Food for Thought:
History, Technology, Gastronomy
The OSU Horning Endowment in the Humanities and the Outreach in Biotechnology Program are bringing seven speakers to campus during 2007-2008 who will address the theme “Food for Thought: History, Technology, Gastronomy.” Among the speakers are scientists, historians, and a legal scholar from the United States and abroad. The lectures range from scientific, political, and commercial issues in food technologies to histories of national and local food traditions and the haute cuisine of trendy molecular gastronomy.
Roger Beachy, a geneticist and president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri, will lead off the series with his lecture “Fulfilling the Promise of Crop Biotechnology for the Poor in Africa: Challenges for Science and Society.”
His lecture is scheduled Monday, 22 October, at 7:00 pm in the La Sells Stewart Center C&E Auditorium.
Dr. Beachy is a pioneer in research on developing virus-resistant plants through biotechnology. His research led to the development of the world’s first genetically modified food crop, a virus-resistant tomato. Dr. Beachy has held academic positions at Washington University at St. Louis and at The Scripps Research Institute at La Jolla, and he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and recipient of the 2001 Wolf Prize in Agriculture. His “Food for Thought” lecture will address scientific, political, and ethical issues facing the use of transgenic crops, drawing upon his laboratory’s basic research on plant biology and its applications to the improvement of
crop plants grown in developing countries, including rice and sweet potato.
All public lectures are scheduled for 7:00 pm in the LaSells Stewart C&E Auditorium, with the exception of the lecture on 8 November, which will take place in OSU Memorial Union 208 at 4:00 pm.
The schedule of speakers and their public lectures is the following:
Monday, 22 October 2007
“Fulfilling the Promise of Crop Biotechnology for the Poor in Africa: Challenges for Science and Society”
Roger Beachy, Danforth Plant Science Center
Thursday, 8 November 2007
"How to Cook an Egg and Other Lessons from the
Kitchen-Lab: A History of Molecular Gastronomy"
Rachel Ankeny, University of Adelaide
Thursday, 15 November 2007
“The Role and Rule of Law in the Global Development of Food Biotechnology”
Gary Marchant, Arizona State University
Thursday, 24 January 2008
"Planet Taco: The Globalization of Mexican Cuisine."
Jeffrey Pilcher, University of Minnesota
Monday, 25 February 2008
"Getting Biofuels Right: A Solution to the Biofuel versus
Food and Environment Dilemma"
David Tilman, University of Minnesota
Thursday, 10 April 2008
“The Apples of Our Eyes: Innovation, Art, and Ownership in American Fruits”
Daniel J. Kevles, Yale University
Thursday, 15 May 2008
“Eating Good in the Neighborhood: The Medical and Moral History of Dietary Localism”
Steven Shapin, Harvard University
Mary Jo Nye, Horning Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History, and Steven Strauss, Professor of Forest Science and Head of the Outreach in Biotechnology Program, have organized the series, building upon the “Food for Thought” lecture series of the last two years. Support for the series comes from the Thomas Hart and Mary Jones Horning Endowment in the Humanities, the History Department, and the Wait and Lois Rising Lectureship Fund in the College of Agricultural Sciences.
