Harness the Power of Food to Build Connection, Community
By Joseph Pool While it may sound like a restaurant advertisement, there is magic in every meal. Throughout history, food has been a source of connection, community, power, and peacemaking. The first permanent societies were centered around arable land that could yield food, and many of the first professions were based on growing, tracking, protecting, […]
Peas And Justice For All: On The Right To Receiving Free Food
Joseph D. Pool Introduction In the hallowed hall of the National Archive Museum in Washington DC rests the immortal document that officially incited the American Revolution and began the great American experiment in democracy and liberty. In a departure from other founding documents of its era, it called for a radical change to the paradigm […]
Pirates of the Cornfields: How Intellectual Property Protections Threaten Agriculture
by Joseph D. Pool Introduction What do Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, and Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow have in common? They all needed food to live, and that food likely had to be grown. For thousands of years, everything from the clothes we wore, to the medicine we took, to the food we ate was largely […]
Game of Code and Robbers:
Discover how artificial intelligence is transforming criminal justice, enhancing efficiency and fairness in policing, prosecution, and punishment.
On the Tracks of the Hungarian Gold Train
Discover how the Hungarian Gold Train transported stolen Jewish artifacts and the ethical challenges of repatriating these treasures.
The Political Purpose of Free Food: How Roman Elites Weaponized Public Feasting and Private Dining
With food as a guise to lure elites and citizens alike to the table, the meal became a place of much more than just eating—it was one of meeting and dealing. By picking up the check, the host garnered dependency and loyalty from those below their social class and accrued respect and reciprocity from those at or above their status.
Sustainable Agriculture in Morocco
Currently, Morocco is heating up and its crops are dying out. The good news, however, is that progress is being made on reversing this agricultural disaster. Moreover, the use of sustainable agriculture has been key to the continued fight against hunger.
Leaven in the Levant: The Role of Bread in Judaism
If one were to combine flour, water, and heat in just the right ratio at just the right time, their efforts would be rewarded with fresh bread—a sacred staple of societies for thousands of years, visible across nearly all ancient cultures. This bread, however, is more than a source of carbohydrates and calories; it is a catalyst for the cultivation of culture and complex belief systems.
Madmen, Their Monsters, and the Masses: How To Kill a Democracy
As explained through philosophy, neuroscience, and criminology, zombies, serial killers, and madmen exist. And thanks to the “sleepy killer” residing in us all, they have the potential to herald the end of the institutions and nations they reside in.
Zero Hunger: Food Security and North Africa
In Morocco and throughout much of the North African region, food has served as more than a mere tool for survival; it has connected people and aided over the centuries in ensuring cultural preservation.