*STS Circle at Harvard* *[image: line.gif] * * * *Xaq Frohlich* *HASTS, MIT* * * on
*Accounting for Taste: Regulating Diet and Health on Food Labels * ** Monday, April 25th 12:15-2:00 p.m. 124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106 [image: line.gif] Lunch is provided if you RSVP. Please RSVP to sts <[email protected]>@hks.harvard.edu<[email protected]> by 5pm Thursday, April 21st. * * *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/ Follow us on Facebook: STS@Harvard <http://www.facebook.com/HarvardSTS> --------------------------------- 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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