Often, the ordinariness of familiar terms or concepts belies their complexity and hidden sides, necessitating closer scrutiny. “Big data” is one such phenomenon, upon which Bronson and Knezevic shine a critical spotlight. Showing how current data sources and data collection technologies differ from those of the past, the authors make the case that current big data are more than neutral numbers, but benefit productivist food regimes. They point to the need for research to document the consequences of big data to a broader group of food systems models. Another popular phenomenon is the “food charter”: dozens of such manifestos have materialized across Canada in the past decade, signifying positive, united visions for the food systems of cities and regions. Or is that just one side of the coin? Spoel and Derkatch analyse the food charter as a “genre”, examining their rhetoric and embedded ideologies. They suggest that charters perform not just by reflecting inherent values, but by aspiring to shape a food system in an uncontested way.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Desjardins, E., (2025), "Inspiring and informing through food studies", HSSCommons: (DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v3i1.156)

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1. big data
2. food charter

Original publication: Desjardins, Ellen. "Inspiring and informing through food studies." Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation, vol. 3, no. 1, 2016, pp. 1-3. DOI: 10.15353/cfs-rcea.v3i1.156. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l'alimentation. Copyright © the author(s). Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. For details, see creativecommons.org/licenses/.