Author: Sean

Week 4 – Tompkins Chapter 3, Newman Chapter 5, LaDuke pg. 89-91, 102-108

WC: 250

“The butter merchants tried to use the exchange to influence state legislators to limit the sale of margarine in Illinois.” Page 66 – The Financial Life of Food

“Bummer to be the team with no name.” Page 103 – The Winona LaDuke Chronicles

“[the numerous images linking black subjects to food are] Products of the dialect between commodity capitalism and popular culture.” Page 90 – Tompkins quoting Doris Witt in Racial Indigestion

(2017, February 6). Amnesty: At least 13,000 Hanged in Syrian Prison Since 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2017/02/07/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria-mass-hangings.html

This article reports the murders of at least 13,000 people that were hanged in Syrian prison since 2011. The article shows inhumane comparisons of the death totals from hanging nonviolent prisoners to the war casualties in Aleppo since 2011. This information helps support the vernacular shift of dehumanizing people in order to treat them inhumanely as seen in the term to describe the place where hangings took place: the slaughterhouse.

The quote from The Financial Life of Food symbolizes the attitude of the butter-and-egg men. Not only have these men commodified a shared interest, but they attempted to share the interest of an already commodified shared interest. Different levels of the development of commodification reminds me of the quote from The Winona LaDuke Chronicles. This quote speaks to me as a young adult who was apart of changing a racist high school mascot name because it acknowledges the newly experienced loss of identity of the members of the racist athletic program while non empathetically relating it to loss of identity that stems from a lack of representation for Indigenous people. Tompkins quote of Doris Witt reminds me of this concept because the evolutionary nature of a social mechanism this complex will show up in seemingly abstract places. In An Indigenous People’s History, the author states that according to John Grenier’s work The First Way of War, violence was already present before the war and racism did not incite it, but was used to mask the unnatural violence as a tool to release the desire to kill. The masking of this desire evolved into an emotional and spiritual feeding upon all non-white bodies. In Racial Indigestion, Tompkins writes there is a limit to how much the white body can ingest the black subject, when the black body inhabits its own stickiness, the white consumer is upset by the black subject trying to leave the stickiness, upsetting the okayness of their treat.

Bibliography

Dunbar-Ortiz, R. (2014). An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States.

Grenier, J. (2005). The first way of war: American war making on the frontier, 1607-1814. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

 LaDuke, W., & Cruz, S. A. (2016). The Winona LaDuke chronicles: stories from the front       lines in the battle for environmental justice. Ponsford, M.N.: Spotted Horse Press.

Tompkins, K. W. (2012). Racial indigestion: Eating bodies in the nineteenth century. New York: New York University Press.

Week 3 – Racial Indigestion Chapter 2, The Financial Life of Food Chapter 3 and 4

 

WC: 244

“Corn was probably the only crop cultivated in every state of the Union” pg 34 Kara Newman quoting Arturo Warman from around 1890-1900

“According to Foucault, biopower is constituted by “numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugation of bodies and the control of populations,” including the disciplining and regulating of bodies, or “anatomo-politics,” and “biopolitics,” or the regulating of the species body, “imbued with the mechanics of life serving as the basis of the biological processes”.” Page 69 Kyla Tompkins

“…the dance takes various forms among different communities, the core of it is the same, a commemoration of the gift of corn by an ancestral corn woman.” Pg. 31 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (An Indigenous People’s History of the United States)

Gamboa, S. (2017, January 27). Mexico Senator: Stop Collaborating With The U.S., Buying Its Corn. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-senator-stop-collaborating-u-s-buying-its-corn-n713056

Texts from the program relate to the first chapter of An Indigenous People’s History of the United States. Corn is discussed as a spiritual symbol of value and tradition amongst several indigenous groups that migrated from Mexico into the southeastern United States around 1850. The quote describing the Green Corn Dance shows cultural growth from the shared interest of corn. Corn production spiked when its use extended to animal feed after 1890. The first hybrid corn seed emerged in commercial use in 1933 and as this temporary boost in results occurred, government subsidies for the crop emerged to gain more land for production throughout the 30’s and 40’s until World War 2 which was followed by chemical fertilizers. The subsidization of corn after the first few waves of hybridized seeds plus the developed relationship between the meat industry and using corn feed represents an unhealthy transition of commodifying animal life. By the 1970’s the process of refining corn into fructose had been perfected and the futures market of corn syrup banned it by 1988 because it had become so heavily relied upon as an economic shortcut in food. Humans were subjected to an experiment of an economic shortcut just like the cows we eat, and legislation helped solidify it. The news article discusses current Mexico-U.S. relations as headlined, “Mexico Senator: Stop Collaborating with U.S., Buying Its Corn”. The socio-political identity of corn has transformed into an identifiable biopolitical tool with tremendous economic value.

Annotated Bibliography

  • Newman, K. (2013). The secret financial life of food: From commodities markets to supermarkets. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Tompkins, K. W. (2012). Racial indigestion: Eating bodies in the nineteenth century. New York: New York University Press.

Gamboa, S. (2017, January 27). Mexico Senator: Stop Collaborating With The U.S., Buying Its Corn. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexico-senator-stop-collaborating-u-s-buying-its-corn-n713056

 

A Mexican Senator said to stop collaborating with the U.S. and to stop buying their corn because the people of Mexico are threatened by President Trump’s offensive stance on building a wall and want action. Mexican President Pena Nieto was scheduled to meet with Trump on Tuesday, but the meeting was canceled as Trump continued to insist that Mexico pay for a border wall, along with suggestions of a 20% border tax. The resistance of the history behind American corn comes to light by defying a key commodity and potentially could appeal to Mexican culture for a corn roots movement by resisting American corn growing it at home supports my observation between texts of how corn can be used as a tool to bring together communities in relation to the commodified alternative to show it is a biopolitlcal tool.

Week 2 Racial Indigestion Chapter 1 & The Financial Life of Food Chapter 2

 

Sean Dwyer

Week 2

1/22/17

WC: 246

“The upsurge was attributed to lower worldwide pepper production and greater global consumption, as well as to charges that sizable pepper supplies were being held by a few large interests.” Page 23 Financial Life of Food

“It is impossible that the most accomplished cook can please palates, till she has learned their particular taste…” Robert Roberts, Page 49

Owen, T. (2017, January 23). The Women’s March turnout is at 3.2 million and counting. Retrieved January 23, 2017, from https://news.vice.com/story/womens-march-turnout-is-at-3-2-million-and-counting

“Women, gender nonconformists and men took to streets across the country, one day after Donald Trump was inaugurated the 45th president of the United States, in support of women’s rights, LGBT rights, immigrant rights, civil rights, and many other things they feel are threatened by the incoming administration.” Different calculations from crowd estimation experts were presented to show, even with modest predictions, that the Women’s March was historically large. The text was useful for my project because it shows the vast number of attendees and describes the purpose of the march.

One might consider our congress “a sizeable pepper supply” failing to address the demand for a higher quality of service ironically due to “a few large interests.” The replacement of these essential processes rely on a consistent, collective shared interest to extract wealth in the transaction between provider and consumer. The profiteering of a spice that attracts the attention of enough consumers for investors to turn it into a futures market with an ambiguous history wastes the healing potential of a shared interest. Tompkins discusses the association of infection with the kitchen on page 42 and emphasizes the connection between the sink and draining the waste. The quote from Robert Roberts reminds me of Tompkins’ notice of vernacular shift between “kitchen talk” and “jabber” after revealing the cook is required to learn the palette (mind) of the household. Irish, African-american cooks, and women who prepared food were highlighted oppressed groups in the text. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, a text describing a woman subject to toxic routine in a functional, yet inhumane household who loses her mind through forced isolation and broken communication with her culturally abiding, emotional undeveloped partner. The Other Two by Edith Wharton addresses the potential power of exploiting a vulnerable image through an ironic ending of individual cultural dynamics comedically represented in a group. The Women’s March on Saturday celebrated individual cultural dynamics collectively as people seek to sustain their social sphere and environment through the recycling of kitchen sink gunk.

 

Week 1 – Intro to The Secret Financial Life of Food and Chapter One

Intro to The Secret Financial Life of Food and Chapter One – WC: 235

“…others buy futures contracts as part of an investment strategy…because food prices may move in a different direction than stock prices, some investors see the purchase of futures contracts as a way to diversify their portfolios.” pg 10

“It only took a decade but it’s officially OK to fall for U.S. banks again. Consumers feel good. Business leaders feel good. And interest rates are finally not zero — in fact, they may get an extra lift from President-elect Donald Trump, should his policies boost economic growth as everyone seems to be expecting.”

Lachapelle, T. (2017, January 13). It’s OK to Love Banks Again. Retrieved January 13, 2017, from https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-01-13/banks-deliver-goods-to-justify-trump-bump

The quote from page 10 directly addresses the reality of the commodification of food. The similarities between the classification of motive in trading food commodities “hedging and passive investment” and “speculation” brought the 2007-2008 financial crisis to mind. During this banking debacle, banks that were “too large to fail” decided to advantageously grant loans to individuals who, on paper, had no chance of repaying them because they could shift the responsibility to an individual investor willing to take the risk. Newman wrote on page 10, “just as many owners of mutual funds don’t know which companies they hold in their stock portfolios, many investors don’t know which commodities contracts are included in their index funds.” The “speculation” entrepreneur wants to fix a favorable price for himself to either profit from, or trade to an entrepreneur looking to diversify his portfolio for his own guaranteed profit, or even to try and dump a riskier contract on an investor that is even more removed from the product than the writer of the futures contract. On page 11 Newman quoted Michael Pollan, [commodities are] “without qualities; quantity is the only thing that matters”.  In the digitized trading grounds of the futures market, movers and shakers are only seeing digital numbers to represent an idea with so much more meaning. The uncertain vernacular of the writer accurately conveys the hopelessness of restoring hope in the U.S. bank system.

Week 1 – Introduction of Racial Indigestion

Intro to The Secret Financial Life of Food and Chapter One – WC: 235

“…others buy futures contracts as part of an investment strategy…because food prices may move in a different direction than stock prices, some investors see the purchase of futures contracts as a way to diversify their portfolios.” pg 10

“It only took a decade but it’s officially OK to fall for U.S. banks again. Consumers feel good. Business leaders feel good. And interest rates are finally not zero — in fact, they may get an extra lift from President-elect Donald Trump, should his policies boost economic growth as everyone seems to be expecting.”

Lachapelle, T. (2017, January 13). It’s OK to Love Banks Again. Retrieved January 13, 2017, from https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2017-01-13/banks-deliver-goods-to-justify-trump-bump

The quote from page 10 directly addresses the reality of the commodification of food. The similarities between the classification of motive in trading food commodities “hedging and passive investment” and “speculation” brought the 2007-2008 financial crisis to mind. During this banking debacle, banks that were “too large to fail” decided to advantageously grant loans to individuals who, on paper, had no chance of repaying them because they could shift the responsibility to an individual investor willing to take the risk. Newman wrote on page 10, “just as many owners of mutual funds don’t know which companies they hold in their stock portfolios, many investors don’t know which commodities contracts are included in their index funds.” The “speculation” entrepreneur wants to fix a favorable price for himself to either profit from, or trade to an entrepreneur looking to diversify his portfolio for his own guaranteed profit, or even to try and dump a riskier contract on an investor that is even more removed from the product than the writer of the futures contract. On page 11 Newman quoted Michael Pollan, [commodities are] “without qualities; quantity is the only thing that matters”.  In the digitized trading grounds of the futures market, movers and shakers are only seeing digital numbers to represent an idea with so much more meaning. The uncertain vernacular of the writer accurately conveys the hopelessness of restoring hope in the U.S. bank system.