In this sixth issue of the Journal, Editor-in-Chief Emily Contois considers the future of food studies alongside its past and present, asking, “What futures does food studies enable us to imagine?”

In this article, Jessica Loyer provides a closer look at the history of America’s original super berry, revealing striking parallels with today’s search for the next superfood and offers insights into the foundation of this trend.

In an age of visual excess, technology creates a pull towards both nostalgia and futurism. In this article, Jenny L. Herman explores how digital media platforms such as Instagram accelerate and expand social trends at a pace that leaves both markets and minds spinning.

In this article, L. Sasha Gora asks, how does the cookbook represent Nordic food and the region from which it comes? How does the composition of the book as a whole shape not only what is considered Nordic food, but also the Nordic region?

In this creative and experimental Food-Stuff piece, Emily Farr and Maya Hey engage in a “relay writing” conversation on the the intangibles that make up the multispecies, multi-scalar processes of fermentations.

In this Food-Stuff piece, Journal editors Emily Contois and Katherine Hysmith chat about knowledge and expertise, writing for academic and public audiences, and what the future of food studies and social media might hold.

This essay on life, farming, and food accompanies Sarah Cramer’s original painting, “CSA Box Turtle, 2016.”

In this Food-Stuff essay, Alexandra Rodney critically reflects on the “Social Assistance Food Budget Challenge” assignment she designed for her course “Canadian Foodways.”

In this Food-Stuff essay, Gretchen Sneegas employs the tools of authoethnography to explore the various ways that alcohol is embedded within academic professionalization, producing both cultural norms and barriers to entry.

In this Food-Stuff essay, Hannah Koper examines the difference between how four notable women chefs and CEOs frame and discuss gender bias and representation in their respective fields.

Peter Mabli reviews Camille Bégin’s “Taste of the Nation: The New Deal Search for America’s Food examines the America Eats,” which sensorially interprets America Eats, a partially completed endeavor by the New Deal’s Federal Writers Project.

James Edward Malin reviews Samantha L. Martin-McAuliffe’s edited volume of thirteen original essays, which examine the intersection of food and architecture through relationships of regionalism, sustainability, craft, and authenticity.

Cassandra Malis reviews Adrian Miller’s “The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas,” which dives into the history behind food workers in the White House, adding a historical perspective

Claudia Prieto-Piastro reviews Sarah Bowen’s “Divided Spirits: Tequila, Mezcal, and the Politics of Production,” which combines anthropological and historical methods to reveal the politics behind the increased popularity of tequila and mezcal production in Mexico.

Hannah C. Gunderman reviews Brigette Sebastia’s edited volume, “Eating Traditional Food: Politics, Identity, and Practices,” which examines the processes that produce notions of “traditional” foods, particularly within a global foodscape.

Josiah Taylor reviews Jessica Hayes-Conroy’s “Savoring Alternative Food: School Gardens, Healthy Eating, and Visceral Difference,” which reveals how social factors like culture, class, gender, and race contribute to exclude some people from the table.

Virginia Webb reviews Richard Ocejo’s “Masters of Craft: Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy,” which examines how lower status jobs (bartender, distiller, barber, and butcher) are being upscaled by educated urbanites in a post-industrial city.