Picture
© Food stories
Food Stories is an interactive feature from the British Library, designed for school children, to learn about the changes that have taken place in UK's food culture over the last century, and the issues concerning food production now. With animation and audio, the feature is a great way to explore how food relates to identity, cultural diversity, the environment, technology, farming, shopping, travel and more. 

Food is something we eat daily, without thought. We usually take it for granted too. But besides being necessary to live, food forms an integral part of culture, and recipes are something that have come down through generations. Food helps define who we are. A lot of our memories and happiest moments involve food on some level. Who does not long for good home food? Mom's cooking can make the most unemotional deeply nostalgic. Often traditions revolve around food, especially in India where any festival has its own cuisine. Nowadays there are a whole lot of new issues surrounding food, such as fair trade, health issues, and so on. 

This site tells us about all these things, and more. After seeing the site, I realised there are so many things connected with food, which I had never thought of, in spite of being a foodie. Under Food and Identity they talk about Food, Nation and Cultural Identity, and Ritual and Tradition. There are discussions on typical English dishes, how eatables that were scare are now common, or vice versa, and the changing habits of people, such as eating in front of the TV. 

On the Shopping for Food shelf, there is Retail Experience, Consumer Knowledge and Power (an area of growing importance), and Changes in Eating Habits. Consumer Knowledge and Power is a great way to get kids to know about safety issues concerning food and public health. It's informative without being scary. The Production and Technology shelf talks Food and Regulation, and Technology and Change. These tell is about the life-cycle of food, how it travels from field to stomach, and all the things it goes through between. This is specially relevant in the developed world and large scale farming and corporatization has taken over food production. It tells us about the challenges faced by farmers, the role of governments in agriculture, new issues such as bio-technology and gene patenting. 

All these sections enable users to understand how food deeply connects different parts of our lives. India, with its rich heritage and diversity of food,recipes and food culture, could really do with such a site, or a more interactive one. Meanwhile, do check out the site to get a more in-depth picture. 

As American chef and food writer James Beard said, "Food is our common ground, a universal experience."

By Armeen Kapadia
 


Comments

neelam

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:11:30

awaiting more interesting posts....

 



Leave a Reply