[Sci-tech-public] STS Circle, April 25th - Xaq Frohlich - (Please RSVP)

[Harvard STS]

*STS Circle at Harvard*
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*Xaq Frohlich*
*HASTS, MIT*
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on

*Accounting for Taste: Regulating Diet and Health on Food Labels *
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Monday, April 25th
12:15-2:00 p.m.
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106

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Lunch is provided if you RSVP.
Please RSVP to sts <sts at hks.harvard.edu>@hks.harvard.edu<sts at hks.harvard.edu>
 by 5pm Thursday, April 21st.

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*Abstract:* In this talk I explore the history of nutrition labeling in the
United States as an example of how corporate, regulatory, and expert
organizations and institutions seek to frame everyday understandings of
food, risk, and responsibility.  I situate two key moments of dramatic
change in the Food and Drug Administration's regulation of food labeling --
the 1973 introduction of the "voluntary" Nutrition Information label, and
the 1993 introduction of the mandatory Nutrition Facts panel -- in a longer
historical context of debates about new food and diet markets and the proper
role of governments in telling consumer-citizens what is "good to eat."
 Through this history, I argue that, rather than view the introduction of
nutrition labeling as a narrative of consumer liberation through
information, we should examine labeling as a regulatory apparatus whose
purpose is to shape industry practices and to construct food markets as much
or more than to address the consumer audiences the label ostensibly targets.


*Biography*: Xaq Frohlich's research centers on the "science" of risk
assessment and risk communication, food as a liminal object that bridges the
environment and human health, and socially responsible consumption. His
dissertation, "Accounting for Taste: Regulating Food Labeling in the
'Affluent Society,' 1945-1995," is a history of the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration's food labeling policies, and the cultural ramifications of
the "nutrition transition," the turn from public health concerns about
nutrition deficiency to the preoccupation with overeating.  He has also
worked on agricultural biotechnology in an international development
context, helping Oxfam America assess the socioeconomic impact of transgenic
cotton on resource-poor farmers.  In 2009-2010, he was a Fulbright Fellow in
Spain pursuing research on the scientific rediscovery of the Mediterranean
Diet and its 'reinvention' as a globally marketable, healthy lifestyle.


A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website:
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/
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---------------------------------
Samuel A. Evans, DPhil
Postdoctoral Fellow
& Chair of the STS Circle
Harvard University

Program on Science, Technology, & Society
Kennedy School of Government

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts
+1 (617) 496-0807
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