Author and researcher Donna Brien has been focused on the ways that discussions over the ethics of food (production and consumption) are being led by figures outside of the government.

The CQUniversity Associate Professor has especially noted the role food writers are taking in changing our habits.

Dr Donna Brien - food for thought

Dr Brien has been writing and publishing articles about food writers and the contributions they make to society since arriving at CQUniversity in 2007. Her latest essay to be published in February's Griffith Review* came from work completed while on a prestigious 3-month research fellowship, awarded by the Research School of Humanities at ANU, and since supported by the Faculty of Arts, Business, Informatics and Education.

Donna is also presenting a conference paper at an international conference in Barcelona in early February.

This paper focuses on Australian food writing in 1968 (the year the Margaret Fulton cookbook was published) to investigate a key moment in the development of Australian food writers as activists.

Donna has just been interviewed on Radio National's special Australia Day edition of The Book Show. The subject of this section of the show was 'writers as food activists'. Donna was interviewed, in conversation, with Ramona Koval and famous Brisbane-based fiction author, Nick Earls.

"The section of the show was prompted by an essay by myself and short story by Nick Earls in the latest issue of Griffith Review (26), 'The Food Chain'," Donna said.

"My essay, 'Beyond the Recipe: Food writers as activists', discusses how, for many in Australia, eating and shopping choices are now frequently imbued with complex moral choices. Should we, for example, be buying locally produced foods, with all the benefits for our own region and our health that this may provide? Or should we be choosing Fairtrade goods, with all the benefits for producers in the developing world, but with a much larger carbon footprint from their transportation?

"In the article, I discuss how recipe and cookbook writing has a serious edge. Moreover, the roots of this go back to at least the 1960s and the work of popular food writer Margaret Fulton, who, although she didn't use today's terminology, has always been writing about buying local, fresh and seasonal produce, supporting our farmers, reducing our waste, and ensuring the maintenance of sustainable food systems.

"This is what Ramona was most interested in discussing with Nick and I - the contribution that writers can make to calling for changes in how we eat, shop for, and produce food: what is called in this discussion 'food activism'."

* The Food Chain: Griffith Review 26
Julianne Schultz (ed)   

Published:      1 February 2010
Format:     Paperback ,  224 pages
RRP:     $24.95
ISBN-13:     9781921656156
Publisher:    Text Publishing