In humanities, food, feeding, and feedback come together under one umbrella of human nature, culture, and creativity. Within this context fall the ethical, epistemological, phenomenological, and political tropes of food, calling for understanding and interrogation.
Food as a thematic focus in art has acquired a wide range of meanings related to consumption and consumerism, the search for and the loss of identity, localization/globalization, and high/pop culture. In literature, food has also been used as a metaphor for gender roles, human desires, power dynamics, and social status.