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Kaitland M. Byrd on the Cooking Gene.

"Driven by consumers' desire for slow and local food, craft breweries, traditional butchers, cheese makers and bakeries have been popping up across the US in the last twenty years. Typically urban and staffed predominantly by white middle class men, these industries are perceived as a departure from tradition and mainstream lifestyles. But this image obscures the diverse communities that have supported artisanal foods for centuries. Using the oral histories of over 100 people, this book brings to light the voices, experiences, and histories of marginalized groups who keep Southern foodways alive. The larger than life stories of these individuals reveal the complex reality behind the movement and show how they are the backbone of the so-called new explosion of craft food"--

In this introduction to the special issue on "Foodways and Inequality: Toward a Sociology of Food Culture and Movements," we describe our path to the sociological study inequality through food, and how the articles included in this special issue fit this framework. The overarching goal of this issue is to present a multifaceted approach to studying food from more cultural and structural perspectives. In particular, the authors take varied approaches to understanding how inequalities shape individual's experiences with food while also offering possible solutions through a more humanist sociological project around food and foodways. The articles and reviews included in this special issue offer much needed sociological insights into current social problems centering on food such as hunger and exploitation.