Food and Sustainability - by Martina Topic-Rutherford & Marija Geiger Zeman (Hardcover)

About the Book

Understanding how food is communicated through media and campaigns is key to shaping sustainable food practices. Food and Sustainability presents a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to food studies by gathering voices from communications, sociology, ethnology, and even fashion.

Book Synopsis

Understanding how food is communicated through media and campaigns is key to shaping sustainable food practices.

Food and Sustainability presents a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to food studies by gathering voices from communications, sociology, ethnology, and even fashion. This edited collection maps the intersections of food, sustainability, and responsibility, with contributions that analyse professional chefs, media portrayals, and food security issues. The first section explores the nuances of food sustainability in media, gender dynamics, and lived experiences, while the second focuses on how public relations advances a culture of responsibility across societal contexts--from health campaigns to corporate practices and educational efforts.

With its dual focus on empirical analysis and innovative methodologies, this study expands both theoretical and practical approaches to food communication in a changing world.

Review Quotes

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Food and Sustainability: Communication, PR, and the Culture of Responsibility. It's a collection of some very interesting and scientifically robust articles that offer new insights in the fields of communication, PR, and social responsibility. This edited volume is a compelling and timely contribution to the interdisciplinary study of food, sustainability, and communication. The book brings together a diverse range of academic perspectives, offering insightful analyses of food as a socio-cultural, political, and environmental issue. The articles it included delve into specific themes, such as the gendered dynamics of professional cooking, the neocolonial undertones in food television, the ethical challenges in food-related public relations campaigns, and many others. I believe that the curation of these articles is excellent. The book's biggest strength pertains to its ability to bridge theory and practice, making it relevant for both academics and practitioners. It is an excellent read and I highly recommend it for both researchers and practitioners.

This new book, Food and Sustainability: Communication, PR, and the Culture of Responsibility, edited by Topic-Rutherford and Zeman provides an innovative and comprehensive perspective to investigate the role of public relations and communication in shaping the culture of responsible and sustainable food consumption, an understudied area in public relations. The edition presents scholarly contributions from top scholars in the field of public relations on various topics related to sustainability and responsibility in the context of the global food system, ranging from food preparation, representation, consumption, and communication. More importantly, in an age crying out for responsible and sustainable communications and behaviors, chapters collected in this edition provide critical lenses across cultural, economic, social, and political boundaries to reflect the field's latest studies and practices in an interesting and engaging style that help scholars, educators, professionals, influencers, policy makers, students and foodies grasp the complexities of the "missing" culture of responsibility in food development and consumption.

About the Author

Martina Topic-Rutherford is an Associate Professor in Public Relations Leadership at the University of Alabama, College of Communication and Information Sciences, Department of Advertising and PR, USA.

Marija Geiger Zeman is a Senior Research Scientist in Sociology at the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar in Zagreb, Croatia.