ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the use of some specialized primary sources relating to food production and consumption. Much of the chapter focuses on government data, reflecting the important role that government at all levels has gradually come to play in monitoring and regulating food in the U.S, but it also discusses sources at what seems to be the opposite end of the spectrum—everyday and often intimate materials like cookbooks and restaurant menus—and shows some of the ways that official and “vernacular” sources and projects have been intertwined over time.
