Nostos Salon 07
A monthly gathering of good food, drinks, and conversation—where anthropology meets community in an engaging, accessible way.
Anthropology of Food Systems with Dr Kelly Donati
Food as relationship, not just consumption
Climate instability. Rising food insecurity. Industrialised agriculture stretched to its limits. Against that backdrop, this conversation asks us to think about food differently: not as something we simply consume, but as a relational practice that ties together soils, bodies, communities and planets.
Anthropology and human geography give us the tools. Contemporary food systems both sustain us and undermine us, often in the same gesture. What does it mean to eat well while the environment unravels around us? How are small-scale farmers, urban growers and community food movements already reimagining what regeneration, equity and care could look like? From soil microbiomes and gut health to municipal markets and community kitchens, food infrastructures shape what collective flourishing can even mean, at every scale from the cellular to the civic.
We're delighted to welcome Kelly Donati, Vice-Chancellor's Research Fellow at RMIT University. Kelly's research sits at the meeting point of ecological integrity, public health and social justice, bringing gastronomy into dialogue with environmental humanities, multispecies studies and science and technology studies. She's also the founding chairperson of Sustain: The Australian Food Network, where her work with communities and government has helped push food systems toward something more regenerative, participatory and equitable.
An afternoon of nourishment, in every sense
This salon is an open, nourishing dialogue: no lecture theatre, no distance between speaker and table. Together we'll ask how anthropology helps us see food as a site of care, politics and possibility, and how reimagining what we grow, share and eat might be one of the more direct ways we have of reimagining the worlds we inhabit.
Special thanks to NON and NOW Wines for supporting this event.
Recommended Reading and Resources via Zine
"Food is culture when produced, prepared and eaten."
— Massimo Montanari