Author: williasa

“Further just as many owners don’t know what companies they hold in their stock portfolios, many investors don’t know which commodities contracts are in their index funds. …  Although Pollan’s complaint is that this system severs the link between the producer of the foodstuff and its ultimate consumer.  …   They figured you paid more for the packaging surrounding those flakes than you did for the corn in the corn flakes!”

(Newman 2013: 10, 11, 14).

“Eating threatened the foundational fantasy of a contained autonomous self – the “free” Liberal self – because, as a function of its basic mechanics, eating transcends the gap between self and other, blurring the line between subject and object as food turned into tissue, muscle and nerve and then provided the energy that drives them all.”

(Tompkins 2012: 3)

The future for agriculture under Trump administration.

By Anna McConnell

1/13/2017

“I’m extremely pleased with our agriculture presence in the Trump administration… I’m certain agriculture is being heard,” he says. “But being heard doesn’t mean that you always win your arguments … the largest U.S. commodity export is soybeans.”

http://www.agriculture.com/news/business/trump-is-listening-to-farmers-says-ag-advisory-committee-member

I chose the passages from the Secret financial Life of Food because it elucidates the seriousness of  the ignorance of most Americans, which is one of the major issues surrounding the culture of food commodities and consumerism. The passage from Radical Indigestion presents a new concept on our relationship to food and the things we consume while offering a unique perspective of the transcendent quality of food.  This is particularly interesting because in the book so far the author seems to overlook the spiritual aspect of food and the significant roll that it has played in the history of civilization and shaping our relationship to it.

I found that the article regarding the future of  agriculture under the Trump administration to be very relevant to me personally as farmer looking to create a future farming business, and what possible changes might be occurring especially in regards to the Farm Bill Legislation.   The fate of our countryside lies heavily in that of our farmers and land stewards and is pertinent to struggles or conflicts addressed in the other texts.  Additionally the quote about being heard yet not always winning your arguments is an ironic reminder and a very succinct way of summarizing the current state of affairs in the world.    I feel this also underscores the main themes and arguments in Racial Indigestion while also resembling the reality of what it was like to be a commodities broker on the trading floor in our recent past.