Food Studies Research Network

Exploring agricultural, environmental, nutritional, social, and cultural dimensions of food.

The Food Studies Research Network brings together researchers, practitioners, producers, and policymakers to explore how food systems shape—and are shaped by—ecology, health, economy, and culture. Member-based and scholar-led, the Network serves as a global platform for examining food as both sustenance and meaning in a rapidly changing world.

Founded in 2011, the Food Studies Research Network began as an effort to connect scientific research on food systems with the lived realities of eating, cooking, growing, and governing food. From the start, the Network has worked across agriculture, nutrition, culture, and policy—taking food not only as a biological necessity, but as a social practice and a site of political and ecological tension. Early conversations focused on sustainability, food justice, and the changing relationships between production, consumption, and public health.

Since then, the International Conference on Food Studies has partnered with institutions across the world, including Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Gustolab International, Slow Food San Francisco, University of Pretoria, University of Guadalajara, CUCEI, Aarhus University, Politécnico de Portalegre, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, University of Osaka, and others. These gatherings have traced how global food systems are being reshaped by climate pressures, cultural practices, supply chains, and shifting ideas of nourishment and sovereignty.

Founding Chair Courtney Thomas helped establish its early commitment to connecting research and policy through a wide lens—from local food hubs and food security to alternative food movements and public health. Today, the Network is co-chaired by Hennie Fisher (University of Pretoria) and Blanca Rosa Aguilar Uscanga (University of Guadalajara), whose work spans culinary practice, food literacy, sensory research, food science, and cross-cultural approaches to sustainability. Their leadership underscores the Network’s bilingual, global, and hands-on orientation.

Over time, the Network has welcomed influential voices shaping contemporary debates about food systems. Plenary speakers such as Carlo Petrini, Corinna Hawkes, José Graziano da Silva, Patricia Allen, and Bill Winders have contributed perspectives on agricultural futures, food policy, community health, ethics, and cultural meaning—reinforcing the urgency and complexity of building sustainable and equitable food systems.

The Network’s publishing ecosystem centers on Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, which examines agriculture, nutrition, health, economics, and culture through a systems lens. It publishes work on topics ranging from food sovereignty and low-carbon agriculture to dietary health, food safety, and the political economy of global supply chains. Award-winning articles reflect this breadth, addressing issues such as food insecurity, sustainable farming, food literacy, and the cultural and ecological life cycles of foods.

Long-form scholarship is supported by the Food Studies Book Imprint, which publishes monographs and edited volumes on sustainability, governance, cultural food practices, gastronomy, and innovation in food systems. Open Access pathways ensure this research reaches educators, policymakers, producers, and community organizations worldwide.

Today, the Food Studies Research Network continues to bring together researchers, producers, practitioners, and policymakers to examine how food systems shape—and are shaped by—ecology, culture, health, and economic life. Through its annual conference, journal, book imprint, and CGScholar community, it sustains a global, member-based space for collaborative, practical, and forward-looking food research.

• 2011 - Food, Culture and Society, University of Nevada Las Vegas, Las Vegas, USA
• 2012 - Developing Local Food Hubs, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, USA
• 2013 - Success and Challenges in Food Systems, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA
• 2014 - Food for Thought, Monash University Prato Centre, Prato, Italy
• 2015 - A Cross Roads in Food Studies—Alternative vs. Traditional Food Systems and Movements, Virginia Polytechnic University, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA
• 2016 - Food Systems in an Age of the Anthropocene—Addressing Demands for Change, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, USA
• 2017 - Food Systems - Design and Innovation, Gustolab International Institute for Food Studies and Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy
• 2018 - Digital Food Cultures, University of British Columbia - Robson Square, Vancouver, Canada
• 2019 - Culinary Science: A New Foodway? National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan
• 2020 - Making the Local: Place, Authenticity, Sustainability, Marymount Manhattan College, New York City, USA (Virtual)
• 2021 - Making Sense from Taste: Quality, Context, Community, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark
• 2022 - Imagining the Edible: Food, Creativity, and the Arts, Marymount Manhattan College, New York USA
  
• 2023 - Technologies of Sustainable Food: Facing the Challenge of Climate Change, University of Guadalajara Guadalajara, México
  
• 2024 - Place Matters: The Valorization of Cultural, Gastronomic, and Territorial Heritage, Politécnico de Portalegre, Portalegre, Portugal
  
• 2025 - Fed Up: Learning From the Past, Imagining New Futures, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa