ISU students can learn about the different historical and cultural aspects of food and nutrition from visiting professor of nutritional geography Louis E. Grivetti.

As the Dean Helen LeBaron Hilton Endowed Chair for spring 2000, Grivetti will present three public lectures, a series of seminars and two courses during April and May.

“I am honored to be selected,” said Grivetti, professor of nutritional geography at the University of California, Davis. “I am looking forward to interacting with students here.”

Grivetti will share with the ISU community “how food affects people in a number of different ways,” said Mary Jo Glanville, communications specialist for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences.

His presentations will include information on the cultural and environmental factors influencing the food choices people make, said Suzanne Hendrich, associate dean of the College of FCS.

“It’s a lot of implications for thinking about how we want to live and understanding how we got to where we are now,” she said. “This adds something incredible to our appreciation of what decisions we will make in the future of what we will eat.”

Hendrich said Grivetti will present information that has a broad appeal to the entire university.

Grivetti’s first of three free public lectures was Tuesday. It focused on the medical and nutritional uses of chocolate over the years, he said.

His second lecture, “Wine: Good for the Heart — Good for the Soul,” is May 9 at 8 p.m. at Reiman Gardens.

“It will be a look at wine use through the ages [and] views on wine through the past several thousands of years,” Grivetti said.

The last lecture is scheduled for May 23 at 8 p.m. at Reiman Gardens. It is titled “Corn and Wheat — Beef and Pork: History of Food in the American Heartland” and will focus on the history of these four foods based on the last 500 years.

“I’ll be using diaries of explorers as they relate to the use of these foods from Columbus’ contact through contemporary times,” he said.

Grivetti said he perceives his visit to Iowa State as an opportunity to meet new colleagues and to exchange ideas with ISU faculty and students.

“This gives us the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the culture of the Midwest,” he said.

Grivetti and his wife have opted to live in university housing, which makes it easier to participate in campus activities, he said.

In addition to lectures, Grivetti will teach an undergraduate course and a graduate course.

The undergraduate seminar, “Food is More than Nutrients,” will explore different practices of eating, Grivetti said.

“[The course] will look at a range of items, historically, that have changed our food supply forever,” he said. “From botany to religion and ethics … and archeology and diet.”

The graduate seminar will concentrate on the understanding of nutritional geography and the principles of how research is conducted, Grivetti said.

“[The course] will be looking at biotechnology and genetically modified foods and organisms from the perspective of a food geographer,” he said.

The classes are open to interested students and have not reached capacity yet, Hendrich said.