The commercial food system is an intricate web of labor, technology, and regulations designed to deliver fresh, tasty, safe, and shelf-stable food to the greatest number of people. No matter the product, complex processes are involved in the harvesting, processing, packaging, marketing, and preparing of food—an impressive economic, human, and technological feat that can trace its origins to the 1860s. But in spite of the food industry’s remarkable expansion and development since then, most people don’t know where their food comes from, how it’s processed and marketed, why it ends up on sale at the grocery store or on the menu at their favorite restaurant. And worse, they don’t know how to use their voices and change their behaviors to reform a system that, though certainly efficient, regularly runs afoul of our modern values like sustainability, public health equity, and economic justice.
Get to the bottom of these issues yourself with Where Our Food Really Comes From, an eight-lecture course that explores the history, design, technology, and labor behind the food you know and love. Certified master chef and strategic food business development consultant Brad Barnes will be your expert guide. You will see how food products are cultivated on farms, ranches, and fisheries throughout the world. You will also explore the economics, psychology, and philosophy behind our contemporary food industry. And you will take an in-depth look at the food service industry, a broad and vibrant sector that stretches across fine-dining, senior living centers, hospitals, and college dormitories.
That’s not all, though. Where Our Food Really Comes From approaches our contemporary food system fairly and humanely, highlighting its strengths as well as its weaknesses. It shows us that there are people powering our food, from farmers to truck drivers to star chefs like Brad. And the course illustrates that we are not passive but active and engaged participants in the process. It’s not just about where our food comes from but how it gets to us, and how we participate in the commercial food system as consumers, having more power to affect change than we realize.
