In the early twenty-first century, nationalism has seen a surprising resurgence across the Western world. In the Catalan Autonomous Community in northeastern Spain, this resurgence has been most apparent in widespread support for Catalonia’s pro-independence movement, and the popular assertion of Catalan symbols, culture and identity in everyday life. Nourishing the Nation provides an ethnographic account of the everyday experience of national identity in Catalonia, using an essential, everyday object of consumption: food. As a crucial element of Catalan cultural life, a focus on food provides unique insight into the lived realities of Catalan nationalism, and how Catalans experience and express their national identity today.

In this one-of-a-kind book and guide, the author redefines health care as the practice of nourishing ourselves to support a lifelong partnership with our body. Guiding us from the human cell to the kitchen and beyond, the author explores every intersection where the body meets food. We are reminded that only nourishing food is capable of powering our metabolism, our brains, and our muscles. With the “Virtual Kitchen Tour”—a unique and practical exercise—we are invited to reevaluate our household food bank. Living in the context of relationships, family, friends, schools, senior centers, the workplace, and the community, all are recognized and respected participants in the lifestyle changes one will undertake. There is also a close look at how a western lifestyle contributes to chronic illness and how we can amend this. And through actual case studies we are invited to reflect on our own life ways.

On July 22-23, 2020, the Food Forum of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted a virtual workshop that explored the integration of the health, societal, economic, and environmental effects and future needs of the food system. The main objective of the 1.5-day workshop was to understand how to achieve a more sustainable, resilient, equitable, and nourishing food system. Workshop sessions examined three main dimensions of the food system: vulnerabilities, resiliency, and transformation. The workshop included discussions on global change, access to health and food, resiliency in complex dynamic systems and resiliency for the future, and consumption- and production-oriented strategies that could transform the food system. This publication highlights the presentation and discussion of the workshop.