoriesContinue reading “CFP”

This post is inspired by a question that a terrific student in my food history class recently asked me. She said, “Ok, so now that I’ve learned more about the American food system and have been recognizing how removed we are from where our food comes from, what should I do about what and howContinue reading “Ok, I get the idea, but now what do I eat?”

I’m hoping that, along with the publication of Canned, I might welcome some new visitors to this website. If you’re new here, welcome! I’d love to hear how you came across my work, and what you think of it. Toward that end, I’ve been updating the material on this site to be useful for potential collaborators,Continue reading “Website Refresh”

The past several months have seen a lot of activity as I’ve worked to get my book ready for publication. And now it is here! Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry was published on March 6, 2018. Here’s a video of my 2.5-year-old helping me to open the package that contained my veryContinue reading “The book is here!”

Earlier, I wrote about how much place shapes food interests, and how I yearned for more food-related interest in Stillwater, OK, where I now live. One of the ways I’ve been trying to be the change I wish to see in the world is by organizing a new Food Studies Program here at Oklahoma State University.Continue reading “Stillwater Food Studies”

As an environmental historian and a food historian, perhaps it should come as no surprise that where one lives shapes what one eats. And yet, the real transformation in my engagement with food over the past three years–since moving from Madison, Wisconsin to Stillwater, Oklahoma–has been remarkable. I realized, of course, that my involvement withContinue reading “How much place shapes food interests”

In January 2011, I began a blog I decided to call Dining and Opining. It was partly motivated by Mark Bittman’s announcement that he was shifting from the New York Times Dining section to the Op-Ed section. He was still going to be writing about food, but rather than just sharing recipes, he wanted toContinue reading “On returns”