“One of the reasons it can be hard to appreciate the effort it takes to feed a modern city is the sheer invisibility of the process” (Steel 67). In Chapter 2 of Hungry City, Carolyn Steel explains the transformation of our food culture as a result of the increased ease in transportation. As producers began to ship food from farther and farther away, cities became increasingly disconnected from food, in both a geographic and emotional sense.
Barbara Kingsolver expresses a similar sentiment in her 1998 novel, The Poisonwood Bible, drawing heavily from her own, real experiences growing up in the Congo in the 1960’s. When reflecting on the differences between the United States and the Congo, the character Leah comments:
“[America’s] farmers can trust in abundance, and ship it to burgeoning cities, where people can afford to spend their lives hardly noticing, or caring, that a seed produces a plant...Here [in the Kongo] you know what a seed is for, or you starve (Kingsolver 139).”
Connection to nature and food is a strong theme throughout the novel. When Leah returns to Georgia, she also remarks, “It’s a funny thing to complain about, but most of America is perfectly devoid of smells...The air is just blank in America” (Kingsolver 123). Steel also makes this observation, stating: “Street life isn’t the only casualty of food’s disappearance from cities. Another seemingly trivial loss, but one that contributes a great deal to a city’s character, is smell” (Steel 116). She goes on to explain that, since smell is strongly tied to emotions and memory, lack of scents affects our impression of a place and its core character. With the disappearance of common markets in cities, the growing distance between farms and cities, and a subsequent lack of smells and the other sensory experiences ingrained in food culture, comes a real, emotional disconnection from the food process and food itself.
In these readings, the observation about "smell" and its relation to a city's character stuck with me. What are your experiences with smell and food? Or smell and place?
References:
Steel, Carolyn. Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives. London: Chatto & Windus, 2008.
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I agree that smell is not only an important aspect of a meal, but of a place as well. I think it helps us associate memories. I recently had a smell that took me back to a NY City subway station. Keep in mind that I have not visited a subway station in years. The smell took me back to those days when I lived in NY, and my body filled with a mix of feelings associated to that smell. Its sad that our current food culture puts more importance on profit than quality. Scent, along with taste and texture, are being heavily affected by the huge demand of processed foods. Even though the taste, scent and texture can be manipulated, I believe that our bodies will crave the original taste, scent and texture. Knowing that, companies are trying to manipulate our senses so we can have that similar experience.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point. Not only are sensory experiences -- smell in particular -- tied to physical places, but they are also a core part of food memories/experiences in general. Like adding food coloring to make ketchup seem redder, or inducing produce to ripen faster, tricking our senses. MSG was originally developed to mimic the savory seaweed taste. I read a pretty interesting blog (http://foodbabe.com/2015/02/16/the-behind-the-scenes-marketing-tricks/) that explained how companies and stores that used artificial scents exponentially increased their sales. Apparently, Disney saw profits due to its hidden "scent machines" in bushes that emit cotton candy, caramel apple, and popcorn. The blog also referenced vending machines with artificial, chocolate scented strips that tripled Hershey's sales.
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