Though industrial bread manufacturers came out on top, they too faced challenges as consumers began to disapprove of all bread, not just locally baked loaves. Carb Free diets and, most recently, Gluten free diets have influenced people to remove bread from their diets. With the drop in bakers’ profits, they had to come up with trends to drive consumers back to the staple. Whole wheat bread once thrown aside for white bread was welcomed back as a better and healthier choice to the processed packaged bread. Movements, such as Artisan Bread and Locally Made, help consumers return to neighborhood bakeries. With the shift back to traditional bread, Wonder Bread was forced to close, showing that consumers do value quality over cost. When looking at the big picture of bread it shows that no matter how many waves the staple food goes through it can stand the test of time.

Feasts are a time of community unity, a time of imposed order even if chaos abounds. Feasts can be for celebratory reasons, they can be of a religious nature, and as Samuel Pepys points out, they can help mend rifts among people at odds with one another. Even when feasts have celebratory or religious purposes, they may also involve political matters. A monarch, for example, may host a feast to celebrate his wedding, but, while celebrating the joyous royal union, the guests are also celebrating the political union of two kingdoms. Many times a king marries to strengthen his kingdom and ruling power, not for love. His wedding feast is actually a political act.

These banquets, especially those given for political reasons, such as the crowning of a new monarch, epitomize the various elements of social order. For example, guests are seated according to status. The host sits at the center of the high table, esteemed guests sit next to him and the rest of the guests sit according to rank. The lowest ranking guests sit the furthest from the high table, sitting at the end tables. The courses of the meal are served in a standard order; dessert, for example, is served after the main course, not before. The food itself reflects the status of the host. The higher the rank of the host, the more unusual and expensive the food. The rules and rituals that govern feasts make them a time of order, a time when people can come together and restore order even if only temporarily.

After the isolation of the main active ingredient in cannabis, δ-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), in 1964, various physicians and scientists conducted research demonstrating its therapeutic medical efficacy for a variety of illnesses including glaucoma, cancer, AIDS, anorexia, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and pain management (Watson et. al. 548). Over a decade has passed since cannabis first became legalized for medical use in California in 1996 (Eddy 8). Subsequently, 18 other states, including the District of Columbia, legalized cannabis for medical use.

Individuals who have received a doctor’s recommendation for its use are authorized to consume cannabis for medical purposes. Although it is commonly ingested by inhalation, many individuals prefer to consume marijuana through edible products. Due to an increased interest in careful cultivation practices, biochemical evaluation of the product, and quality control efforts, a market for medical edibles has developed. Many chefs have begun experimenting with cannabis, using it as a spice or flavor, to create a sensory food experience. Savvy chefs, such as Scott Van Rixel, Kristi Knoblich, Eric Underwood, Julie Dooley and Julianna Carella entered this new market with both entrepreneurial and altruistic interest in creating medical marijuana edibles, tapping into the new flavor frontier this product provides.

It is interesting that in the culinary world’s constant search for new and exciting flavor discoveries, the medical edibles industry has not received much mainstream interest. Little data has been compiled supporting the potential this ancient plant may bring to cuisine (Watson et. al. 548). Now, due to the application of ancient and experimental techniques, these innovative chefs are blazing the trail for the culinary community.

This paper investigates edible medical marijuana as a viable frontier and niche market from a legal, medical and culinary perspective. It reviews the etymology and the history of cannabis, as well as current legal, medicinal and cultivation guidelines. This is accomplished through an overview of four states’ dispensary policies, as well as the creative culinary accomplishments of representative edible establishments. This study also draws on the results of two surveys: one directed to the edible product developers, dispensers, and vendors, the other survey directed to authorized patients of the dispensaries. The data collected is intended to confirm the emergence of a unique culinary product, its value, increased distribution, and potential for success in this newly developed market.

Music, memories, and emotions have all been proven to intertwine, yet not much research has demonstrated the interrelation of all three. Musicology focuses on the connection between the human psyche and music. The most common use of music is meaning enhancement, which is when listeners play music in order to enhance an event, such as a wedding (Sloboda 90). Music therapists utilize music and the subsequent reactions from their patients to access “emotions, memories, structural behavior, and provide social experiments” (Thaut 820). Music therapy has been used to relax patients, and to assist in controlling different disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, aphasia, and Tourette’s syndrome.

Survey questions were created by the researcher to find the personal viewpoints of the participants in regards to how music, memory, and emotions are connected. Forty-six participants, ranging in age from 18 to 60, were surveyed. The first five questions assessed the participants’ agreement with general assertions that music can affect the listeners and how music, memories, and emotions connect. The subsequent five questions were created to ascertain whether if or how music personally affected the respondents. They were asked, for example, if they had noticed mood changes in themselves due to music, or if they had ever individually had memories that correlated with specific music. The majority of the participants strongly agreed that music can bring out emotions in the listeners, that certain memories can be attached to different pieces of music, that slower, classical style music can relax the listener, that playing faster songs in clubs keeps patrons happy and upbeat, and that music is an important part of memory. The results from this survey strongly supported the researcher’s thesis.

It is hoped that this thesis could be beneficial to many fields of study. Some specific areas where the findings could be applicable include musicology for music production, psychotherapy for repressed memories and anger management, music therapy for mental and physical disorders, and neuroscience for brain abnormalities.