NRC 2018 Forum - UNPACKING FOOD LITERACY

Theme: Unpacking food literacy in a complex food environment
This session will explore how food literacy as a concept, skill set, health promotion strategy and educational tool can help people navigate a complex and ever changing foodscape. 

Our foodscape has never been more complex and confusing. Food is cheaper than ever and “nutrition” discoveries and branded “functional foods” promise to make life faster, easier and healthier. In the midst of this “cheap” abundance, too many Canadians are food insecure, afraid of food, and have nutrition-related illness. Sales of “ultra-processed” foods have skyrocketed and “Skip the Dishes” has exploded.  Opportunities to learn about food, nutrition and “cooking” are increasingly the domain of “food TV” and corporate “big food” while school-based programs are under threat. This talk will discuss “food literacy” as a concept, skill set, health promotion strategy and pedagogical tool. We will also examine whether food literacy is merely moral panic in our changing world, simply a re-branding of unexamined nutrition messages, or holds the potential to transform our relationships with our selves, our families and our communities.