From high-tech kitchen gadgets and magazines to the Food Network the last few decades have
seen a huge rise in food-focused consumption media and culture. The discourses surrounding
food range from media coverage of school lunchrooms and hunger issues to news stories about
urban gardening or buying organic products at the local farmers market. Food is no longer
viewed merely as a means of survival. International and comprehensive in approach this volume
is the first book-length study of food from a communication perspective. Scholars examine and
explore this emerging field to provide definitive and foundational examples of how food
operates as a system of communication and how communication theory and practices can be
understood by considering food in this way. In doing so the book serves to inspire future
dialogues on the subject due to its vast array of ideas about food and its relationship to our
communication practices.