Food Studies

Because Food Studies is a relatively new field, materials can be hard to find using traditional subject divisions. Research is often interdisciplinary and materials are distributed across numerous disciplines and subject areas. Searches using multiple terms are most likely to be successful. For instance, using both a place name and another term, such as “cookery”, “food habits” or “Social life and customs” is a good way to get resources on food in a country or geographic region.

In databases, searching for the following terms in titles, or the title and abstract, can be very useful:

• Cooking
• Cuisine
• Eating
• Dining
• Drinking
• Foodways
• Gastronomy
• Hunger
• Nutrition
   

This is a partial list of Library of Congress subject headings that may be useful in searching the library catalog for food studies topics. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results.

Subsequent boxes suggest additional subject headings and search terms relevant to narrower topics: Agriculture, Alcohol, Food Consumption, Diet, Domestic Service, Food Consumption, Gardening, Home Economics and Housekeeping, Vegetarianism.

General Library of Congress Subject Headings

• Beverages
• Cookery
• Diet in Literature
• Dinners and dining
• Eating philosophy
• Food consumption
• Food habits
• Food history
• Food in art
• Food in literature
• Food industry and trade
• Food preferences
• Food service
• Food supply
• Food writers
• Food writing
• Gastronomy
• Hunger
• Nutritional
   

Additional Library of Congress Subject Headings (combine with food-related terms)

• Biotechnology
• "Economic aspects"
• Folklore
• "Health aspects"
• "Moral and ethical aspects"
• "Political aspects"
• "Religious aspects"
• Research
• "Social aspects"
• "Symbolic aspects"

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. 

• Agriculture
• "Agricultural innovations"
• "Agricultural systems"
• Agronomy
• Crops
• "Economic aspects"
• "Environmental aspects"
• Experimentation
• "Field experiments"
• "Family farms"
• "Farm produce"
• "Farms, small"
• "Food crops"
• "Sustainable agriculture"
• "Sustainable development"
• "Traditional farming

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. 

• Alcohol
• Alcoholic beverages
• Beverages
• Brandy
• Cider
• Cocktails
• Drinking customs
• Gin
• Liqueurs
• Liquors
• "Madeira wine"
• Malt liquors
• "Port wine"
• Rum
• Spirits
• Viticulture
• Wine
• Wine industry
• Wine making
• Whisky

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. 

• Dietetics
• Digestion
• Drug-nutrient interactions
• Food
• "Human behavior"
• Nutritional aspects
• Nutrition
• "Nutritional aspects"
• Obesity
• Toxicology

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. 

• "Household employees"
• "Master and servant"
• Waiters
• Waitresses

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. 

• Food industry and trade
• Food
• Food policy
• Food prices
• Food supply
• "International cooperation"
• "Law and legislation"
• "Nutrition policy"
• "Safety measures"
• Standards

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. Food justice is a topic that can be particularly hard to encapsulate within particular search terms, but the following are possible entry points, particularly when combined with some of the terms suggested in other areas. For example, one might search for "hunger" and "social justice."

• African American
• "Community-based social services"
• "Consumer advocacy"
• Hunger
• "Food cooperatives"
• "Food consumption"
• "Food security"
• "Food supply"
• Minorities
• "Moral and ethical aspects"
• Nutrition
• Racism
• "Social justice"

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. 

• "Fruit culture"
• Gardening
• Garden
• Gardener
• "Herb gardening"
• Husbandry
• "Vegetable gardening"

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. 

• "Home economics"
• "Domestic economy"
• Homemaker
• Homemaking
• "Household economy"
• Housekeeping
• Housekeeper
• "House keeper"
• "House keeping"
• "Young housekeeper"
• "Young house keeper"
• "Young wife"

This is a partial list of search terms that may be useful in searching the library catalog. Note that search terms with multiple words must be enclosed by quotation marks. You can also combine multiple terms in order to narrow your search results. 

• Vegetarianism
• "Vegetarian cookery"
• "Diet in disease"
• "Diet reform"
• Meatless