System + Taste

How do colonial histories shape today’s sustainable food systems? The challenges surrounding Hawai‘i’s current food system have provoked critical attention to issues of land use and development, intersections between race and public health, and the importance of culturally and geographically specific food and agriculture. In this panel discussion, Hawai‘i serves as a case study for understanding the parameters of indigenous and settler foodscapes, and offers interdisciplinary perspectives on this complex issue. Kaori O’Connor discusses the anthropological and historical context for the development of taste and cuisine in colonial Hawai‘i; Amy Bentley argues for the theoretical application of “deliciousness” to address the societal failures of contemporary food systems; Ashley Lukens presents the application of tactical community food activism as a tool for food system development within a settler state.

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