What comes to mind when you hear the term "food politics"?
What comes to mind when you hear the term "food politics"?
It might be a person or a group of people. It might be pleasure (or pain). It might be a specific food or group of foods. It might be . . . well - the potential possibilities are huge, really. I'm curious.
What hits you (intellectually or emotionally) when you hear the term?
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13 Comments:
PETA, 'nuff said.
kitchenlove at 1:59PM on 10/21/07
Archer Daniels Midland pressuring the government to restrict importation of sugar by 80%, thereby harming foreign economies while fostering dependence on their commmodity, corn, to be used in HFCS. ADM pressuring the government to increase subsidies for corn farmers, thereby effectively laundering their own profits.
And no, I haven't read Omnivore's Dilemma.
zapatista at 4:59PM on 10/21/07
Michael Pollan. The man is my hero. Marion Nestle too, it does help that she wrote a book entitled Food Politics....
avryan at 8:05PM on 10/21/07
A few things crash together in my head in a race to get out through my fingertips.
1. Frankenfood. This will be a disaster as it pertains to food allergies. Yes, we will have control in the supermarket when presented the choice of purchasing a plain Georgia Peach or one that has been crossbred with a giraffe - but what about restaurants?? Do you think restaurants will label every dish on the menu with the geneology of each ingredient? People with peanut, gluten and other allergies will take their lives into their hands every time they order.
2. Paying farmers NOT to grow crops so we can purchase them cheaply from other countries. This benefits Americans how? I think we'd be having less Farm Aid concerts if we grew our own food. Children never learn "what's in season" because we're getting strawberries from lower Slobovia in January. (Yes, that badge on my lapel says PROTECTIONIST )
3. Eat local, fresh ingredients. While this statement sounds nothing but good sense, it has become a battle cry and therefore, political.
4. Get soda machines and Chicken Nuggets out of schools. Children drink more Coke + Eat more fast food + Phys Ed is no longer offered in schools + Kids play videogames instead of touch football = Obesity. Also = Big Business.
chiff0nade at 8:43AM on 10/22/07
Food insecurity - barriers to accessing adequate food...that all people have the right to access food in socially and culturally acceptable ways. The corporate control of agriculture and the food system.
Also, I think of the writing and work of Marion Nestle, Alice Waters and the edible school yard, Michael Pollan, the Centre for Studies in Food Security (http://www.ryerson.ca/foodsecurity/index.html) and local initiatives that inspire me, such as FoodShare's Good Food Box, the Stop Community Food Centre and the many farmers markets that have sprung up all over the city in the past few years...
lesslyn at 9:50AM on 10/22/07
My number one gripe is people do not cook good food for their children often enough. Families do not sit down to dinner anymore.
There is a woman who lives two blocks over who thinks we cannot see the pizza delivery guy go there everyday. On days he does not go there, they go out to eat. She has 2 small kids. If I have to hear one more story about how they love the waitress at Applebee's I am going to go postal. That sad tale made me feel sick. So hard to keep my mouth shut sometimes. I must have had the oddest look on my face.
I am more of an oddity than I ever knew.
The majority of the families that live near me do not sit down together to a home cooked meal. I know what you are thinking, "Jerz working moms have so much to do..." Catch this, most of the "moms" (some are dads who work grave shift) DO NOT WORK! This includes the pizza ordering mom.
I am old school about meals. Sure go out to eat and enjoy yourself. When I was young and unmarried my friends and I used to go out often. But when you have a family you need to prepare food for them, good food. Meal times are bonding times.
I rant and rave about this. I look in people carts at the grocery store, I know some of you do too. Horrified by the amount of processed, sugar laden, High Fructose Corn Syrup, junk food people their children.
When I was a kid a soda was a treat, my parents never bought us soda. Our fast food was pizza or chinese food.
JerzeeTomato at 10:02AM on 10/22/07
"Food" - Yay!
"Politics" - Boo!
srhcb at 11:16AM on 10/22/07
Well, I was going to put something here, but lesslyn kinda already nailed it.
I also think "food politics" (shudder), like other forms of politics, needs to be something pushed at a grassroots level. Start making the change yourself and see where the ripples go. I signed up with a CSA this year for the first time (thanks to a writer for this very site) because the idea is brilliant. I told folks about it. They signed up for one local to them. And they told other people - you get where I'm going with this. I think that's how it has to start.
Heck, I'd be happy if I could just get people to think about their food and talk about their food. To at least have an idea of what you're eating and where it came from doesn't seem like too much to ask on the part of a consumer.
corycm at 1:48PM on 10/22/07
AMEN to JerzeeTomato!!
It's ridiculous that families think that it is too time consuming/expensive/ impossible to put a decent meal on the table.
I'm not saying that you have to put together a gourmet meal or crazy Rachael Ray creation every night... just use some common sense when you go to the grocery store. And yes..I am a working (pregnant) Mom.
hammondcheese at 6:11PM on 10/22/07
FDA labels, food recalls, and the local farmer's market back home.
Christina at 6:23PM on 10/22/07
I think about how the federal government affects the way we eat.
I think about WIC. Y'know, the program that's supposed to provide good, nutritious foods for disadvantaged mothers and their children. Curious, I picked up a fliar at the grocery store, which outlined the foods WIC mothers were allowed to buy. Among other things, it forbade:
1) Any organic products of any kind. Including peanut butter. Most supermarket brand peanut butters include hydrogenated oil.
2) Non-dairy milk.
3) Cereals without high fructose corn syrup (only two "approved" cereals were anything more than sugar-with-vitamins - instant grits and instant oatmeal).
4) Any cheese but prepackaged singles or the big blocks of Kraft "cheddar" "colby", etc.
5) Bulk dried beans or rice.
6) Most fresh and all frozen fruits and vegetables. Certain canned goods were allowed.
7) Yogurt.
And that's not even getting into size/ amount restrictions . . . or dealing with the fact that many WIC mothers can't read, don't know how to cook, etc.
As a nation, we'll ban cupcakes in schools. But we also make it difficult, if not impossible, for women at "nutritional risk" to raise their children on anything but highly processed junk food. I'm glad that programs exist to feed children who might otherwise go hungry, but I feel like we should be doing better, especially when you consider the costs in health, development, etc. that stem from a lifetime spent eating poorly. No child left behind, indeed.
KarynMC at 9:19PM on 10/22/07
Jerzee Tomato said: My number one gripe is people do not cook good food for their children often enough. Families do not sit down to dinner anymore.
I find this so sad. It's such a down statistic. You didn't hear about kids shooting up schools in the days where we all sat down to dinner together and knew what was going on in each other's lives.
It's a terrible statement that Nickelodeon has to have commercials saying "this or that" date is "Family Dinner" day. It shouldn't be a holiday for crying out loud. I'd rather see everyone in a family forego one scheduled item to have dinner together - at the very least.
chiff0nade at 11:35AM on 10/23/07
What a lot of thoughts - and so far-ranging too! :)
I admit, when I hear the term "food politics" I want to spit and hiss. It's not exactly "what it is" but the term itself. And probably a sense of the holy righteousness that can so often accompany this sort of thing. Actually, more than spitting and hissing like a cat I'd like to grab it in my teeth like a dog and shake it till it falls apart.
But aside from growling at the idea of food politics, what I think of afterwards is the current issue of Gastronomica which expanded my own concept of what "food politics" is to a larger and more defined shape.
(No, srhcb, I have not finished reading it all yet. But I will, sooner or later.)
Karen Resta at 8:16AM on 10/24/07