ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter challenges museums and public history sites to move from traditional modes of interpreting food and farming history and to connect their carefully developed content knowledge to the current groundswell of interest in contemporary food politics. Food is not merely a topic along the way to interpreting more consequential questions, but rather a starting point for exploring vital questions about resource use, social justice, and community resilience. As such, it is squarely within historic sites’ mandate to serve as a mode of public service and education in a democratic society.
