KU News Release

LAWRENCE — Three University of Kansas faculty members will lead a public discussion on their research of food culture in the United States.

Donald D. Stull, professor of anthropology; Ric G. Steele Jr., associate professor of applied behavioral science; and Shelley L. Koch, lecturer in sociology, will discuss “Food for Thought: The Culture of Food in the United States,” at 4 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, at the Big 12 Room in the Kansas Union.

The interdisciplinary discussion will focus on the production, distribution and consumption of food in the United States. Sara Thomas Rosen, associate vice provost for research and graduate studies and dean of graduate studies, will be the moderator.

KU’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Undergraduate Anthropology Association are sponsoring the event.

Koch researches the economic and social organization of grocery shopping. She investigates how scientific information about nutrition that is disseminated through government, food industry, retail and media agencies structures shoppers’ food selections and health-related food choices. Koch argues that this nutrition discourse individualizes the responsibility for making healthy food choices, especially for mothers who act as primary food purchasers for their households, while camouflaging the larger social and economic factors from which individual food choices are ultimately derived.

Steele researches childhood obesity and the promotion of physical and mental health in children, adolescents and families. Supported by grants from foundations and state and federal sources, Steele’s research team examines the effectiveness of interventions for pediatric obesity. These interventions have included a weight management program for families with an overweight child and a Web-based tutorial to enhance communication between school nurses and families about weight-related health. Steele is co-editor of several books, including the “Handbook of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity” and the “Handbook of Pediatric Psychology — 4th edition.”

Stull is nationally recognized for his research on the meat and poultry industries in North America and the impact of industrial agriculture on farmers and rural communities, particularly rapid community growth accompanying rural industrialization. His books include “Slaughterhouse Blues: The Meat and Poultry Industry in North America,” written with Michael Broadway in 2004, and “Any Way You Cut it: Meat Processing and Small-town America,” published by the University Press of Kansas in 1995. Stull edited the 1995 book with Broadway and David Griffith.