Local and Global Reform in The American Food System

February 20th, 2017

Triggering Passages: 

“The indelible Grahamite link between body, home, and nation eternally bars Fun See from ever quite transcending the marks of Asian difference, although those marks do seem to stretch to enfold the new “Mrs. Tokio.”” (Tompkins 2012: 141)

“Rose amuses herself by imagining Annabel “going to Canton someday, and having to order rats, puppies and birds’ nest soup for dinner.” Dietary differences, in other words, mark the boundaries between the races.” (Tompkins 2012: 142)

News Media Context:

High/ Low Cuisine and Orientalism 

“With the separation of the Other as barbaric and weak, the West declared itself the civilized and dominant. This particular binary set the tone for the makeup of international – and national – society as we know it today. Whether it’s the police state, civil war or everyday microaggressive racism, the Other serves to both establish a status quo, and allow the status quo to conduct domination with impunity.”

“This trend of high/low cuisine is nothing new, it is merely Orientalism for Dummies. Place one thing that can be found from one world that you consider low and place it next to another thing from the world you consider high and have a good hoot over the hilarity of it all. Such innovation! Nothing like contrast to truly depict your notion of superiority, right? By placing things from the ‘Orient’ in the world of the West, it serves to elevate not the former, but the latter. The food industry mogul thinks that s/he is doing the Orient a favor by taking it out of the styrofoam box and placing it on the china plate next to a glass of champagne. The history of fried chicken, the cultural significance of Soul Food, would never have existed if not for the barbaric economic strategy of slavery. They know this but want to be the ones to dictate the new narrative, because knowledge of the Other is merely a party trick for the West to showcase its unquenchable thirst for grandeur that is mutually dependent on its need to belittle.”

https://catapult.co/community/stories/high-low-cuisine-and-orientalism

Response:

Tompkins’ chapter, A Wholesome Girl, explores the upper-class orientalist sentiment existent in Antebellum America and the whiteness central to Louisa May Alcott’s feminism. From Fun See’s physical form being paralleled to a teapot to his designation as a “highly satisfactory Chinaman”, we see simplistic, easily digestible depictions of the “other”, and their personal traits eclipsed completely by their ethnic and racial ones.

In Antebellum (and many current day American racial discourses) orientalist discourses, the western observer/ traveler/ historian maintains their place of superiority by continuing to confine the non-westerner as an observable anomaly, while failing to acknowledge their whole personhood. The constant consumption and colonization of the “other” ensure the subordination necessary to rationalize exploitation and lack of humanity, it is in this mindset that black and brown bodies turn less into people and more into “things”.

Though Fun See’s status as a “Chinaman” is accepted by the main characters, he is kept in his subservient position and accepted primarily because of his existence aligning with the “type” of Chinese man recognizable to the white American of the time. Annabel’s romantic desire and interest in Fun See can then, easily be interpreted as her “desire for pretty Chinese things”, Fun See’s body acting as a stand-in for all things desirable and foreign.

Whang Lo, on the other hand, is designated by rose as an “unsatisfactory” Chinese man because of his American costume, mastery of the English language, and failure to align with the limited scope of what it meant to be a non-threatening and palatable Chinese man. While reading the chapter I was struck by the American Upper-Class obsession with fine china. Traditional Chinese pottery, and its display as a sign of wealth, in the context of the Antebellum home, becomes a symbol of conquest and control of a “lesser” peoples culture hidden behind the guise of appreciation.

The Binary nature that is necessary for separation and conquest of the “other” is easily translated into food. Though roses simplistic scope of Chinese food as puppy dogs, rats and birds nests is obvious in its racist nature, the upholding of the same binaries exists in a multitude of ways today. In creating so-called “juxtapositions” in the restaurant world and framing one type of food/ culture as superior to another we continue to uphold the orientalist values that have been used historically to justify western colonialist rule (like the pairing of fried chicken with champagne at Birds and Bubbles, and the “Kebab Renaissance” being led by three white owners at Le Bab.) As Saïd wrote,“In a quite constant way, Orientalism depends for it’s strategy on this flexible positional superiority, which puts the Westerner in a whole series of possible relationships with the Orient without ever losing him the relative upper hand”.

Feb 13th 2017

Triggering passages: “To gain land on which to build the railroads and graze cattle, it was deemed necessary to push out the Native Americans who lived on the land, and exterminating their primary food source- the buffalo- was considered a prime means to that end. With the buffalo gone, cattle assumed greater importance as a food supply.” (Newman 2013: 96)

“The intent is hyper-acceleration of resource extraction and development, and these are on indigenous territories, and the way to accelerate that process is to create legislation, and to have that legislation part of the instrument through which poverty is utilized. This is the old colonial model, which is having the veneer of consent. It is to manufacture it. To manufacture poverty and then manufacture consent.” (LaDuke 2015: 137)

“The North American economy consumes a third of the world’s resources, with perhaps a tenth of the world’s population. That level of consumption requires constant interventions into other countries, and constant violations of human rights” ( LaDuke 2015: 138)

News Media Context:

Can Farming Solve Detroit’s Post Industrial Blues?

“Greg had never totally accepted Detroit’s label as a “food desert,” although he knew the phrase attracted foundation money. He saw Detroit as more of a “food labyrinth.” Good food was there; you just had to know where to find it (and have the means of getting there). Just a mile from his farm, for example, was an excellent independent grocer in Mexicantown with fresh produce and homemade tamales and guacamole. More to the point, the movement was not just about vegetables but about economy and restructuring society. He didn’t want to be just the guy who brought arugula to the ghetto.”

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/urban-farming-the-future-detroit-v24n1

Response:

Given the context of my current internship work and the words of LaDuke and other native activists, it is hard not to feel uneasy in regards to Newman’s rather simplistic view of the communities affected by commodities like corn, cattle, sugar, coffee and chocolate. Newman’s “strictly business” perspective, while straightforward and easy to understand statistically, creates a narrative in which the story of the colonizer is the only story that is told.

LaDuke’s simple but heart-wrenching stories of Native people across North America and Indigenous peoples worldwide create a narrative that is so often forgotten, one where we are reminded of the destructive nature of capitalist systems and the decimation of land and prioritization of portions of the population that is necessary for these systems to thrive.

Laduke’s writing’s on colonization, commodification, and resource extraction are a reflection of the principles upon which this country was founded upon, philosophies that place profit above the well-being of complex ecosystems and human lives.

Communities coming back to their lands is essential at this point in history. The voices of native fishermen, underserved communities fighting to feed themselves, and marginalized people must be heard. Creating and participating in systems that speak and act against colonialism and an awareness of the ways media so often skews projects of extraction as necessary “progress” is essential in creating inclusive and effective change. 

Feb 5th 2017

Triggering Passages:
“The average American consumes more than his own weight daily in stuff. We buy clothes, electronics, games and products at a rate where today, some 70% of the US economy is based on consumption.” (LaDuke, 2015: 107)

“When the actress sang the song “Butter and Eggs” she used “certain tones and gestures to convey that all dealers in butter and eggs were men of immoral and licentious character… and thereby hold [s] plaintiff and others similarly situated to hatred, contempt and ridicule.” (Newman, 2013: 72)
“Indigestion becomes the return of the repressed as the indigestible black subject pushes back against her consumer, upsetting the white body politic even as she is sold into death.” (Tompkins, 2012: 117)
News Media Context:

“Beyond these accolades, our country’s has a deeper history still of countless lesser-known black women, enslaved in fields and kitchens, who have fed children not their own and who have long shaped our most celebrated foodways, recipes and sustainable agricultural practices.”

A More Abundant Share- The Future Of Food Is Black
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/future-of-food-is-black_us_5895f081e4b0c1284f263d69

Response:

Reading LaDuke’s reflection on her time at the Taos Pueblo of New Mexico, I was deeply affected by her words on consumption, an act, that has become inseparable from the American identity. After noting that no one in the world consumes more than a North American, and going on to list Costa Rica and Vanuatu as two of the happiest countries in the world (one an Island with an 80% local economy and the other having no military), the United States place as a consumer in the world is abundantly clear.

Consumption in the U.S. goes beyond the use of energy and resources, the history of colonization and decimation of black and brown bodies that the foundation of this country has relied upon historically, is a form of consumption within itself.

 In this context, colonization= consumption. A country rooted in colonizing, is in essence, constantly consuming the “other”, and placing them in the position of subordination that is necessary to rationalize neglect and lack of humanity. The more “other” bodies are degraded, the easier it becomes for the oppressor to rationalize the degradation. As Tompkins states, the triple loss of “home” “rights”, rights over his or hers own body and loss of political status leads to social death and lack of humanity altogether, with that act the black and brown body turns less into a body and more into a “thing”, as stated on 118 of Tompkins, “the more Frado is tortured, the less human and more animal she becomes to the eyes of the domestic figure.”

The disproportionate physical, economic and psychological burdens placed on people of color in this country are not coincidental. Centuries of systematic oppression and intergenerational trauma are placed upon black and brown bodies from birth. If you care about bodies other than your own, it is necessary to make yourself unpalatable and indigestable to the racist, classist and misogynistic norms this country operates on. As Shakira Simley states in her article A More Abundant Share, The Future Of Food Is Black, the future of food is people, and “Our healing will come and bellies will be full when we dismantle corporate control of our food system by empowering our own communities.”