The Butcher’s Philosophy: Situating Human Health in a Metabolic Landscape
The history of medicated feed for animals in the twentieth century has traditionally been seen as a rather specialized corner of agricultural history: the story of how antibiotics, hormones, and vitamins were used to grow animals to market size earlier with less feed is an important part of the industrialization of American food systems. It is also the history of a major re-articulation of the metabolic interrelations of bacteria, fungi, plants, animals, and humans, in which flows of enzymes, amino acids, and secondary metabolites between organisms changed profoundly. This talk uses insights from this history to conceptualize a novel framework for thinking through the relationship between diet and health, arguing for experimental and epidemiological approaches that are better equipped to take account of the metabolic landscapes of human development and health.
The Butcher’s Philosophy: Situating Human Health in a Metabolic LandscapeThe Butcher’s Philosophy: Situating Human Health in a Metabolic Landscape
