Food is essential to human survival: it fuels our bodies and provides livelihoods. Our lands and oceans produce enough food, yet about one-third of its global production is wasted every year. Annually, about 44 million people in the United States face food insecurity, including 13 million children (https://www.feedingamerica.org/). Many do not know where their next meal might come from, and suffer from malnutrition. Other concerns related to food include safety, access, nutrition, rising costs, food processing, working conditions, and sustainable agricultural and fishing practices to name a few. Moreover, the future of the food supply will be further challenged by climate change, environmental degradation, and worldwide poverty and inequality.
For this challenge, consider one aspect related to food and identify a problem within that aspect to solve. Research the problem and propose an innovative solution to address it, so that current and future generations are able to have access to safe, healthy, high quality, and culturally appropriate food. As you develop your project, be sure to contact and interview people, organizations, and pertinent groups so you can incorporate their insights.
Getting Started
Reference resources provide a starting point for your research projects.
Credo Reference
Credo Reference provides hundreds of encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, and more in one place. Below is a sample of keyword searches in Credo Reference related to this topic:
- “Food”
- “Food Waste”
- “Poverty” AND “Food Insecurity”
- “Environmental Degradation” AND “Food”
- “Climate Change” AND “Food”
Call Numbers and Subject Headings
You can use the list of call numbers and subject headings below as keyword searches in our catalog and databases, or you can go to these sections of the library to find books on these topics.
- HD9000-9495 Agricultural industries
- TD100-200 Environmental Technology
Books
Books from Lane Library
The books in this list are located either in the Franzen Center on Floor 3A or as an e-book.
- Food and sustainability in the twenty-first century: cross-disciplinary perspectives / GN407.F656 2019
- Food loss and food waste : causes and solutions / HD9000.5 B63 2019
- More than just food : food justice and community change / HD9005 .B688 2016
- Food Insecurity and Hunger in the United States / HD9005 .F66 2021
- Hunger in the land of plenty : a critical look at food insecurity / HD9005.W75 2019
- Freegans: diving into the wealth of food waste in America / HD9975.U52 B27 2016
- Waste: uncovering the global food scandal / TD899.F585 S78 2009
- The Oxford Handbook of Food Ethics / TX357 .O94 2018
- Local food environments: food access in america / TX360.U6 L63 2015
- Stand together or starve alone : unity and chaos in the U.S. food movement / TX360 .U6 W56 2018
- Agricultural science and food security / ebook
- Food waste : practices, management and challenges / ebook
- Hunger Efforts and Food Security / ebook
- Rethinking agricultural policy regimes : food security, climate change and the future resilience of global agriculture / ebook
- Rural America in a globalizing world : problems and prospects for the 2010s / ebook
- Safe Food: The politics of food safety / ebook
- SNAP matters : how food stamps affect health and well-being / ebook
- The unending hunger : tracing women and food insecurity across borders / ebook
- The global hunger crisis : tackling food insecurity in developing countries / ebook
- Women redefining the experience of food insecurity: life off the edge of the table / ebook
Search terms for additional books in Lane Library’s catalog:
Discovery Search: Search Lane Library’s books, ebooks, and articles in one place.
Books from other libraries
WorldCat: Search for books not available at Lane Library and borrow from other libraries for free through interlibrary loan.
Articles
Databases
The following databases are useful places to search for Food related articles. Contact a librarian if you would like more information on how to search for articles on your specific topic.
- Academic Search Complete: Wide range of academic disciplines, including for scholarly and popular journals.
- New York Times: Access to news and archival content from NY Times. If you run into a paywall, here is more information on how to sign up.
- ProQuest Research Library: Includes both popular and scholarly periodicals covering a variety of subjects, with over 3300 titles available in full text.
- ProQuest Social Science Journals: Social science topics.
Get articles from other libraries
If you cannot find a full-text version of the article you need, request it through interlibrary loan. Interlibrary loan is a free service that allows you to borrow books and articles from other libraries. Find answers to frequently asked questions about ILL here.
Government Sources, Statistics, and Websites
Government sources
“The mission of USDA’s Economic Research Service is to anticipate trends and emerging issues in agriculture, food, the environment, and rural America and to conduct high-quality, objective economic research to inform and enhance public and private decision making”
“As the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future works to give families and communities in some of the world’s poorest countries the freedom and opportunity to lift themselves out of food insecurity and malnutrition”
Statistics
- CIA World Factbook : Background information on each country in the world
- Gallup polls : Polls on a variety of topics by a trusted organization
- Proquest Statistical Abstract : Statistics from federal agencies
- World Almanac : Collection of statistics and rankings