Despite the rapid growth of food law, the field has been governed to a great extent by the “food as sustenance” paradigm. This approach views food primarily as organic matter essential for the biological survival and physical well-being of humans and animals, but its monopoly leaves the field impoverished of the complex and myriad ways in which food functions in the lives of individuals and societies. Dr. Yofi Tirosh, a professor at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law and pioneer in the field of food law, discusses her call for a shift from the “food as sustenance” paradigm to a “food as meaning” paradigm, stressing that food has important roles in sustaining social institutions and in creating meaning in the lives of legal subjects. She will argue that laws and doctrines designed without appreciating that food is not only a means of physical survival, but also that food has symbolic value attached to its preparation and consumption, are bound to be less effective and less just.

Dr. Tirosh is a Senior Lecturer at the Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law and a 2014-16 Senior Fellow at Hebrew University’s Martin Buber Society of Fellows.  Tirosh teaches labor and employment law, antidiscrimination law, food law, and feminist jurisprudence. Her research interests include affirmative action, bioethics, and law and culture. The working title of her book in progress is Feminist Libertarianism.  Dr. Tirosh is a graduate of The University of Michigan Law School, were she was a graduate fellow at Michigan’s Institute for the Humanities. She served as a Visiting Professor at Georgetown Law Centre and as a Hauser Fellow at NYU Law School.  As a human rights activist, she is the leading public voice in the efforts to stop the growing sex segregation in public and private spaces in Israel. She is a regular contributor of legal interpretation to leading media venues in Israel.

Co-Sponsors:
The Institute on Religion, Law, and Lawyer’s Work
Feerick Center for Social Justice

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