Advice about Finding Data on Specific Subjects II        

The student may wish to know:

Where can I find information about Food Studies?

Our reply might be:

The best place to start is the search engine on the homepage of the Thammasat University Library.

Depending on the Faculty that the student is enrolled in, different sources of information may be most useful. Looking at databased on sustainable agriculture, natural resources, geography, pollution and waste management, public policy, social impacts, urban planning, and others may help. Psychosocial aspects of food and eating and health issues may be found at PubMed (Medline).

As the TU Library website explains,

PubMed comprises more than 25 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

The PubMed website further informs us that

PubMed is a free resource supporting the search and retrieval of biomedical and life sciences literature with the aim of improving health–both globally and personally.

The PubMed database contains more than 30 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature. It does not include full-text journal articles; however, links to the full text are often present when available from other sources, such as the publisher’s website or PubMed Central (PMC).

Available to the public online since 1996, PubMed was developed and is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), located at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

About the Content

Citations in PubMed primarily stem from the biomedicine and health fields, and related disciplines such as life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering.

In addition, the following journals, in the TU Library collection or available from the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service, may be helpful, according to the main focus of the student’s academic research project or thesis:

• Agriculture and Human Values
• Anthropology of Food
• Appetite
• CuiZine: the Journal of Canadian Food Cultures = Revue des Cultures Culinaires au Canada
• Culture, Agriculture, Food and Environment
• Food and Foodways: Explorations in the History and Culture of Human Nourishment
• Food, Culture, & Society
• Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal
• Future of Food: Journal on Food, Agriculture and Society
• Gastronomica: the Journal of Food and Culture
• International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food
• Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

If the student asks:

Where can I find information online about Food Studies?

We might reply:

One place to start might be the Food Environment Atlas.

This site on the website of the United States Department of Agriculture focuses on, as it explains,

Food environment factors—such as store/restaurant proximity, food prices, food and nutrition assistance programs, and community characteristics—interact to influence food choices and diet quality. These interactions are complex and more research is needed to identify causal relationships and effective policy interventions.

The objectives of the Atlas are:

• to assemble statistics on food environment indicators to stimulate research on the determinants of food choices and diet quality, and
• to provide a spatial overview of a community’s ability to access healthy food and its success in doing so.

Another informative academic website is the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA), an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, dedicated to the documentation, study and exploration of the foodways of the American South. Member-funded, it stages events, recognizes culinary contributions with awards and a hall of fame, produces documentary films, publishes writing, and maps the region’s culinary institutions recording oral history interviews.

As its website notes,

The Southern Foodways Alliance documents, studies, and explores the diverse food cultures of the changing American South. Our work sets a welcome table where all may consider our history and our future in a spirit of respect and reconciliation.

Based at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, we share oral histories, produce films and podcasts, publish great writing, sponsor scholarship, mentor students, and stage events that serve as progressive and inclusive catalysts for the greater South.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)