Steven Shapin is the Franklin L Ford Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University.
His current research interests include historical and contemporary studies of dietetics, the nature of entrepreneurial science, and modern relations between academia and industry.

In late 2007 the Oxford University Press anointed “locavore” Word of the Year. (Some San Franciscans who thought it a good idea to eat only foods produced within a 100-mile radius made up the word in 2005.) Locavores assume they are doing good for the palate and the planet. They also tend to believe that we should reject modern globalization and return to the smaller communities of the past. But have they gotten their history right? Steven’s talk explores how medical and moral traditions from antiquity to recent times have thought about local and exotic diets and reflects on changing conceptions of the self and the place of food in our lives.

Outreach in Biotechnology’s Food for Thought Lecture Series brings together internationally recognized experts to talk about the best (and worst) ways to use biotechnology for food and fuel. For more information, go to http://OregonState.edu/OrB

A study guide to this lecture is available at http://oregonstate.edu/orb/food-for-thought

Recorded 15 May 2008