Week 2- January 17, 2017
| “Foodie” culture is… romanticized and insufficiently theorized attachments to “local” or organic foodways, attachments that at times suspiciously echo nativist ideological formations” (Tompkins, 2012, 2).
Said Karl Marx, “[a commodity] appears at first sight an extremely obvious, trivial thing…” in society at large, the word gets pretty bad press…is associated with dull, repetitive products, however useful, that generate low margins… our lives, literally, depend on them. America’s commodity exchanges runs a parallel course with the history of industrialization…the connection was much tighter…there was less packaging and the food did not travel as far…every dollar spent on food, 15 to 20 represents the raw commodity of that product (Newman, 2013, 14). The conversation that I heard between the texts this week invited me to explore the relationship between “foodie” values and commodities versus commodification. Foodie culture is based on white, bourgeois standards that use food and purchasing patterns to create a heightened social status for those that choose buy local and organic. Within that realm, there is pride in not purchasing items made with commodity grain or any product that is associated with mass marketing. More than anything, opposing commodities is an aesthetic, whether that aesthetic is founded in environmental health or increased social stratosphere. Given the current economic climate that ranks monetary value higher than moral values, we are stuck in a cycle where we need commodity food sources, at their low prices, in order to survive. While the sales of commodities cannot be separated from the act of commodification, the classic “foodie” is not exempt either. The foodie is guilty of commodification on account of upholding values that are historically and inherently based on isms that discriminate against race, gender, and class. As we continue to ask questions about popular food trends in relation to commodification, I think that it is important to ask ourselves who was the original labor force that harvested and packaged commodity goods in the mid 20th century. Is it only in this setting that some bodies are deemed “politically productive”? It is these same bodies that are absentmindedly exploited by the foodie movement. Sources: Newman, Kara. (2013). The Secret Financial Life of Food: From Commodities Markets to Supermarkets. New York: Columbia University Press. T,H. (2017). What makes something a commodity? The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2017/01/economist-explains-0. Tompkins, Kyla Wazana. (2012). Racial Indigestion: Eating Bodies in the 19th Century. NewYork: New York University Press. |