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Panel on food safety and food security in Asia as part of the third Global Asias Conference, to be held at Penn State University on April 9-11, 2015.Papers on issues of health and national security in connection with networks of food production and distribution are encouraged in any discipline or national focus within Asia.Please send a 250-word abstract and brief c.v. to Jessamyn Abel at jessamyn.abel@psu.edu by November 15, 2014.  The panel description is pasted below, followed by a general description of the conference.Asia in the Global Food ChainThe global expansion of food supply networks, while delivering a variety of foods around the world, has also heightened concerns about food safety and security.  In the market-opening mood of the 1990s, worries about Japan’s food security fueled support for import barriers on staple foods, and the looming threat of an influx of foreign rice sent Japanese consumers into an anxious frenzy of stock-piling domestic grain.  More recently, one tainted food scandal after another has inspired bans on imports of food from China, while spurring wealthy Chinese to import suitcases-full of goods like infant formula.  For centuries, the absence, availability, and provision of food has been a key element in the vibrancy of overseas Asian communities and the ability of immigrants to feel “safe at home” in their adopted country.  This panel will explore the intersection between issues of food safety and security and Asia’s place in global networks of immigration and trade.Global Asias 3Penn State’s Department of Asian Studies announces Global Asias 3, a conference to celebrate the launch of a new journal, Verge: Studies in Global Asias (published by the University of Minnesota Press).Read more