Women’s Suffrage Cookbooks – Are There Any BC or Canadian Suffragist Cookbooks? March 8, International Women’s Day is a day to recognize and celebrate women’s and girls’ social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. It is a time to reflect on the movements and organizations who worked so hard to advance women’s rights, for example. the […]
Archive | Food Politics
Food Politics
Decolonizing the Foods Lab
Decolonizing the Foods Lab: Is Monkey Bread[1] a Racist Term? Guest Blog by Madeline Wong, Home Economics Teacher, Surrey School District My students were not alone in asking the question, “Why is M***** Bread called M***** Bread?”. With two new Food Studies 12 classes for Semester 2, we were just in time to celebrate Black History […]
Trucks and Food Shortages Alaska Highway
Trucks, food shortages and coping with life were all part of building the Alaska Highway in 1942-43 when the US and Canada collaborated on this epic project under threat of war. The following excerpt from a family history, written by Anne Seierstad, shows how it was like in Dawson Creek, British Columbia for the eight […]
Buy Local – Buy BC
Buy Local – “Buy BC”, “Buy Canadian” In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded by our provincial government to support local restaurants, farmers, and food producers, arguing that Buy BC is important for the economic and social well being of individuals and the country.[i] Additionally, the federal government, worried about consumers becoming […]
Food Security in 1860s British Columbia
Food Security in 1860s British Columbia Lately I have been reading the Cariboo Sentinel newspaper from the late 1860s (https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers/xcariboosen)[i] searching for information on a few historic characters I am researching. At the same time I have been drawn to articles about food of the time. From the mid 1860s up to 1871 was an […]
Chocolate – dream or nightmare
Chocolate – dream or nightmare Probably no food other than chocolate is as controversial, challenging and consequential. Ever since humans began to drink cocoa in the early days of Mayan society, there have been claims made for its health benefits. These many beneficial claims continue today, usually based on research funded by large chocolate companies.[i] […]
On Strike for “Fair” Chocolate
On Strike for “fair” Chocolate In the previous blog, I highlighted the irony that Carol Off considered in her book Bitter Chocolate[i] and the vast distance she described between the hand that picks the cocoa and the hand that picks the chocolate bar from the store shelf in our community. In both cases the hands […]
Food from home to the war front
Food From Home to the War Front Food was one way that Canadians at home could support their troops overseas, either by rationing or economizing or sending care packages. A previous post described War Cake, popular during both World Wars I and II and modified in peacetime. It stores and travels well, remaining moist and […]
Recipes for Victory
Recipes for Victory Every November our thoughts turn to Remembrance Day and the role food has played during wartime over the years. In 2018, Elizabeth Baird and Bridget Wranich released Recipes for Victory, a collection of recipes and research papers that were part of a 2014 Great War Food Symposium organized at the Fort York […]
Tilly Rolston and Coloured Margarine
Tilly Rolston and Coloured Margarine I noticed the comment “Mrs. Tilly J. Rolston, “The Champion of Coloured Margarine” on the back of an archived pamphlet describing BC Social Credit election candidates from the early 1950’s and I was immediately intrigued[i]. Who was this woman? For International Women’s Day, I decided to see what I could […]