Overview: Brown Symposium XXXIV Food. Bountiful food is celebration, creative food is art, particular foods mark cultures, lack of food is deadly. Food is so central to who and what we are that we, too often, take it for granted. But many humans are not afforded this luxury. Now, we find ourselves at the brink of a potential crisis. A growing human population coupled with food production practices that are potentially devastating for the environment, other animals and human health (factory farming, monoculture, intensive agriculture) threaten life in many forms - both human life and entire ecosystems. This year's Brown Symposium considers Food from many angles and ponders ways we can rethink our relationship with this most basic, beautiful and complex of needs. The Brown Symposium at Southwestern University The Brown Symposium is presented by Southwestern University on an annual basis. Open to the public without charge, the symposium is funded through an endowment established by The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, Texas, for professorships at the University. The symposia are designed to enhance the effectiveness of the work for which the endowed professorships were established. Each symposium presents topics in one of the broad areas of study represented by the chairholder.