Can you name the five major tastes? Has COVID-19 made you want to start your home garden?
We’ve invited some experts on taste and food studies to talk about what’s really happening when you use too much hot sauce, or how solutions to a flawed food industry may be in your own neighborhood. Join our webinar as we explore the ‘mmmm’, ‘yuck‘ and ‘yum’s of taste!
The event will be livecast through Zoom and through Facebook Live on our page.
Meet your speakers
Tom Taylor-Clark
What research into pain teaches us about extreme tastes: Along with the convention 'tastes' of salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami, humans often enjoy more extreme 'tastes' such as spicy or coolness, which work through different mechanisms to conventional tastes. Pungent chemicals that cause spicy (chili) and coolness (menthol) evolved in plants to prevent rather not encourage predation. These chemicals target our pain receptors in our skin evoking pain or discomfort. Strangely, the same pathways in our mouths are pleasurable.
Tom is a Professor of Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. I study the role of the peripheral nervous system in the regulation of the respiratory and cardiovascular system, particularly with respect to how pollutants, irritants and inflammation cause debilitating responses such as cough, wheeze and cardiac arrhythmia.
Sara B. Dykins Callahan
Safer-at-Home in My Garden: This presentation includes a brief description of problems with food industry practices, including the relationship between our broken food systems and COVID-19. Dykins Callahan suggests individual re-connections to food production as a potential solution and offers practical tips for cultivating a home garden.
Dr. Sara Dykins Callahan is a teaching professor in the Department of Humanities & Cultural Studies at USF-Tampa, and served as Director of Food Studies from 2015-2019. In addition to cultivating a fun and functional side-yard garden at her Temple Terrace home, Sara teaches the courses "Introduction to Food Studies" and "Ethics of Food Production," which introduce students to food as meaning-filled cultural and social products.