Philip, I have just finished reading Melanie Warner’s book, Pandora’s Lunchbox for my Industrial Food class. It was honestly a nice breath of fresh air and a pleasure to read after spending most of the past couple weeks stuck in the world of Marx, Wolf, and Appadurai. Just because Pandora’s Lunchbox isn’t theory laden, however, it is full of information regarding the history and present state of the food industry. Sometimes I really wish that I could erase my knowledge of food systems as a whole and just live in utter ignorance. I feel that way every time I watch documentaries such as Food, Inc. too. You know I mostly “perimeter shop” at the grocery store anyways, and we don’t eat a lot of that boxed and packaged stuff that’s labeled “food.” But even in the produce section I can drive myself crazy trying to remember which fruits and vegetables are best to be bought organic, which are the so-called “dirty dozen,” which are safe to purchase, where the produce came from, and how the farm workers were treated. Why do we have to live in a world where we have to be skeptical of our fruits and vegetables? Why isn’t a salad safe and healthy to eat? It’s absolutely maddening! But back to the book. One of my favorite sections in Pandora’s Lunchbox is her lambasting of companies like Subway and Panera. Why are these companies allowed to market themselves as “fresh” and “healthy” alternatives? Sorry for using so many quotation marks, but you know as well as I do that those claims are preposterous. I honestly think the common person doesn’t even question their Chicken Teriyaki whatever-its-called sandwich from Subway because who would ever think they should look at a grilled chicken sandwich covered in vegetables as unhealthy? Those companies serve “fresh baked” bread that arrives to their stores (I refuse to call them restaurants and thus taint the institution of dining!) in frozen lumps of dough that have been created in a far away factory using ingredients created in even further away laboratories. It’s absolutely disgusting. You’re probably not going to be surprised, but there is actually a “required level of meat” that the U.S. government requires to be in all meat products (Warner 2013:9). This came to light during that Taco Bell lawsuit in 2011. Remember that? When T-Bell admitted that their beef has oats in it and is not only beef? For this Industrial Food class we began this semester with a reading by Rachel Herz called “That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion.” The article discusses the morality, ethics, and cultural or social connotations behind eating the foods that we eat. While I may call Subway and Panera disgusting, I can’t help but think of our families who have completely different ideas of what constitutes safe, healthy, good-for-you, or even disgusting food. It never ceases to surprise – and sometimes annoy – me when I hear remarks about how disgusting it is to eat raw oysters or even avocado. You know these remarks always come from the same people who will eat things like frozen appetizers and fast food multiple times a week. How unfortunate that our food industry has been able to warp peoples’ sensibilities pertaining to food to such a degree that they are unaware of what is and is not safe or “disgusting” to eat. Packaged food items tend to be full of sodium (Warner 2013: 46) and, through processing, depleted of the nutrients the food might otherwise have had (Warner 2013: 62-63; 65; 74-96). The most surprising thing to me in Warner’s book (maybe – there are so many surprising elements!) is that all of the food scientists she interviews are proud of what they create. One woman is excited that her job is to make soybeans somehow taste like a hotdog (Warner 2013: 144). They seem to respond to Warner with the same type of excitement of a chef sharing their new dish. I refuse to accept that the work of food scientists is on par with the craftsmanship, skill, and talent of the chefs who know how to turn actual fresh, quality ingredients into a delicious work of art. Even chefs like Ferran Adrià from elBulli treat the food and ingredients with respect as they experiment in molecular gastronomy. I know I’ve showed you a little bit of Modernist Cuisine – it’s that huge, expensive book detailing molecular gastronomy that I managed to get a free digital copy of. Those guys are creating weird food using scientific method, but it’s never at the expense of the consumer/guest/customer. There is still a great respect for true food involved. What gets me the most is that the absolute lack of cohesion amongst the FDA, USDA, and even OSHA. Food corporations are knowingly filling our food with chemicals and the FDA has no stringent regulations on any of the additives or ingredients that are going into packaged food. There’s no transparency whatsoever (Warner 2013: 110). Processed foods have taken over our kitchens. It seems like no one knows how to cook for themselves anymore – the prepared food advertisements from the post-war era that Laura Shapiro describes in Something From the Oven seem to have finally swayed the American public. Unfortunately the monstrosities being packaged and sold seem to be worse than ever. Warner points toward vague government laws that lean toward corporate interest (Warner 2013: 29; 231) as the reason why the list of “Generally Recognized as Safe” products seems to have grown (Warner 2013: 107-108; 110). There is so much great, albeit horrifying, information in Warner’s book about industrially processed food. During certain moments while reading the book I felt nothing but helpless against the industrial food system and it’s hard to shake that feeling. My conclusion is that when we buy a house we choose one in the country where we can have land to grow as much of our own food as possible. It’s a lofty goal, but I see no alternative to assuring our food is really food and safe to eat. Although, isn’t it peculiar that even the local government controls what we can and cannot grow on our own lawns? Like your neighbor who built the garden boxes and then had to destroy them. Why are there rules and regulations against us feeding ourselves? With Love, Dani
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from my family's table to my tableI have a Master’s degree in Gastronomy from Boston University where I received a holistic education that nurtured my interest in food systems and culture via foodways. However, my culinary interests were not piqued over night. In 2010, I was 23 and finishing my undergrad degree and Michigan was still in the thralls of recovery following the economic collapse of 2008. I begrudgingly found myself bartending at a blue-collar bar serving predominantly domestic beer and pub food. I felt stuck, but didn’t realize then that this bartending gig would springboard me into the restaurant industry, thus morphing and refining my food and drink preferences. Glossing over some details, I found myself living in the cosmopolitan coastal city of Boston where I worked my way up through the city’s cutthroat fine dining scene. I not only had easy access to high-quality ingredients prepared by award-winning chefs, but also to a cuisine from nearly every country imaginable. Today my friends may refer to me as an adventurous eater and trust my judgment on food, but I was not raised to be this way.
Growing up my Mom would serve mostly healthy meals, although she has always taken advantage of such packaged dinner helpers like canned spaghetti sauce, Ortega taco seasoning packets, and Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. To each of those helper items, she would always add her own twist, using the items as mere components to a much grander dinnertime opus. Glamorizing at its finest. It was because of this that I had no idea how simple it is to make my own versions of the aforementioned items. I still love to eat my Mom’s cooking, but must admit that I prefer the taste of actual cream and mushrooms to the flavorless, sodium-packed Campbell’s version. These partially store-bought items were cooked together with the fresh corn, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers my Mom would collect from the farm where my Grandpa worked. Our diet was balanced, although as a kid I couldn’t get enough of the snacks that 90’s kids such as myself saw on commercials and insisted we must take in our lunchbox to school. I think that at that young age it was a sort of status symbol. When I was 9 I was diagnosed with allergies to wheat and eggs, which meant my entire diet needed to be reconsidered. Most people around me had no idea that such allergies existed because it was the 90’s and no one was aware of gluten, let alone had gluten intolerance or food allergies become a trend peddled by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow. I learned to carefully peruse food-packaging labels and also that traces of wheat could be found in more items than I ever would have guessed. My typical turkey and cheese sandwiches suddenly had to be made on spelt bread smeared with Nayonnaise – the vegan soy-based alternative to mayonnaise. Luckily the internet was spreading across the nation so my Mom was able to research and find alternatives to wheat flour to make me bread, cookies, and even fried chicken (a family favorite). We would make trips to the Lansing Food Co-Op in addition to the weekly shopping trip to Meijer, which is the go-to grocery store for many Michiganders. Although a strange diet seemed difficult to me as a kid, the people around me were willing to adapt their own practices in order to accommodate me and not leave me feeling strange or left out. My friends served tacos with corn tortillas instead of pizza at their slumber parties and birthday parties now featured ice cream just as prominently as the cake itself. Through following a rotation diet I was able to grow out of my allergies, although I am still conscious of them. I have also grown out of the various other food aversions that I maintained purely in my mind to tomatoes, beets, and onions – all of which are now staples in my diet. During different points of my life I have, however, had a love/hate relationship with meat eating. As a teenager I began to hate the idea of eating industrial meat, preferring instead to eat free-range meat or, better yet, the wild game that my step-dad hunted. Game meat has always been a major part of my family’s diet, particularly venison. I have never myself hunted and killed an animal, but I feel a moral imperative as a meat eater to one day kill and butcher an animal myself. To this extent I should mention that I will eat nearly anything at least once and will even consider a second try. There is one item, however, that I will never ever eat again. When I was three my grandma tricked me into trying a bite of a pickled pig’s foot. The slimy, gelatinous, chewy white blob came from a jar where it was suspended in pickling liquid. I couldn’t chew, let alone swallow, the repulsive porcine goo. I spit it out in the trashcan and vowed to never try one again. Only once I tried pig ear but even after it was chicken fried I did not enjoy the crunchy yet gooey ear. Unlike the pig foot, I could be talked into trying pig ear’s again. I consider myself an adventurous eater but it is mostly because I trust the chef’s judgment. If the chef believes that they have created a delicious product that they will put their name on and serve, then I will put faith into the kitchen and try it. I perhaps draw the line at insects and am quite turned off at the idea of eating grasshoppers or crickets, but with conditions. For example, I know that one day I will open the bottle of mezcal straight from Mexico I have stashed away for a special occasion. When I do I will have no choice but to brave eating the plump white worm that floats around at the bottom of that bottle of mezcal. Like how I feel the moral obligation as a meat eater to kill and slaughter an animal myself, I feel the same obligation as an agave-based spirit enthusiast to eat that worm. I no longer eat the same packaged treats I enjoyed as a kid. Now my friends and I are more likely to be found noshing on charcuterie, cheese boards, and raw bar washed down with orange wine (when we can find it). Now I find myself disgusted by some of my extended family’s eating habits, but they adversely do not understand my love of octopus and beef tartare. Being exposed to new food and tasting high-quality ingredients has had a drastic effect on my palate. Despite my love of foie gras and duck confit, however, I still love some of the “low-brow” favorites from my childhood. Enter: my Mom’s semi-homemade reuben sandwich. Forget about the infamous Katz’s deli in NYC. For me, nothing compares to my Mom’s homemade version made of: canned corned beef (the kind that comes in a tin similar to SPAM), sliced Kraft American singles, yellow mustard, mayonnaise, and jarred sauerkraut. Once the sandwich is assembled the bread is slathered in butter and grilled on a flattop until crispy. Despite my appreciation for fine dining and quest to eat a healthy diet, there are some items from growing up that will simply remain a staple in my diet. |
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