Shrinkflation: They’re Stealing Money from Your Pockets

By Cookie Danchaivijitr, 2026

“Me hate shrinkflation! Me cookies are getting smaller,” Cookie Monster complained on platform X on March 4, 2024. As one named ‘Cookie,’ I could not agree less. Grocery shoppers nationwide have felt like they’ve been lied to by companies, paying for the same price but for fewer goods. Bags of chips have become smaller, but the prices have held their ground. Boxes of tissues have been running out earlier, but the prices have held their ground. This phenomenon is called ‘shrinkflation.’

You might have heard of ‘inflation’—an overall increase in the prices of goods and services in an economy. Shrinkflation is simply a way to hide this inflation. Companies are downsizing the dimensions of their products while charging the same or even higher prices for them. This might be due to an increase in demand in the market, higher production costs, etc. Some comparisons before and after at supermarkets include a bag of chips decreasing from 9.75 to 9.25 oz, a box of crackers decreasing from 16 to 14 oz, and a roll of toilet paper decreasing from 340 to 312 sheets. Although consumers may not notice these changes immediately, and if shrinkflation continues, their effects will become evident and could backfire on the companies in the future. 

Companies choose to downsize instead of increase the prices for a simple reason: consumers pay more attention to prices than sizes. When consumers see that the price of a product is cheaper, they innately believe that this must be the best deal out there, neglecting the fact that similar products are more expensive as they offer more and could be more cost-effective. These shrinkflation efforts are also more difficult to be reflected in the inflation rates as they are largely qualitative, which could lead consumers to turn a blind eye to this issue. One way for consumers to combat this deception is to pay attention to the unit prices or use a calculator to compare the product prices per unit.

Shrinkflation is technically legal. According to the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act 1967, “packages and their labels should enable consumers to obtain accurate information as to the quantity of the contents and should facilitate value comparisons.” So, if businesses mark their products with the correct labelings, they can change the size of their product as they see fit. However, this is bound to change. 

On February 11, 2024, the White House released a video of President Joe Biden discussing shrinkflation as part of celebrating the Super Bowl: “I’ve had enough of what they call shrinkflation. It’s a rip off… Give me a break. The American public is tired of being played for suckers.” Later, on March 5, 2024, Biden announced that the administration is taking an initiative to crack down on illegal pricing and hold companies accountable for their actions, alongside the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission. Hopefully, these actions will be sufficient before the bag of Lays chips shrinks even more.

Works Cited

The New York Times. 2024. “Shrinkflation 101: The Economics of Smaller Groceries,” 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/01/business/economy/shrinkflation-groceries.html.

Konish, Lorie. 2024. “What Is Shrinkflation? Here’s Why Consumers May Be Getting Less for Their Money.” CNBC. CNBC. March 17, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/17/shrinkflation-why-consumers-might-be-getting-less-for-their-money.html.

‌Limehouse, Jonathan. 2024. “‘Me Hate Shrinkflation!’: Cookie Monster Complains about US Economy, White House Responds.” USA TODAY. USA TODAY. March 5, 2024. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/03/05/cookie-monster-shrinkflation-tweet-white-house-response/72852339007/.

‌Bennett, Jeannette N. 2022. “Beyond Inflation Numbers: Shrinkflation and Skimpflation | St. Louis Fed.” Stlouisfed.org. https://files.stlouisfed.org/research/publications/page1-econ/2022/12/01/beyond-inflation-numbers-shrinkflation-and-skimpflation_SE.pdf.

United States Code. "Chapter 39—Fair Packaging and Labeling Program," in U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Law Revision Counsel, Title 15—Commerce and Trade. Washington, DC, 1967; http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid%3AUSC-prelim-title15-chapter39&edition=prelim.

The White House. 2024. “FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Actions to Lower Costs for Americans by Fighting Corporate Rip-Offs | the White House.” The White House. The White House. March 5, 2024. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/05/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-actions-to-lower-costs-for-americans-by-fighting-corporate-rip-offs/.

White House. (2024, February 11). President Biden discusses shrinkflation. YouTube. https://youtu.be/GcVTzgZyGro?si=-5j626P5uGcgUzgD 

CLIMATE EFFECTS OF DIETARY CHOICES

By Saaya Maru

Eating Disorders: Physically, Mentally, and Stereotypically

By Abby Fullerton, 2026

Rooted in a complex combination of genetic, psychological, and socio-economic factors, eating disorders, despite being among the most lethal psychiatric disorders, are marginalized and neglected within healthcare, causing several undiagnosed and therefore untreated issues. Although eating disorders can affect all ages, genders, and races, the common misconception that these disorders are typically present in white, female adolescents causes disparities in access to treatment, and, as a result, up to 50% of individuals who have an eating disorder are not detected as having any issue at all.This terrifying reality is a critical issue because, without the detection of an eating disorder, both the detrimental physical and mental effects of these disorders, can eat alive at somebody struggling.

Among the variety of eating disorders including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), and other specified feeding/eating disorder (OSFED), each disorder affects people uniquely. Although the assumption that people affected by eating disorders are always emaciated is common, less than 6% of people with eating disorders are underweight in reality. However, because this stereotype is so largely accepted, many people who are struggling are often not asked about their issues and are not taken seriously by others if they do.iv The inaccurate generalization of these illnesses presents itself as a pressing issue leading to a substantial underdiagnosis and underrepresentation of eating disorders. In addition, whether the cause is a stigma surrounding mental health issues, the fear of giving up their disorder, or another reason completely, individuals affected by eating disorders are often hesitant to reach out, allowing the disorder to lurk in the shadows, festering as it increases the risk of further physical and mental complications.

Addressing the lack of eating disorder treatment is imperative, especially as shown by the severity of the physical effects of these illnesses. Eating disorders have a large spectrum of often critical symptoms varying greatly between the many conditions. For example, anorexia nervosa–categorized by food avoidance due to a weight obsession–can lead to severe symptoms such as malnutrition, osteoporosis, infertility, heart damage, and in the case of over 10,000 people in America each year, death.vi,vii In addition, signified by episodes of binging and purging, bulimia nervosa can cause severe dehydration, several gastrointestinal problems, electrolyte imbalances, tooth enamel decay, and, like anorexia, death. On the other hand, symptoms of binge-eating disorder, which is similar to bulimia with uncontrollable binge eating without purging, include heartburn and more seriously obesity, which ultimately leads to more serious issues such as diabetes. Lastly, although not associated with body image or weight, ARFID can cause severe weight loss, malnutrition, and several gastrointestinal problems.x The severe and profound physical consequences of eating disorders highlight the critical imperative to fix the marginalization of eating disorders so that they can be promptly identified and treated.

In addition to the severity of the atrocious physical effects these disorders have, eating disorders deeply impact the mental state of those struggling as well. Because eating disorders induce a distorted perception of oneself and are rooted in the desire for control over control, these diseases are evil, commonly inducing self-hatred and cyclical behaviors such as obsessive calorie counting or exercise. Similarly, eating disorders commonly co-occur with other disorders such as anxiety and depression for several reasons including feelings of isolation, preoccupation around food, or even chemical imbalances caused by the disorder itself. Moreover, the hyper-fixation on food can completely change one’s personality; those struggling may often feel that conversations regarding weight or food are a direct attack on them, enraging them and further alienating them from loved ones. As shown through the detrimental consequences of eating disorders, these are not diseases that should glamourized despite what the flawed nature of diet culture or social media may say. As a society, it is a fundamental necessity to push back against the preconceived notions surrounding the look of eating disorders and whom they affect so that everyone, regardless of who they are, can receive both the mental and physical support systems needed to recover and thrive properly.

Works Cited

i

Butterfly Foundation. 2021. “Risks and Warning Signs.” Butterfly Foundation. 2021.

https://butterfly.org.au/eating-disorders/risks-and-warning-signs/.

ii Massari, Paul. 2022. “Colloquy Podcast: Eating Disorders Can Be Lethal. We Don’t Treat Them That

Way. | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.” Gsas.harvard.edu. December 9, 2022.

https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/colloquy-podcast-eating-disorders-can-be-lethal-we-dont-treat-them-way.

iii Ibid.

iv Ibid.

v Butterfly Foundation. 2021. “Risks and Warning Signs.” Butterfly Foundation. 2021.

https://butterfly.org.au/eating-disorders/risks-and-warning-signs/.

vi National Institute of Mental Health. 2021. “Eating Disorders: About More than Food.” National Institute

of Mental Health. 2021. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disorders.

vii Massari, Paul. 2022. “Colloquy Podcast: Eating Disorders Can Be Lethal. We Don’t Treat Them That

Way. | Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.” Gsas.harvard.edu. December 9, 2022.

https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/colloquy-podcast-eating-disorders-can-be-lethal-we-dont-treat-them-way.

viii National Institute of Mental Health. 2021. “Eating Disorders: About More than Food.” National Institute

of Mental Health. 2021. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/eating-disorders.

ix “How Dangerous Are Eating Disorders?” 2018. 1st Step Behavioral Health. September 30, 2018.

https://firststepbh.com/blog/dangerous-eating-disorders/. x Ibid.

xi “Mental Health Effects of Recovery | Seeds of Hope.” 2023. Https://Www.seedsofhopesupport.com/.

May 10, 2023. https://www.seedsofhopesupport.com/how-do-eating-disorders-affect-mental-health/.

Injustices in our Systems: Food Deserts in the US

By Kin Asvanund, 2027

Food Deserts are one of the major problems affecting millions of people in the United States. It is usually common among impoverished and multiracial communities and during the COVID-19 pandemic, these communities suffered the most.

Food Deserts are identified by the distance to a store or the number of stores in any given area. It can also be determined by the resources provided by the community such as public transportation and the communities' average income. Multiracial communities, especially black communities were already lacking stores and public transportation due to low wages and unemployment before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Within the black community, the poverty rate was 17.1%, while 29% of black children were living in food-insecure households.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic struck the United States, increasing economic inequality, leaving nearly half of the population struggling to sustain their basic consumption, along with an increase in unemployment. Up to 17.8% of black workers lost their jobs, resulting in less income, which forced them to move to a less populated and rural area with a lack of resources. With this economic crisis, it was more difficult for families to afford healthy food. Moreover, the pandemic has also restricted transportation because of disease-spreading issues, significantly affecting people who rely on public transportation. Grocery stores closed down, leaving only a few open, making it difficult to access without proper transportation.

Recently, the government has found several solutions to battle food deserts. Solutions have been proposed to minimize food deserts, such as tax incentives, increased public transportation, and urban farming. The government offered to lower taxes for people who were willing to build grocery stores near communities and areas that didn't have access to food. These stores will be within walking distance, so spending on public transportation would not be necessary. Additionally, as these grocery stores will bring food solutions with them, groceries will be cheaper, which will be one of the main factors that stabilize the economy in low-income areas. Moreover, public transportation will be funded, increasing resident's accessibility to food options that are not within walking distance. This will provide people living in food deserts with more options to access healthier food choices, even if they are not in their immediate vicinity. Furthermore, urban farming is another solution that can help alleviate the impact of food deserts. By utilizing unused urban spaces, such as rooftops, vacant lots, and community gardens, residents can grow their fresh produce. This not only provides access to healthy food options but also fosters a sense of community and self-sufficiency. Urban farming can also create job opportunities and stimulate the local economy.

In conclusion, food deserts are a significant issue affecting impoverished and multiracial communities in the United States, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the problem. However, through the implementation of tax incentives, increased public transportation, and urban farming, the government and communities can work together to minimize the impact of food deserts and provide access to healthier food options for all residents.

Works Cited

Casey, Annie E. “Exploring America’s Food Deserts.” The Annie E. Casey Foundation, February 14, 2021. https://www.aecf.org/blog/exploring-americas-food-deserts.

Nrdc.org. “Food Apartheid: Racialized Access to Healthy Affordable Food,” April 2, 2021. https://www.nrdc.org/bio/nina-sevilla/food-apartheid-racialized-access-healthy-affordable-food.

Morita, Sae X, and Hirotaka Kato. “Racial Disparity and Trend of Food Scarcity amid COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States.” Curēus, January 1, 2023. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.33232.

World Bank Group. “Chapter 1. The Economic Impacts of the COVID-19 Crisis.” World Bank. World Bank Group, February 15, 2022. https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/wdr2022/brief/chapter-1-introduction-the-economic-impacts-of-the-covid-19-crisis#:~:text=The%20COVID%2D19%20pandemic%20sent,inequality%20within%20and%20across%20countries.

Economic Policy Institute. “Black Workers Face Two of the Most Lethal Preexisting Conditions for Coronavirus—Racism and Economic Inequality,” 2020. https://www.epi.org/publication/black-workers-covid/#:~:text=Black%20workers%20saw%20slightly%20greater,jobs%20between%20February%20and%20April.

Bauer, Lauren. “Hungry at Thanksgiving: A Fall 2020 Update on Food Insecurity in the U.S.” Brookings, November 23, 2020. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/hungry-at-thanksgiving-a-fall-2020-update-on-food-insecurity-in-the-u-s/.

Eden Green Technology. “What Are Food Deserts and How Do We Solve Them?” Eden Green. Eden Green Technology, March 20, 2023. https://www.edengreen.com/blog-collection/food-deserts#:~:text=Government%20Policies%20and%20Programs,communities%20that%20need%20them%20most.

‌

Mycelium Magic

By Sophia Posamentier, 2026

You read that right; magic mushrooms. No, not the kind you’d see in movies or get warnings about in health class; these are better. This mycelium magic is pretty much the opposite of everything you’ve been taught. Meati, a mycelium-based meat alternative designed to taste, feel, and look like chicken, is the next leap forward to a healthier, more eco-friendly future. 

Founded in 2016, Meati proclaims their slogan is “To Build Good Energy™, from the ground up — the simple solution that’s been under our feet the whole time.” Good Energy™ refers to the sustainable, conscious, and Earth-friendly mycelium ‘meat’. Boasting not only more protein than the average serving of meat, each serving of Meati meat leaves a nearly net zero carbon footprint. The primary pillars of Meati’s foundations are efficiency and haleness, contributing to their blossoming success which is built off of their mystical decomposers.

Efficiency, specifically through material conservation and recycling processes, is an invaluable aspect of the Meati brand. According to the National Science Foundation, “Meati's process is highly efficient and sustainable, using 1% of the land, water, and energy compared to traditional animal meats.” Using only 1% of materials in comparison to what is traditionally used is massively efficient, allowing Meati to make more for less and effectively cut down any sort of environmental challenges. Meati cares about the environment equally to its care for cost, customers, and profit.

In addition to devotion to efficiency for the environment, Meati provides a strong commitment to the health and wellness of its customers. Not only is the meat substitute allergen gluten- and animal-free, but it is also “packed with natural nutrients and all essential amino acids,” according to the NSF report Microbes and Mushrooms. A strong source of proteins can hardly go wrong in today's world. Meati’s passion towards creating healthy, environmentally friendly mushroom magic will not go unnoticed in the environmental food world, as can be seen by the numerous displays of Meati in stores across the US and Canada. Magic? No. Mycelium? Oh yes.

Works Cited

“Mission.” Mission | eat meatiTM. Accessed May 9, 2024. https://meati.com/mission/. 

“Meati Foods.” NSF. Accessed May 9, 2024. https://new.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/i-corps/meati-foods#:~:text=Meati%27s%20products%20are%20textured%2C%20highly,compared%20to%20traditional%20animal%20meats. 

Dietrich, Tamara,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        “Microbes and Mushrooms -- the Future of Earth-Friendly Food?” NSF, January 20, 2022. https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/microbes-mushrooms-future-earth-friendly-food. 

The Rise of Colon Cancer and Food Additives

By Daphne Wong, 2026

The rising demand for food exacerbates as our society fails to ensure and maintain a sustainable and inclusive economy. On average, about 50,000 new restaurants open in the United States annually. In an attempt to preserve businesses, many restaurant owners enrich the quality and image of their food by adding food additives. Although food additives can integrate delectability into our food, the chemicals may aggravate our health and ultimately lead us to be afflicted with chronic diseases like cancer.

Whether it is to increase storing time for food or to modify the sensorial properties of food, food additives have grasped prominence in our food industry nowadays. Natural food additives like herbs or spices, vinegar, and salt are respectively used to enhance the flavoring of dishes, to pickle food, and to preserve meats. Over time, laboratories created new synthetic artificial thickeners, emulsifiers, colors, and flavors in the 20th century. Familiarized with the food additive monosodium glutamate (MSG), many people referred to MSG as “yum-yum powder”, as it invigorates one’s desire to delve deeper into meals with its umami taste. The advancement in food additive technology lures consumers into the concept that the more colorful and fresh the food product appears, the more palatable it is. However, such misconception ultimately beguiles them to buy inorganic products, which interferes with consumers’ hormones and growth development.

Food additives are regulated and monitored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration due to their controversial usage. Scientists at Georgia State University conducted a study on how food additives affect mice. As a result, the mice who were fed low levels of emulsifiers developed gut microbiota and low-grade intestinal inflammation. Intestinal inflammation favorably promotes colon cancer- a disease that occurs when cells in the colon or rectum come in disorder. When diagnosed with colon cancer, patients may encounter symptoms like diarrhea, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, fatigue, and weight loss. The disruption to the balance between cell creation and cell death also amplifies tumor development. However, characteristics differ for every person, some may experience temperate illness, while some may experience debilitating ailments that culminate in life-threatening complications.

To reduce the risk of being diagnosed with colon cancer, one should maintain a diet containing low animal fat and rich fiber. The intake of fruits and vegetables supplements stool frequency, and bulk and dilutes the contents of stool, which decreases the amount of time cancer-causing chemicals dwell in the intestines. Due to the additives in processed meat, it is found that people who consume ultra-processed foods have a 72% higher risk of distal colon cancer. Hence, the consumption of excess amounts of processed meats, like bacon, sausage, and bologna may raise one’s risk of contracting colon cancer as well.

Food additives are a prominent facet that feeds into the peril of colon cancer. Regardless of the detrimental aspects of food additives, they are yet to be inevitable in modern food production. Food additives are stated to be under regulation and speculation, though many question the safety of such execution. Up to this date, the influences food additives have on microbiota are still under detailed investigation, as many wish to deduce this enigma.

Work Cited

Vassaux, S. (2023, January 1). How many new restaurants open each year. Melba. https://melba.io/en/ai/restaurant/how-many-new-restaurants-open-each-year

World Health Organization: WHO. (2023, November 16). Food additives. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/food-additives

Food additives: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. (n.d.). https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002435.htm#:~:text=Natural%20food%20additives%20include%3A,Salt%2C%20to%20preserve%20meats

Food: A chemical history | Science Museum. (n.d.). Science Museum. https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/chemistry/food-chemical-history

What is monosodium glutamate – M.S.G. ? - Shut up and eat. https://shutupandeat.ca/2013/08/06/what-is-monosodium-glutamate-m-s-g/

Food additives promote inflammation, colon cancer in mice. (2016, December 9). National Institutes of Health (NIH). https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/food-additives-promote-inflammation-colon-cancer-mice

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic. (2022, September 3). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/inflammatory-bowel-disease/symptoms-causes/syc-20353315#:~:text=Both%20ulcerative%20colitis%20and%20Crohn's,lead%20to%20life%2Dthreatening%20complications.

8IGHTWAYS® Prevent Colon Cancer | Siteman Cancer Center. (2024, February 6). Siteman Cancer Center. https://siteman.wustl.edu/prevention/8-ways/8-ways-to-prevent-colon-cancer/

Obesity and colorectal cancer risk in women - PMC. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1773328/

Food additives and microbiota- PMC. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7117642/#:~:text=The%20use%20of%20food%20additives,in%20the%20literature%20so%20far.

Study of Historiography Surrounding An Gorta Mór (The Irish Potato Famine) and Its Subsequent Misconceptions

By Tiger Song

Tiger Song

In front of Dublin’s tourist office, not far from the famous tourist destinations of Grafton Street and Trinity College, stands the bronze statue of Molly Malone. According to local folklore, Molly was a working-class girl who sold Mussels during the day and a prostitute at night. Built in 1988, the statue of Malone was created to commemorate the immense sacrifice and devastation that An Gorta Mor, a famine caused by crop failure between 1845 and 1852, held on the locals of both Dublin and Ireland.

Malone’s fame is not unparalleled by other famous statues that lay around the “emerald jewel”- monuments such as the Galway Famine Ship Memorial in the western part of the island are also indicative of this fact. Through an extensive history of recording, it is clear that Irish governments (both the Republic of Ireland and the UK’s Northern Ireland) as well as academic scholars have established clear wills of remembering and spreading the legacy of the devastating 19th-century famine. The true cause of the famine, however, is often disputed amongst governments and scholars alike.

Immediately following the famine, ardent Irish nationalists attempted to use the devastation caused by the blight to argue for Irish independence from the United Kingdom. In doing so, they place the onus of the blight on the British government’s attempted genocide against the Irish people. Many scholars have termed this historically prevalent comprehension of the famine as the “nationalist” theory. However, upon the historiographical study of writings regarding the famine, several issues quickly developed that discredit this popular theory. This article, thus, attempts to cast doubt on the veracity of historical recounts portraying the “nationalist theory” in the Irish Potato Famine through the combination of a study of historiographical biases and recent research regarding the topic.

During a time of prevailing nationalist sentiment around Europe, it may come as no surprise that one of the first pieces of historical writing surrounding the Irish famine was a nationalistic one. In 1860, Irish writer and journalist John Mitchel attempted to interpret the famine through his 220-page oration The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps.) Mitchel describes that despite the self-sufficiency of Ireland, London had forced the Irish to export grains to the English mainland, thus causing a significant lack of food on an originally abundant island. As a result, Mitchel argued, the onus of blame for the famine was the British government. To illustrate this point, Michel wrote perhaps the most famous phrase in Famine literature:

“[T]he almighty, indeed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine.”

Mitchel, in agreement with both nationalistic and non-nationalistic historians, has been correct in the case of British inaction during the famine. He, and indeed the majority of “nationalist” interpretations of the Irish potato famine, however, have failed to successfully categorize the motivation behind British inaction in Ireland. Indeed, Mitchel describes the potato famine as a “deliberate genocide” by the British government to curb the growing Irish population based on Malthusian ideology. While plausible, recent studies have demonstrated the veracity in an alternate view. Indeed, Jim Dollney of BBC news argues that the British government did not attempt a direct form of genocide, yet simply continued with its lassie-faire enlightenment economic model. During the 19th century, the prevalent Whig party in London had effectively coerced British politics to be one of non-intervention, and, as Dollney explains, parliament over the Irish Sea had decided that wide-scale reparations and help to the Irish would be fundamentally incorrect under the current economic model. Thus, only about 7 million pounds were spent to help the Irish potato famine, a meager amount compared to the government’s expeditionary expenditures. Although British governmental institutions were reluctant to give help to the Irish, their fundamental ideology was based on enlightenment economics instead of ethnic genocide, thus depleting the “nationalist” theory of An Gorta Mor.

Despite the plethora of resources to deplete this theory, the nationalist attempt at explaining the Irish potato famine sees implementations to this day. In 2023, a group of British historians from the University of Nottingham condemned a BBC documentary on the Irish Potato Famine for its evocations of a British genocide against the Irish populous.

Without a doubt, An Gorta Mor will be remembered as one of the most treacherous famines in human history, resulting in the deaths of 24% of the Irish population and a significant emigration crisis that has not healed to the present day. While British governmental inaction was a significant factor in the deaths and suffering during the famine, it is important to remember the influence of prevalent laissez-faire politics in Britain during the mid-1800s. Nonetheless, the continued effect of the “nationalist theory” to this day shows how many parts of history are based on biases and simple legacy instead of an analysis of the truth in the situation.

Works Cited

Duffy, Peter. The Killing of Major Denis Mahon : A Mystery of Old Ireland. New York : HarperCollins, 2007. http://archive.org/details/killingofmajorde0000duff.

Hugh F. Kearney. “The Great Famine: Legend and Reality.” An Irish Quarterly Review 46, no. 182 (1957): 184–92.

John Mitchel. The Last Conquest of Ireland (Perhaps). 1st ed. London: R & T Washbourne Ltd., 1861.

The Irish Times. “BBC Documentary’s Irish Famine ‘Extermination’ Claim ‘Astonishingly Irresponsible’, Historians Argue.” Accessed May 14, 2024. https://www.irishtimes.com/history/2023/01/04/bbc-documentarys-famine-extermination-claim-irresponsible-historians-argue/.

“Who Was Molly Malone? - ShanOre Irish Jewlery.” Accessed May 14, 2024. https://www.shanore.com/blog/who-was-molly-malone/.

xplore. “Celia Griffin Memorial Park & Famine Ship Memorial.” Accessed May 14, 2024. https://xploreapp.io/galway/attraction/celia-griffin-memorial-park-and-famine-ship-memorial-zcifd.

Examining the Holodomor: A Historical Perspective

By Artem Gagushin, 2025

Few tragedies in human history have rivaled the magnitude of the Holodomor - a man-made famine that emerged in Ukraine as a direct result of collectivization policy in the Soviet Union between 1932 and 1933. The Holodomor - a transliteration of the Ukrainian Голодомор, literally “death by hunger” or "killing by hunger" - is a surprisingly unknown historical event considering its sheer scale and horror. Many would argue that analysis of the modern Ukrainian nation-state, especially in the context of the current war with Russia, is impossible without examining the wide-reaching demographic, cultural, and historical impacts of this famine. This article hopes to shed some light on a part of this overlooked history.

In 1929 in the Soviet Union, mass collectivization was well under way. Private property was seized by the government and organized into kolkhozy - farming collectives that worked for the government by delivering on quotas for grain production. This industrialization was met with resistance from the peasantry, or kulaks, who were not willing to hand their land and crops over to the state. To quell and punish this unrest, Stalin ramped up grain production quotas to unfeasible levels. These quotas were largely levied upon the Ukrainian SSR, southwestern Russia, and northern Kazakhstan, since those were the most fertile lands that accounted for nearly all of the USSR's grain production.

The peasants living in these regions began to starve. More unrest followed; quotas were raised once more. Stanislav Kosior, then-General Secretary of the Ukrainian SSR Communist Party, asserted that "the peasants are not working" and "relying on previously harvested grain that they have hidden." Consequently, on 15 January 1932, Kosior, under Stalin's orders, passed a decree "On grain procurements" that gave authorities the power to start confiscating food from peasants to meet production quotas. Stalin specifically targeted Ukraine, since grain production there had always been the highest in the Soviet Union.

Soon after, the famine had begun. Ukraine was not the only place hit by the famine - many surrounding regions that were also reliant on farming had amassed large death tolls - but it undoubtedly suffered the most. Millions of Ukrainians starved to death between 1932 and 1933; at its height, people were dying at a rate of 28,000 per day. The demographic decline in Ukraine between 1926 and 1937 amounted to a staggering 4.3 million people. People began to flee the affected regions. On 16 January 1933, Stalin passed a directive which aimed to prevent this flight of starving peasants, to limit the publicization of the famine to the rest of the Soviet Union and the world.

In the meantime, the Soviet Union was actively engaged in exporting grain to fund imports of industrial equipment - in fact, Soviet grain exports peaked in 1930 and 1931. These exports alone, not even including the grain reserves that the Soviet planners created for the future and continued stockpiling, would have been more than sufficient to prevent mass starvation. Tragically, this proves that there was never a physical basis for the Ukrainian famine. The death of millions of people was a gross mismanagement of industrialization policy. Whether or not this was done intentionally as an act of genocide - in other words, whether Stalin's goal had been to starve Ukraine - remains a subject of debate among scholars to this day. Regardless of the answer to that question, however, the Soviet Union's direct responsibility for these events is undeniable.

The Holodomor left an indelible mark on the Ukrainian psyche. The collective trauma from the famine that has been passed down through generations depicts a story of repression, suffering, and betrayal that Ukrainians have suffered over and over at the hands of the Soviet Union or, more recently, Russia. Most significantly, however, the famine helped form a sense of national identity: the perseverance of the Ukrainian people against Soviet aggression became a symbol and a rallying cry for independence that clearly reverberates to this day. For this reason, many Russians who try to deny the Ukrainian national identity - claiming that they are all, in fact, Russians - turn to downplaying the extent of, and the Soviet Union's complicity in, the Holodomor. Because this famine, as horrifying as it was, is a part of Ukrainian history that cannot be taken away and that should be remembered.

Works Cited

Conquest, Robert. The harvest of sorrow: Soviet collectivization and the terror-famine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

Davies, R.W., M.B. Tauger, and S.G. Wheatcroft. “Stalin, Grain Stocks and the Famine of 1932-1933.” Slavic Review 54, no. 3 (1995): 642–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/2501740. 

“Holodomor.” College of Liberal Arts. Accessed May 26, 2024. https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor. 

“Holodomor.” Encyclopædia Britannica, May 8, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/event/Holodomor. 

Nove, Alexander. An economic history of the USSR: 1917-1991. London: Penguin Books, 1992.

“Resolution of CC AUCP(B) and USSR SNK on Grain Procurements in Ukraine, the Northern Caucasus and the Western Oblast.” HREC Education, February 26, 2020. https://education.holodomor.ca/teaching-materials/primary-documents/resolution-of-cc-aucpb-and-ussr-snk-on-grain-procurements-in-ukraine-the-northern-caucasus-and-the-western-oblast/. 

“Resolution of the Court.” National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide, October 15, 2020. https://holodomormuseum.org.ua/en/resolution-of-the-court/. 

Vucinich, Alexander. “The Kolkhoz: Its Social Structure and Development.” American Slavic and East European Review 8, no. 1 (February 1949): 10. https://doi.org/10.2307/2491730. 

“Директива ЦК ВКП(б) и СНК СССР о Предотвращении Массового Выезда Голодающих Крестьян. 22 Января 1933 г.” Электронная библиотека исторических документов. Accessed May 26, 2024. https://docs.historyrussia.org/ru/nodes/63887-direktiva-tsk-vkp-b-i-snk-sssr-o-predotvraschenii-massovogo-vyezda-golodayuschih-krestyan-22-yanvarya-1933. Translated by the author.

Boriak, Hennadii. "Population Losses in the Holodomor and the Destruction of Related Archives: New Archival Evidence." Harvard Ukrainian Studies 30 (2008): 199+. Gale Academic OneFile.

We Reap what we Sow: Food Tech Startups and their Impacts on Traditional Agriculture

By Katie Pham, 2027

After World War 2, business groups proposed policies that would “modernize” farming by addressing what they deemed to be its economic inefficiencies. From 1954 to 2014, farms started to condense and their numbers in the United States dropped from 4.8 million to 2 million. Today, only 20% of farmers own 70% of US farming land. Since the 1950s, farming methods and equipment have become more technologically advanced, reliant on fossil fuel, and tailored to efficient, low-cost, mass production; this is industrial agriculture. Food tech startups today lean toward industrial agriculture, bringing novel technological inventions to the food industry.   

Food tech startups use innovative technology that expands the food industry and makes food production more efficient. Biochemical research and development is evident in many aspects of the food industry like protein alternatives, for instance. In July 2016, Impossible Foods launched the ‘Impossible Burger’, a burger containing plant-based meat. The key to it was an iron molecule of vegetal origin called heme. Heme is able to mimic the taste, aroma, and texture of real meat. The meat industry makes up 20% of greenhouse gas emissions, thus supporting plant-based meat is a way to lessen environmental degradation and animal cruelty. Furthermore, plant-based meat products can diversify culinary options for a larger audience. This is only one of the many examples of innovations brought to the food industry accredited to food tech companies’ experimentation. Another innovation brought to the food industry is precision agriculture. The USDA has funded precision agriculture research since 2017, providing nearly 200 million dollars. It utilizes devices like GPS, auto-steering equipment, IoT sensors, and drones to yield products more efficiently while simultaneously promoting better resource management. However, it’s this need for ‘efficiency’ that leads their problems. 

Food Tech companies can often harm traditional farmers through mass production and agricultural dumping. Food tech startups today lean toward industrial agriculture which utilizes modern technology to create food products on a mass scale. This enables food tech startups to sell food to the markets at a lower cost. This consequently makes the process of allowing farmers who practice traditional agriculture to sell their produce in grocery stores and supermarkets more costly. Farmers and ranchers only receive fifteen cents for every dollar spent on their produce at grocery stores, making it harder for them to sustain their farms and livelihoods. This is why many farmers turn towards Farmers’ Market instead of traditional supermarkets. Furthermore, large food tech companies tend to take advantage of Agricultural Dumping. Due to financial support programs/ subsidies from the US government, food tech companies can export leftover US food, most notably to Latin America, and force the people to buy it at a price lower than production, thus called dumping. This process hurts the local farmers in those countries since it pressures them out of business due to an inability to compete with the imports. Moreover, it undermines their agriculture sector which often times is a significant contributor to developing countries’ GDP. Agriculture dumping creates this dependency on imported food in the recipient countries which can lead to food insecurity if the imports fluctuate.  

Food Tech advancements pave the way for technological development and innovation that makes food production more efficient. However, this leads to the centralization of the food industry. As food tech companies, farms, and even supermarkets consolidate, competition goes away which will cause consumer prices to increase, which allows a select amount of dominant entities to monopolize and gain substantial control over prices, supply chains, and market dynamics. 

Works Cited 

Burg, Charlotte. “What Is “Food Tech”?: Silicon Valley’s Attempt to Overthrow the Traditional Food Industry.” Foreign Affairs Review, 26 Nov. 2023, www.foreignaffairsreview.com/home/what-is-food-tech-silicon-valleys-attempt-to-overthrow-the-traditional-food-industry. Accessed 6 May 2024.

Humphrey , Kyle . “Feeding the Future: How Tech-Driven Decentralized Food Systems Are Reshaping America’s Plate.” Www.linkedin.com, 14 Apr. 2023, www.linkedin.com/pulse/feeding-future-how-tech-driven-decentralized-food-systems-humphrey. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.

Office, U. S. Government Accountability. “Precision Agriculture: Benefits and Challenges for Technology Adoption and Use | U.S. GAO.” gao.gov, 31 Jan. 2024, www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-105962. Accessed 8 May 2024.

Sophia , Murphy , and Karen Hansen-Kuhn. “Corporate Agricultural Dumping: Growing the Wealth Gap.” Inequality.org, 12 July 2017, inequality.org/research/winners-losers-agricultural-dumping/. Accessed 8 May 2024.

“Sustainable Agriculture vs. Industrial Agriculture.” FoodPrint, 10 Oct. 2018, foodprint.org/issues/sustainable-agriculture-vs-industrial-agriculture/#:~:text=The%20Impacts%20of%20Industrial%20Agriculture. Accessed 1 May 2024.

“The Pros and Cons of Industrial Agriculture.” Mossyoak.com, 30 July 2019, www.mossyoak.com/our-obsession/blogs/the-pros-and-cons-of-industrial-agriculture#:~:text=Large%2Dscale%20industrial%20farms%20have. Accessed 2 May 2024.

The Weaponization of Starvation in Spanish America

By Benjamin Whitehouse, 2026

The Spanish conquest of the Americas, much like other colonial efforts of the time, had its roots in a multitude of ethnic, religious, and economic interests. And, as the British did in India and the French in Africa, the Spanish Crown fought tooth and nail to ensure expansive loyalty and complete domination. Where the history of the Spanish Americas begins to diverge from others of its kind comes when analyzing the methods in which the overarching power exacted submission from its subject. Nearly every colonial project can provide instances of warfare, violence, and blood. Very few though, can truly match the methods that brought about the sheer expanse of the Spanish imprint on the Americas as we know it. European imperial efforts of the 18th and 19th centuries, where a striking gap in power typically existed between the colonialist and colonized, hold very few structural similarities to the Spanish Empire’s onslaught on the native peoples and environment of the American continent.

The number “95” represents Spanish America at its simplest. 95% to be clear. Ninety-five percent of indigenous peoples died from the European intrusion into the New World. A statistic in this way – just 95% – can be hard to visualize. It may help to picture the United States of America, a country with 333 million inhabitants, shrunk down, demographically, to a size smaller than that of Georgia and North Carolina. Or, perhaps, a Loomis Chaffee with only 36 students. A decline of such magnitude reveals that Spanish colonization of the Americas was not just another expansionist ambition or imperial conflict.

Encomienda and hacienda, though concepts in name, proved, without a doubt, to be some of the most effective weapons in the history of mankind. As legally defined in 1503 by the Royal Crown of Spain, encomienda classified indigenous peoples as objects to be granted to conquistadors, soldiers, and officials. Based on the practice of extracting tribute from Muslims and Jews during the Reconquista of Iberian Spain, 16th-century encomienda gave Spanish colonialists free rein to demand tribute and labor from the many native communities they encountered. While not implicitly named, the legal right of encomienda gave way to the legal right of slavery and theft. Land seizure, in particular, in which Spaniards uprooted generations to assert societal dominance and achieve economic gains through the establishment of mines and large-scale agriculture, greatly impacted the indigenous way of life in the New World. Along with hacienda, a colonial system that incorporated the use of large land estates operated by native labor, encomienda dramatically altered the very pillars of society in a way never seen before. Many of the most prominent agricultural haciendas were tasked with producing European, “superior” foods for Spanish colonialists (who saw Indigenous foods as inferior). Through doing so, Spanish haciendas greatly accelerated the disastrous import of livestock and European crops into the Americas. The import of livestock - such as cattle, horses, sheep, and goats – cascaded into a colossal ecological and environmental threat to the survival of the vulnerable American ecosphere. Overgrazing, a practice encouraged by Spanish colonialists and hacienda managers, tore through indigenous lands, destroying the very ecosystem that was vital to their survival. Without the land that they had relied on for thousands of years and with depopulation from military conflict and foreign diseases (such as smallpox), the indigenous food system did not merely experience destruction – it ceased to exist at all. Spain was well aware of the impact encomienda, the haciendas, and the mass import of foreign livestock and crops would have on native populations. What makes the history of Spanish America so tragic is that fact itself. The Spanish knew their actions would lead to a catastrophic environmental and demographic cataclysm unlike any before. Despite the desperate pleas of Spanish Bishop Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas – including his revelation on the “acts of malice and treachery which have been and still are being done upon those nations and lands” – and two failed legal resolutions, no successful actions materialized to curb the atrocities of the Spanish colonial project. The Spanish Empire shamelessly weaponized famine and death as a tool of submission and conquest. Through the implementation of exploitative labor systems and the import of “Old World” diseases and organisms, the European explorers of the 16th century did not merely wish to gain control over a new territory and its people. Their aim was much more sinister – the comprehensive and complete destruction of civilization and society. Like the worst regimes of the modern day, the Spanish Empire employed starvation and famine as a weapon of supremacy and war. But unlike the horrors of today, the end goal wasn’t victory. It never was.

The Spanish destruction of indigenous food systems and the use of starvation as a weapon of conquest had the singular, concerted goal of eliminating the very trace of native life in their “New World.”

Works Cited

Alvarez, Linda. "COLONIZATION, FOOD, AND THE PRACTICE OF EATING." Food Empowerment Project. n.d. https://foodispower.org/our-food-choices/colonization-food-and-the-practice-of-eating/.

De Las Casas, Fray Bartolomé. "A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIES." National Humanities Center. Accessed May 12, 2024. https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/amerbegin/contact/text7/casas_destruction.pdf.

"Encomienda | Definition & Facts." Encyclopedia Britannica. Last modified July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/topic/encomienda.

"Hacienda | Spanish Colonial, Landownership, Agriculture." Encyclopedia Britannica. Last modified July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/topic/hacienda-estate.

Smith, David M. Southeastern Oklahoma State University. Accessed May 11, 2024. https://www.se.edu/native-american/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2019/09/A-NAS-2017-Proceedings-Smith.pdf.

The Bengal Famine of 1943

By David Shim, 2026

The Bengal Famine of 1943 was a famine in British India that resulted in the deaths of three million people due to disease or malnutrition. Yet, instead of dying due to the expected and most common reason for famines in general, food shortage, the civilians living in Bengal mainly died due to entitlement failure (Britannica). In other words, instead of a lack of food production being the driving issue, economic factors hindered the ability of certain groups of people, usually minorities, to purchase food. In fact, low rain levels, the primary indicator for famines, were actually higher than average at the peak of the famine, and “Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen argued in 1981 that there should still have been enough supplies to feed the region”(Guardian, 2019). Thus, if food growth and production rose during the famine, then what factors limited people and caused such entitlement failure?

The answer to this question would be the ongoing war between Japan, which already occupied major cities in India such as Burma, and Britain, led by Winston Churchill. With Japan on the verge of claiming more of India’s land, resources, and civilians, Churchill’s cabinet, consisting of five war advisors, chose to delegate boats and rice, the staple food source, from Burma to protect and support the war efforts. Unfortunately, this left the previous abundance of crops in scarcity instead, yet Churchill “regarded the food situation in Bengal as primarily a matter for its elected ministry rather than Whitehall,” one of Churchill’s war rooms (Massani). In fact, Britain took one step further within their “denial policy.” Due to the fear of impending invasion, rice and boats were taken away solely for the purpose of not letting the Japanese have them (Guardian, 2019). Yet, this precaution was just that: a precaution. Churchill and his cabinet had no guarantee that Japan would invade Bengal in the near future, yet sacrificed civilians in case Japan did. Not only were considerable amounts of food exported to British forces in the Middle East, but carts and elephants were taken from Bengal to Chittagong, where impending invasions were expected as well (Britannica). Such modes of transportation were vital in transporting food to remote regions, yet without them, accessibility heavily decreased across Bengal as a whole.

These actions caused anxiety about shortages, hoarding, speculation, and price inflation that put even a basic diet far out of range for Bengal’s workers. However, efforts were made to alleviate the deaths. In 1943, the Bengal government managed to distribute 110 million freemeals, yet this barely managed to scratch the surface of the massive number of those starving (Britannica). Thus, on August 4th, 1943, months after the famine had begun, Churchill agreed to send 150,000 tons of Iraqi Barley and Australian Wheat to Bengal. By January of 1944, Bengal received 300,000 tons of food from such countries. By the end of 1994, over one million tons of food, requested by Churchill to President Roosevelt, had been delivered (Massani). The massive amount of food delivered within the span of two years highlights the depth and severity of this famine, as well as the consequence of war and lack of preparation in general.

In addition, even though the famine ended relatively quickly with respect to the total number of deaths accumulated, the importance of stopping such events through proper communication is by

far the most important realization. In order to stop such disasters like these from happening, communication and call-to-actions must be highlighted.

Works Cited

“Bengal Famine of 1943.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.,

www.britannica.com/topic/Bengal-famine-of-1943. Accessed 10 May 2024.

“Churchill’s Policies Contributed to 1943 Bengal Famine – Study.” The Guardian,

Guardian News and Media, 29 Mar. 2019,

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/29/winston-churchill-policies-contributed-to-1943-

bengal-famine-study.

Masani, Zareer, et al. “Churchill and the Bengal Famine.” History Reclaimed, 30 Aug.

2021, historyreclaimed.co.uk/churchill-and-the-bengal-famine/.

Exploring Food Blogging and Mukbangs

By Will Piyapong, 2027

In the modern age of the internet, where social media and various platforms are on the rise, food blogging, trends, and Mukbangs have emerged as predominant sectors of the media, the profound influences running deep in our society. From delicious recipes to documenting day-to-day meals, these trends have revolutionized the culinary landscape, bringing flavors from around the globe to our screens. However, this shouldn’t disregard the adverse effects it has on viewers.

First, before delving into this intriguing topic we must understand the terms. Food blogging refers to a practice where individuals share their dining experiences online, a type of post prevalent on social media in recent years. Meanwhile, Mukbangs, originating in South Korea around 2010, have skyrocketed to fame. It involves a live-streamed video where viewers watch the host eat. Typically featuring a copious amount of dishes like ramen, fried chicken, and cheese, Mukbangs have garnered attention not only for their culinary offerings but also for their ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) appeal, while providing viewers with a virtual dining companion.

Despite the popularity of Mukbangs, a few recent trends have raised concerns about the potential dangers of these videos and the trends within them. This includes consuming starch toothpicks fried in hot oil until they puff up and then adding seasonings like cheese or spicy powder before consuming them. This alarming trend, which gained traction on social media, can lead to serious health risks as the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety does not verify them as edible. This prompted warnings from Korean government officials on the 24th of January, urging people to not replicate the trend due to its potential hazards.

Additionally, the consumption of live animals during mukbangs has sparked controversy and ethical concerns. This can be seen in the case of popular mukbang YouTuber Ssoyoung who consumed live squid and octopus in a video. This led to an outcry from animal rights activists and health experts calling out her propensity for zooming in on the writhing animals and "highlighting the brutality of the act of decapitating a living squid." and eating it right after. The posting of such graphic content, though specifically said by YouTube does not cross community guidelines, it may cause the viewers to feel uncomfortable while watching the “meal preparation” unfold.

These trends can have detrimental effects, particularly with mukbangers eating an excessive amount, not only on the viewers but also on the hosts themselves. In 2019, American YouTuber Nicholas Perry, otherwise known as Nikocado Avocado, reported that binge eating for mukbang videos had negatively affected his health, and in 2021, Italian mukbanger Omar Palermo died of a heart attack. Moreover, the recent trends of influencers documenting their diet to maintain what is accepted as a “fit” or “slim” body shape, can also spark misinformation and often end up worsening the follower’s conditions. This is due to how these influencer meals often do not contain the sufficient nutrients. Thus, experts suggests that viewers should contact a trained professional before following through with the various diets presented online.

However, it's important to acknowledge that not all food trends are detrimental. Food blogging, more specifically cooking videos also has positive aspects, such as promoting culinary innovation, providing educational content on nutrition, and recommending food spots across cities. For college students and individuals seeking recipes on a budget, these platforms offer cheap, tasty, and easy ideas that require minimum effort and spending.

In conclusion, food blogging, food trends, and Mukbangs are an intersection of food, culture, and technology. To address the negative impact of these trends, various solutions can be implemented. Governments can enact laws to regulate food consumption online, as demonstrated by Xi Jinping’s “Clean Plate” campaign to reduce food waste. Additionally, raising awareness about eating disorders and promoting data accurate healthy eating habits can help mitigate the harmful effects of food trends on individuals. While some trends may pose health risks, others offer valuable opportunities for culinary creativity and exploration. By acknowledging the potential dangers and implementing proactive solutions, we can ensure that these digital culinary experiences continue to enrich our lives without compromising our health and values.

Works Cited

“What is mukbang? And why is it so popular?” 2023. Qustodio. https://www.qustodio.com/en/blog/what-is-mukbang/.

Singh, Simrin. 2024. “South Korean health officials urge against eating fried toothpicks after social media trend goes viral.” CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eating-fried-toothpicks-social-media-trend/.

“YouTuber Ssoyoung Responds to Backlash for Live Animal Mukbang Videos.” 2020. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/youtuber-ssoyoung-live-squid-octopus-video-h3h3-mukbang-2020-4.

“Why You Shouldn't Embrace Every Food Trend on Social Media.” n.d. Memorial Hermann. Accessed May 9, 2024. https://www.memorialhermann.org/health-wellness/lifestyle/not-embracing-social-media-food-trends

Famine Conspiracy and Convoluting History

By Lisa Pang, 2027

In 192 A.D., Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius (the last of the “five good emperors” whose Stoic approaches to ruling brought a period of relative tranquility and stability to the Roman Empire), was assassinated. Commodus started his reign in 177 A.D., but throughout the short sixteen years, this one man utterly changed the prestige of the Roman Senate, indulged the ever-growing power of the Praetorian Guards (personal bodyguards and intelligence agents for the Roman emperors), and gradually led the once-thriving empire to a path of demise. Squandering time with his concubines, Commodus left all responsibilities within the empire to his trusted chamberlain—Marcus Aurelius Cleander.

In 189 A.D., a famine broke out. Edward Gibbon reflected in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, “Pestilence and famine contributed to fill up the measure of the calamities of Rome. The first could be only imputed to the just indignation of the gods; but (A.D. 189) a monopoly of corn, supported by the riches and power of the minister, was considered as the immediate cause of the second.” Indeed, the famine was not a natural disaster but a result of power abuse and conspiracies. Historical sources generally suggested that Cleander intentionally caused it in his quest for power and emperorship. As such, the theme of food and famine has been tightly connected to politics, the monopoly of agricultural resources as a manipulation of power, and a convoluting period of Roman history. This essay compares how Cleander’s plot was described respectively in Historia Augusta, Herodian’s History of the Roman Empire since the Death of Marcus Aurelius, and Cassius Dio’s Historiae Romanae while shedding light on some points of ambiguity. 

Cleander rose to power by selling political offices, thus winning immense economic profits for himself. Historia Augusta, a late Roman collection of biographies of the Roman emperors from 117 A.D. to 284 A.D., noted,

Ad cuius nutum etiam libertini in senatum​ atque in patricios lecti sunt, tuncque primum viginti quinque consules in unum annum, venditaeque omnes provinciae. Omnia Cleander pecunia venditabat; revocatos de exsilio dignitatibus ornabat, res iudicatas rescindebat.

According to Roman traditions, patricians were upper-class, land-owning elites who comprised most of the Roman senate. Moreover, the patrician identity was mainly hereditary and based on familial lineage. Cleander thus defied traditions that had been well established since the Roman Kingdom and early Republic by selling senatorial and patrician positions. Moreover, according to Herodian, Cleander also possessed “the command of the bodyguard, the stewardship of the imperial bedroom, and the control of the imperial armies,” reflecting a culmination of his economic, political, and military power. He thus started coveting emperorship, attempting to rally public support for himself, thus forcing Commodus to step down from the throne. 

With his immense wealth and political networking, Cleander bought up most of the grain supply that originated in Alexandria and stored it himself instead of distributing it to Roman markets. He planned to distribute grain to people and the army when they were slightly suffering from the famine, thus becoming the hero of Rome who relieved its people from the food crisis.

However, historical sources diverged from this point in the details concerning the famine. The only account from Historia Augusta is, “Nec eam tum invidiam populo saeviente Commodus ferre potuisset, plebi ad poenam donatus est” (At that time, Commodus could not endure the hatred with people raging, and gave Cleander over to the populace for punishment). The work did not mention the famine anywhere nor attribute the food crisis as a driving force of Cleander’s demise. Historia Augusta seemed to question the historical significance of the famine and imply that it is Cleander’s previous dishonorable acts that piled up public dissatisfaction. On the very opposite, Herodian fully encapsulated and perhaps even exaggerated the situation:

Famine gripped the city … At first [the Romans] attacked [Cleander] bitterly when they thronged the theaters; later, however, they went in a body to Commodus, who was passing the time on his estate near the city … Unlooked for by the assembled mob, the imperial cavalry appeared fully armed and, at the order of the prefect, butchered those in their path.

Herodian pictured a full-scale civil war; he then described a great slaughter of fugitives by the horsemen, the violent resistance of the civilians, and how the infantry was later employed to curb the mob. Although Herodian did not specify the number of deaths and casualties, the content implied a considerable scale of civil disobedience and military suppression from the authority. Of course, Commodus was ignorant of the chaos even as the mob approached his suburban estate. Only after Commodus’s eldest sister, Fadilla, rushed into the palace and reported imminent danger did Commodus realize Cleander’s treachery and order him to be beheaded.

Interestingly, Cassius Dio’s style seems to lie between Historia Augusta and Herodian’s account. After acknowledging Cleander’s intentionality in the famine, Dio wrote,

There was a horse-race on … a crowd of children ran into the Circus. The children shouted in concert many bitter words, which the people took up and then began to bawl out every conceivable insult; and finally the throng leaped down and set out to find Commodus (who was then in the Quintilian suburb) … The latter sent some soldiers against them, who wounded and killed a few … Marcia … reported the matter to [Commodus].

The expressions “some soldiers” and “wounded and killed a few” mitigated the degree of violence and empirical suppression of the event. Dio and Herodian also seemed to disagree on the individual who reported the rebellion to Commodus (Dio claimed that it is Marcia while Herodian mentioned Fadilla). 

Ultimately, the three accounts left a heavily ambiguous history. While they demonstrated how food and agriculture were tightly connected to corruption, power abuse, and conspiracy, they nonetheless left many questions unanswered. How severe was the famine? How many people died from it? What was the degree of civil disobedience and military brutality? How much was it correlated to the downfall of Commodus—and the Roman Empire? Besides the above-mentioned sources, literary works, statistics, and archeological findings should also be assessed to gain a more accurate understanding of this period of convoluting history. 

Works Cited

Cary, Earnest, trans. Roman History. Loeb Classical Library, n.d.

Echols, Edward C. Herodian of Antioch’s History of the Roman Empire. Oakland: University of California Press, 2021. 

Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 1. London: Everyman’s Library, 1993. 

Historia Augusta

King Leopold II’s legacy in the Congo Free State: Exploitation, forced labor and famine

By Claire Kietduriyakul, 2026

British journalist Edward Morel once stated that “it is [the Africans] who carry the ‘Black man’s burden’,” by so, offering a newfound perspective on the effects of colonialism on those in what came to be known as the Congo Free State. In Morel's poignant words lies a profound truth that resonates deeply with the harrowing experiences of the Congolese people under King Leopold II of Belgium's rule. Under his reign, the Congo Free State descended into a nightmarish abyss of exploitation, forced labor, and unfathomable brutality that led to famine in the once-peaceful land. It seems that it wasn’t the Belgians bearing the burden of having to colonize the Congolese, but rather the Congolese’s burden of having to fight for their rightful land back.

King Leopold first laid claim to the African territory in February 1885, establishing the Congo Free State as his personal domain through forceful means. Unlike typical colonial control exercised by European powers across Africa, he treated the Congo as his private possession, leveraging it as a representation of his authority and influence. Financed by loans from the Belgian government, Leopold embarked on funding development initiatives in the region, ostensibly with the aim of "civilizing" the Congolese populace. Throughout this period, the Congolese were treated as subhuman and uncivilized and were seen as a state in need of European powers to save them, emphasizing Leopold’s views of fulfilling the white savior narrative. However, Morel observes that “the African of the tropics [was] capable of tremendous physical labors, but he [could not] accommodate himself to the European system of monotonous, uninterrupted labor.” This discrepancy such as laboring for valuable resources like rubber and ivory, led to widespread suffering, exacerbated by diseases and the taxing climate of the region. Eventually, this led to the death of approximately half of the Congolese due to the malnutrition and punishment they endured by the Belgians. Among those who weren't killed, many were punished by having parts of their bodies amputated instead.

Simultaneously, the colonial administration maintained dominance over the Congo populace through a reign of terror, marked by frequent massacres and brutal mutilations. Violence and intimidation served as tools to enforce the will of the Belgian king and the trading agents upon the African people. Due to the backlash against his rule, Leopold II was compelled to enlist European mercenaries to safeguard his interests, forming them into a private army known as the Force Publique, which swelled to encompass up to 19,000 troops.The Force Publique functioned dually as an occupying military force and a policing entity, primarily serving the interests of the trading companies. Consequently, the Free State of the Congo devolved into a large concentration camp. As the death toll increased, rubber became scarce as a result of most of the vines being cut. Although this period under Leopold did not stop some Congolese from trying to escape from the Congo, many tried, usually doing so at risky costs. Many ended up also dying from starvation due to men having to go on rubber collecting expeditions and orphaned children who could not provide for themselves, but they were also forced into giving food to the Force Publique.

As the stark realities and suffering that occurred within the Congo Free State became more widely known, many Europeans spoke out against the horrific acts imposed by the Belgians under King Leopold II. Demonstrations and protests demanded that Leopold end human rights abuses in the Congo Free State. Finally, in 1908, international pressures from left, and right, forced the king to turn the Congo Free State over to Belgium. Leopold’s Congo Free State was renamed the “Belgian Congo,” remaining so until the Congo finally gained their independence in 1960. Although the present-day “Democratic Republic of Congo” is now free from the restraints of their imperialist past, the harrowing nightmares and terrors by Leopold, leave a scathing mark on the country’s rich history.

Works Cited:

Edward Morel, The Black Man’s Burden, 1903 (published 1920).

“Belgian King Establishes Congo Free State.” 2023. Nationalgeographic.org. 2023. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/belgian-king-establishes-congo-free-state/.

“The Free State of the Congo, a Hidden History of Genocide - Col·leccio Marull.” 2015. Col·leccio Marull. August 10, 2015. https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/gabinetpostal/lestat-lliure-del-congo-un-genocidi-a-lombra/?lang=en.

Johnson, Steven. 2014. “King Leopold II’s Exploitation of the Congo from 1885 to 1908 and Its Consequences .” https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2641&context=honorstheses1990-2015.

A Brief History of Fast Food & Its Modern Identity Crisis

By Luke Han, 2025

In the modern, consumerist societies that most humans in the contemporary age live under, the world of cuisine has a ubiquitous presence in every nation–fast food. “Fast food” can simply be defined as foodstuffs, predominantly prepared with processed, preheated, or precooked, ingredients, produced with the intent of serving it as quickly as possible. With its current omnipresence in the food industry, generating over $500 billion globally every year, it can be easy to forget that fast food was once a revolutionary innovation in both the food and services industry, as well as the fact that its origins go much further back than the halcyon fast food titans like McDonalds or Subway. If one is to truly understand the negative impacts fast food currently imparts upon many across the world, one must also fully grasp its history, appeal, and reason for growth.

Under the established definition of fast food, there is a strong argument to be made that it existed as early as the days of Ancient Rome. In densely-populated urban areas sprawling with cramped apartments, many Romans, especially the poorer Plebeians, could not possibly have a meal cooked for themselves three times a day. And so, institutions known as popinas popped up, which served the function of a rudimentary, cheap restaurant which served basic menus with a focus on quick service. Additionally, various smaller market vendors sprung up in Roman cities specializing in selling preserved, pre-ready food, such as dried meat. As distant as the Romans’ version of fast food is from the contemporary one, some of the most defining features of fast food can be clearly seen in these older Roman food establishments. They flourished in heavily urban areas where individuals could not reliably have cooked meals, and there was a need for a large number of people to be able to receive cheap food quickly. Thus, there was a large demand for services that could provide food that was not only tasty, but easily assembled and cooked within a short time period. While popinas would die out with the Romans, after the passing of many centuries, and with increasing urbanization, the past repeated itself once more.

Newly armed with a mastery of chemistry and mass production, and with an ever-so bustling, ambitious middle class, the United States of the 1900s were perfectly primed for a fast food renaissance. Household name businesses like McDonalds and Wendy’s got their starts, while innovations such as the drive-thru helped business boom, with more and more Americans gaining access to cars. With more customers came an incentive to produce food even faster, to be even more efficient; as a result, by the 21st century, the vast majority if not all of fast food consisted of ultra-processed ingredients, which have been shown to be linked to obesity, as well as potential carcinogens (cancer-causing material). Despite the obvious health concerns, campaigns against fast food have been met with limited success in the U.S, especially thanks to a now-strongly established food culture surrounding fast food itself–a culture so pervasive, that it is a common stereotype for Americans to be associated with fast food; there is a reason why McDonalds is such a popular American symbol! This culture is one that was based on solid ground at one point, much like the Roman popinas. Fast food in America originated as a place where the working and middle classes could get accessible, tasty food at an affordable price. However, the great irony of today’s status quo is that in the aftermath of the Great Recession, fast food has also become just as expensive, if not at times more pricier than alternatives. Meanwhile, modern non-fast food restaurants also allow for quickly-serviceable food that is healthier and less processed. In the face of these facts, at a certain point an important question must be asked: with some of the most fundamental, historical pillars of fast food all but collapsed, is there anything keeping the people hooked other than pure addiction?

Bibliography

Dupont, Florence. Daily Life in Ancient Rome. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1993.

LaFata, Erica M., and Ashley N. Gearhardt. “Ultra-Processed Food Addiction: An Epidemic?” Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 91, no. 6 (2022): 363–72. https://doi.org/10.1159/000527322.

Lewis, Robert. “Fast Food | Britannica.” In Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019. https://www.britannica.com/topic/fast-food.

Monteiro, C. A., J.C. Moubarac, G. Cannon, S. W. Ng, and B. Popkin. “Ultra-Processed Products Are Becoming Dominant in the Global Food System.” Obesity Reviews 14, no. S2 (October 23, 2013): 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12107.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. “Overweight & Obesity Statistics | NIDDK.” National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, September 2021. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity#:~:text=the%20above%20table-.

NPR. “The Hamburger, Present at the Creation.” web.archive.org, December 22, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071222171713/http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/hamburger/.

Sena, Matt. “Fast Food Industry Analysis 2020 - Cost & Trends.” Franchisehelp.com, 2020. https://www.franchisehelp.com/industry-reports/fast-food-industry-analysis-2020-cost-trends/.

Smith, Lindsey P., Shu Wen Ng, and Barry M. Popkin. “Resistant to the Recession: Low-Income Adults’ Maintenance of Cooking and Away-From-Home Eating Behaviors during Times of Economic Turbulence.” American Journal of Public Health 104, no. 5 (May 2014): 840–46. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2013.301677.

Stambaugh, John E. The Ancient Roman City. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.