Defining, Managing, and Dictating Children’s Bodies: Discourses of “Good” Food and the Politics of “Growing”

Urban Farm DB summary

This essay discusses the growing focus on children's bodies within discourses of obesity and examines several recently published Canadian children's picture books on healthy food choices, including "Up We Grow!," "Watch Me Grow! A Down-to-Earth Look at Growing Food in the City," "The Good Garden," "Potatoes on Rooftops: Farming in the City," "Down to Earth," and "Why Are You Doing That?" Drawing on Deborah Lupton's argument that increased focus on children's body size functions to regulate and manage children generally, the essay reads these picture books within the context of public anxiety surrounding childhood obesity.