Food literacy (FL) has become a key concept for many family and consumer sciences/home economics (FCS/HE) professionals, especially those with specializations in dietetics and nutrition, food studies, and education. References to food literacy have grown exponentially since its first mention in the 1990s (Begley & Vidgen, 2016) and are used…

This paper is a historical review, documenting the evolution of Home Economics as a subject in Irish primary and post-primary education from the 1800s to the twenty-first century. In the 1800s and early twentieth-century domestic subjects, including cookery, was widely taught to females in both primary and post-primary schools. The philosophical…

The place of practical cookery within school subjects in England has, in recent years, been debated as part of concerns about the nation's health and obesity. Cookery has been a school subject for over a century, but has only ever held a minority place in the curriculum. In 2017 we surveyed teachers of practical cookery in schools, in a repeat of…

In 2003, Jennifer Grossman wrote an opinion piece for "The New York Times" titled "Food for Thought (and for Credit)" with the opening sentence: "Want to combat the epidemic of obesity? Bring back home economics." That thought seemed to simmer for awhile and then in 2011, Professor Helen Zoe Veit wrote another opinion…

This article explores the various types of domestic education, particularly cookery, available in Manchester between 1870 and 1902. The work of the two local School Boards and the Manchester School of Domestic Economy are shown as part of a complicated network of provision--a mixed economy of welfare, including enthusiastic philanthropists and…