Association for the Study of Food & Society

The ASFS began to hold annual meetings in 1987. Since 1992, they have been held together with the Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society (AFHVS). In 1996, the International Food Choice Conference joined them for their meeting in the United States and the Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education co-sponsored the 1997 meeting. These annual meetings hold workshops, are opportunities to listen to and present papers and panels, chances to participate in roundtable discussions, and times to meet formally and informally with colleagues who hold similar or tangential interests.

Informing Possibilities for the Future of Food and Agriculture

2009 Joint Annual Meeting of the
Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society (AFHVS)
and the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS)
May 28-31, 2009
Penn Stater Conference Center, Penn State University, State College, PA
Program chair: Clare Hinrichs
Local arrangements chair: Carolyn Sachs

Our food and agriculture system now seems to manifest two opposing tendencies: one tendency is toward high technology, global sourcing, and disconnecting from “nature,” with profit being a key motivation. The other tendency is toward emphasizing natural processes and local sourcing, with building “community” and serving human needs being key motivations. The social constructions of the proponents of these respective tendencies inform social action to create social and biophysical infrastructures consistent with their preferred tendencies. Each tendency involves social, ethical, ecological and other issues that need to be closely examined from many different perspectives and discussed publicly. Understanding the divergences and convergences between these tendencies can inform the individual and collective choices that will shape our future food and agriculture system. Together AFHVS and ASFS are well-suited to examine the wide range of analytic and practice issues involved and to imagine the possibilities that can inform and invigorate public discussion.

The conference schedule ("at a glance") and the preliminary detailed program (with individual sessions and papers listed) can be found here. We expect to post a slightly updated version of the detailed program in the next week, after we have fully incorporated changes, additions, and deletions prompted by release of the program last week. We will notify this list when the revised program is available.

We welcome abstracts for papers, posters, and panels on all aspects of food, nutrition, and agriculture, including those related to:

Art, media, and literary analyses

Change & development

Culture & cultural geography

Ethics & philosophy

Food safety & risk

Gender and ethnicity

Globalization of agri-food

History

Inequality, access, security, & social justice

Knowledge

Local food systems

Pedagogy

Politics, policies, & governance in national & global contexts

Research methods, practices & issues

Social action & social movements

Sustainability

Science & technologies

Please contact colleagues now to organize thought provoking panels and events.

Keynote Speaker: Judy Wicks

Judy Wicks is founder of Philadelphia's landmark White Dog Cafe, and a national leader in the local, living economies movement. Over the last 26 years, the White Dog Café has become a model enterprise, known nationally for its community involvement, environmental stewardship, responsible business practices, and leadership in the local food movement.

White Dog has purchased sustainably grown produce from local family farmers for over 20 years, and is committed to purchasing only humanely and naturally raised animal products and sustainably harvested fish. Many imported ingredients, such as coffee, tea, chocolate, vanilla, and cinnamon are certified fair trade. White dog practices include recycling and composting, solar hot water, eco-friendly soaps and office supplies, and purchasing 100% of electricity from renewable sources, the first business in Pennsylvania to do so. In January, 2009, Judy sold the majority interest in White Dog Cafe, through an innovative exit strategy that preserves the values and socially responsible business practices through a “social contact.”

In 2001, Judy co-founded the nationwide Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), now with 65 local networks in the US and Canada. That same year she founded the Philadelphia Fair Food Project and the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, the local BALLE network, now with over 400 business members.

Judy has won numerous awards, including the James Beard Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2005, and the Philadelphia Sustainability Awards Life Time Achievement in 2007. Other accolades include Oprah Magazine’s “5 Amazingly Gifted and Giving Food Professionals,” and Inc. Magazine's 25 favorite entrepreneurs.

Co-author of White Dog Cafe Cookbook: Multicultural Recipes and Tales of Adventure from Philadelphia’s Revolutionary Restaurant, Judy is currently working on a new book, Good Morning, Beautiful Business, to be published by Chelsea Green in 2010. Other writings can be found at her website.

The conference registration website for the 2009 Joint Annual Meetings of the Agriculture, Food and Human Values Society (AFHVS) and the Association for the Study of Food and Society (ASFS)AFHVS/ASFS is now open. Detailed information about pre-conference tours and optional dinners is posted, as are links to conference registration and to the Penn Stater Conference Center to book lodging.

Send program correspondence to:

Clare Hinrichs
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology
112F Armsby Bldg.
Penn State University
University Park, PA 16802 .

Student Paper Awards

To encourage participation by undergraduate and graduate students and to recognize scholarly excellence, both ASFS and AFHVS invite submissions to their student paper competitions. The details for these paper competitions are available on the respective organizations' websites.

An eligible paper must be sole-authored by a student (or co-authored by two students), be on a topic related to food or agriculture that is relevant to the conference, and have had an abstract submitted in response to this call for papers. A paper may be submitted to only one of the paper competitions, not both. Final versions of the papers must be submitted to the respective organizations student paper award committee by March 15, 2009. To receive their awards, winners must present their papers at the conference. Awards include paid meeting registration fees, tickets to the conference banquet, and small stipends.

For information about our past meetings, visit this page.

For information about AFHVS and past meetings and future announcements, visit their website.

For Richard Ryan's account of the 2004 conference (Agriculture to Culture: The Social Transformation of Food ), click here.

For Dorothy Blair's photos of the 2005 conference (Visualizing Food and Farm), click here.

To read abstracts of papers presented at the 2006 conference (Place, Taste, and Sustenance: The Social Spaces of Food and
Agriculture, published in the journal Appetite), click here. Full texts of many articles are available to Appetite subscribers, or by purchase.