SOCI of FOOD
food justice
exercise of community to demand/reproduce healthy and sustainable foods for both the community/planet's environment and for the health of those who consume it
Politically correct food
in the eyes of one who par takes in consuming politically correct food; it is food that is fair to all involved (those who produce it and trade it by practicing labor rights, and those who consume it by enduring organic/NON GMO food products)
Boundary Work
The mental and behavioral activities that make up the strategies, principles, practices we use to create, maintain, and maintain modified cultural categories
Fortification
-Adding nutrients and vitamins to food (enrichment). This is due to the fact that people learned that if one did not get enough vitamins and minerals there would be health risks. For example, in lecture we saw that food companies were advertising raisins for their iron and we also saw the examples of Cheerios being able to reduce cholesterol and other labels. Reading :Food and Politics in the Modern age: 1920-2012 (pg. 103) -Significance Marketers were very quick to pick up the need to advertise vitamins and minerals in their foods so food companies began to market on adding vitamins to foods. As we learned in lecture there are certain restrictions on what can go on the label of foods (so you can't say that cereal gets rid of a disease or something like that) but the FDA was very lenient in what vitamins food companies could advertise.
Healthy at any size
WHAT: Fat acceptance movement, emphasis is placed on biological causes of obesity, meaning some people are naturally large, as a result of their genetic inheritance, not as a result of their laziness and greediness From "What's Wrong with Fat" Reading Significance: This is trying to fight the idea that dieting is only related to weight loss. Yes it ties to remove the stigma against obesity but it does not take into consideration socioeconomic status and how people living in poverty are often not given the option to eat healthy. Some of the reasons that this is the case is due to fast food restaurants and cookbooks making the serving sizes larger and also adding more fattening cheaper ingredients to the food they sell.
Commodity Chains
-Commodity Chains are all the steps between the smallest component of the food and when the final product ends up on your plate. Commodity chains have evolved to keep up with current health trends. Bobrow-Strain mentions how food commodity chain has changed when manufacturing and union labor no longer became the U.S. main source of income. As American economy changed so did citizen wages, ultimately shaping the way that food was processed in the U.S.---because people were earning less money, consumption largely took the form of standardized, one-size-fits-all, mass-market commodities. He also mentions how in the 1980s there was a shift in the products people wanted due to the fact that they could now obtain products from outside of the country (I think it's due to trade laws that expanded trading into the U.S.), the example he gave is people wanting lettuce from Mexico. He talks about produce and the many steps it takes for it to end up on your plate, such as: it being grown; handpicked; getting stored; transported; graded; passing customs; being processed in the U.S; sent to warehouses; transported to stores; and eventually bought by consumers. -Significance: The way globalization has shaped commodity chains. It has influenced every aspect of these chains, due how the expansion of trade, business, and goods across borders have influenced commodity costs and resulted in the need for people to migrate to other countries in search of economic opportunities. Labor has evolved in recent decades due to the influx of different immigrant groups.
Battle Creek
-In the Pollan reading this term is mentioned when he discusses how in the early 19th century, John Harvey Kellog and Horace Fletcher used pseudoscience to persuade thousands of Americans to trade "all pleasure eating" for a healthier eating style and regimen. They shared a disgust for animal protein, Kellog believed the consumption of animal protein encouraged masterbation and a profileration of toxic bacteria in the colon. At Kellog's Battle Creek sanitarium (an establishment for the medical treatment of people who have a chronic illness) patients, like President Roosevelt and John D. Rockefeller, paid a small fortune to participate in some "scientific studies/procedures," procedures such as hourly yogurt enemas (when a fluid injected into the lower bowel by way of the rectum, technique used to undo the damage that proteins has supposedly done on the colon); electric stimulation and massive vibrations of the abdomen; diets consisting of grapes (expected to eat 10-14 pounds each day); and during every meal, "Fletcherizing," the practice of chewing each bite of food approximately one hundred times, was expected. Fletcher, who wasn't even a doctor, believed that excessive mastication, process of chewing, would decrease protein intake; he thought that because he was old and in good shape it was enough for people to take his word on it. -Significance: This overall took away the enjoyment of eating and made it unpleasurable. In class Haydu emphasized how part of eating was the experience one got from it, so I guess this would be an example of how the paradigm shifted. People at that time were not eating for pleasure or for the experience, they now cared more about their health and physical appearance. I think we can also mention how this happened in the US, how caring about one's health and physical appearance is a western culture thing. Also, it can be tied to a class and race, the people who participated in those studies were white elite members of society; common citizens could not afford to participate in anything like this. This could be correlated with White people eating fresh and people of color eating poorly because that is all they can afford.
Hygienic Eating
-In the Punk Cuisine reading, "hygiene was associated with bleached teeth, carcinogenic chemicals, and freshly waxed cars, and operated as a code of sterility, automation, and alienation. Hygiene meant "idiot box" sitcoms and suburban fears of dark bodies. At the Cafe, hygiene was a projection of Whiteness, and rejected". Pg 22. -In China's Big Mac Attack reading, Chinese consumers saw McDonald's as a "force for the improvement of urban life. Clean toilets were a welcome development in cities where, until recently, a visit to a public restroom could be harrowing. The chain's preoccupation with cleanliness has raised consumer expectations and forces competitors to provide equally clean facilities". Pg 128 SIGNIFICANCE Hygienic eating is significant because it symbolizes "good eating". In the Punk Cuisine article, hygiene was a projection of "Whiteness" & as we can see in the China's Big Mac Attack article, it is also a projection of upper classes. Therefore Hygienic eating can be viewed as a form of boundary work which excludes other races and especially, people of low socioeconomic status. Basically implying that these fancy places exclude POC/working-lower class individuals, and the action of being explicitly messy REJECTS white exclusion (it's not saying that POC are messy, like I'm sure a lot of these petties in class will think :D )
Lardo
-Lardo is an italian meat, it is basically cured pig's back fat. I believe that the pig fat is cured for months in basins made of the village's local marble. At one point, pork fat known as Lardo de Colonnata had been nominated as being an example of a nationally endangered food by a Slow Food, a food organization.---It was considered a national cuisine of Italy. In the article they state how it was a culture shock to see the pride Italians have in their lardo because in America lard is seen as poison to some, due to the fact that it is tied to obesity, high cholesterol and blood pressure, etc. The tiny village of Colonnata has held festivals every summer since the 1970s, where they have lardo-tasting and lard based feasts. However by the 1990s, Colonnata had became a popular tourist destination and lardo was soon praised by many food critics (from newspapers like the New York Times), it was considered "a delicious, albeit exotic delicacy." The founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini (a well known food and wine critic), was part of another organization that was against the introduction of American-style fast-food chains in Italy. In the late 1980s, Slow Food tried to intervene in the new uniform European Union food and safety legislation; they basically were fighting towards stopping Italy from shifting from a slow food country, where their culture and traditions are incorporated into the food, to a more food industrialized country, where food is mass produced. -Significance: This demonstrates how countries/cities take great pride in their national cuisines; organizations fought to keep this and all other traditional Italian food authentic. It illustrates how some countries choose not to industrialize their food process, they keep the process as traditional as possible. This can also be tied to food trends, at first Americans were against it due to concerning health issues; however, once white reporters began to praise it for being "exotic", everyone followed.
Monoculture
-The cultivation of a single crop in a given area The agricultural practice of producing or growing a single crop over a wide area for a large number of consecutive years. It is widely used in modern industrial agriculture and its implementation has allowed for larger harvests from minimal resources For example, before in farms the farmers would grow different crops and produce different meats but now farms only grow soybeans or corn. In lecture we saw the video about the fields of tomatoes in which there was only tomatoes being grown. -Significance This demonstrates how the manufacturing of food has shifted from before. Farms now specialize in their production . Aside from that, they also began to utilize technology to do a lot of the work that farmers would do and then now they contribute to the globalization of food by being the beginning of the chain. There is now more control of the ingredients.
Community Supported Agriculture
A local farm (or network of farms will enroll people who pledge to pay a certain amount of money per month to become shareholders of this farm. So if you are a local farmer, you can offer pre-paid shares on the crop you are growing in order to provide a guaranteed income to the farmers/people enrolled). Then every week, each farmer delivers a box of their crops. This then leads to a shared risk of having a good or bad harvest. The goal of CSA is to forge more direct relationships between producers and consumers. this in turn helps small farmers. SIGNIFICANCE CSA supports localvorism which is more sustainable and less subject to getting co-opted by big industries. In other words, this provides an alternative to mass-food production. This reduces food miles because the food is getting transported only locally and it also increases the amount of organic food produced.
Generally Recognized as Safe
Foods that were consumed before the FDA had set regulations regarding food (or ingredients that go into food) having to be tested to see if they could be potentially harmful to ingest. These foods were regarded as "generally recognized as safe" due to the fact that even though they had not been tested, these foods had been consumed in the past without people being harmed SIGNIFICANCE This is significant because it speaks to the question of should the government place regulations on food labels and other matters? Food that is generally recognized as safe was not in need of government regulations and people trusted that such foods were not going to harm them due to past experiences.
Farm Bill
WHAT: Various laws that passed in the 60s/70s that heavily subsidized the growing of corn and soy plants. The primary agricultural and food policy tool of the federal government Bill is passed every 5 years or so by the United States Congress deals with both agriculture and all other affairs under the purview of the United States Department of Agriculture. It usually makes amendments and suspensions to provisions of permanent law, reauthorizes, amends, or repeals provisions of preceding temporary agricultural acts, and puts forth new policy provisions for a limited time into the future. can be highly controversial and can impact international trade, environmental conservation, food safety, and the well-being of rural communities. agricultural subsidy programs mandated by the farm bills are the subject of intense debate both within the U.S. and internationally -SIGNIFICANCE Without a new farm bill agriculture is left in a clear limbo on such issues as crop insurance or disaster aid. ethanol industry which has invested hundreds of millions in plants, advertising and distribution systems, is suddenly marginalized. A new farm bill is especially important for livestock and specialty crop producers and dairy farmers.
Roundup Ready
WHAT: GMO food - crops genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup Found this online: Genetically Modified Food Roundup Ready crops are crops genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide Roundup. Roundup is the brand-name of a herbicide produced by Monsanto. Its active ingredient glyphosate was patented in the 1970s. Roundup is widely used by both people in their backyards and farmers in their fields. Roundup Ready plants are resistant to Roundup, so farmers that plant these seeds must use Roundup to keep other weeds from growing in their fields. The first Roundup Ready crops were developed in 1996, with the introduction of genetically modified soybeans that are resistant to Roundup. These crops were developed to help farmers control weeds. Because the new crops are resistant to Roundup, the herbicide can be used in the fields to eliminate unwanted foliage. Current Roundup Ready crops include soy, corn, canola, alfalfa, cotton, and sorghum, with wheat under development. -SIGNIFICANCE Monsanto essentially develops a very powerful position in the agricultural industry. The more farmers invest in roundup ready crops, they must invest more in roundup and repeatedly buy more seeds each year. Slowly the farmers have decreased choices when it comes to pesticides, crops, and seeds and they almost become dependent on Monsanto ( a cycle of investment & dependency). Monsanto essentially begins to have some control of agricultural work in terms of different crops. In the case Monsanto decided to raise Roundup costs and many people had already invested in roundup crops, they would have no choice but to pay more for fear of their crop yield being impacted. Roundup is one of the most toxic herbicides, and is the third most commonly reported cause of pesticide related illness among agricultural workers. The chemicals in Roundup can seep into the soil and late effect the environment.
Food Pyramid
What It Is: Nutritional diagram in the shape of a pyramid depicting how much we should eat of what food groupings. At the base of the 1992 food pyramid was the bread,cereal, rice, and pasta group; the second groups were the vegetable and fruit group;l the third highest groups were the milk yogurt and cheese group, and the meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, and nuts group; at the top of the pyramid to eat sparingly was fats, oils, and sweets. This has obviously changed. In 2006 we still had a food pyramid, but it was portioned in vertical fractions. In 2011 we received the choosemyplate food plate to depiction how a standard meal should be portioned. U.S. food guide pyramid has changed, but we still have government sponsored agencies advertise what a healthy meal should be portioned as - portions and selections representative of what we "should" be eating Significance: Because food pyramids vary throughout time and across the globe, they illustrate differences of concern among each country France: Pleasure while eating Sweden: Importance of grouping exercise on food pyramid Mediterranean food pyramid emphasis on availability of national cuisine (fish and olive oil) as modifying to health needs Government used food pyramids to educate individuals on how to eat healthy Labeling and ensuring "informed" consumer decisions - but also implying what is food for consumers - in Bobrow-Strain example, eating right to win the War (WWII era, enriched vitamin bread) - fighting war against obesity through food regulation. I.e. school lunch rules, taxes on soda and sugar YET - also inadvertently stigmatizing different food groups by the way in which they are illustrated on the food pyramid Started in the 70s and became a political football. Tremendous conflicts when this dietary advice is revised. There was a vague recommendation to choose foods that have less fat. Another food pyramid approach in 1990s. But dairy complained that their section was too close to the top. Not directly mentioned, but also implied that the food pyramid/other government suggestions serve as prime examples of how different food agencies lobby the government and conflict with one another; it is difficult for USDA to give advice on how/what to eat and in what portions - USDA and government agencies have conflicting interests (from dairy companies, meat industries, etc.) Suggested in class that USDA should not be allowed to give advice on food and stick to "suggestions" rather than solidified opinion - scientific opinion and research changes every day.
