I find it alarming how interrelated our food systems are with our national government. Politicizing food factors in other elements besides health--such as how capitalism and free economy affects our nation's nutritional choices. By making both seeds and the crops they grow about competition, the main reason for eating (that of nourishment and health) is swept under the rug in pursuit of money. It's a concept especially frustrating and disillusioning.
I work on a local farm as an intern; part of my internship is taking a course on permaculture design (it's an umbrella term for a type of farming that's main goal is to leave Mother Nature as it is, only manipulating it to benefit humans). A key cornerstone of the course is to leave politics out of permaculture. This concept is nearly impossible to do considering the regulations put on farmers and the policies constantly proposed to governments which would directly affect the farm. This week's reading further strengthened the idea that (whether or not there should be) there is no separation of food and state.
Two particular sections of this week's assigned reading grabbed my attention: firstly, that no democratic nation with free press has ever had a famine (Blatt, 11), and that at one point, anti-hunger advocates rallied for more calories opposed to more healthful calories (Gottlieb 6). The first point, after I thought about it more, makes sense: what better way to control a population than to control the food source? The second point, although at first may seem irrelevant, furthers the idea that to be obese isn't to be lazy but rather unhealthy. What good do calories do if they only fill us, not fuel us?
The most apparent point that these readings discussed was how unfortunately politicized our food is. Shouldn't food that fuels our bodies be a virtue and a right--not something that corporations and companies can pay for? By politicizing food aren't we dispersing the same distrust and unhappiness that we feel towards our ineffectual and seemingly stagnant congress and pumping it into our food? This issue feels too large and corrupt to tackle on a large scale--an idea that has me believe that the answer to our national food issue is reliant on our local farms.
"What good do calories do if they only fill us, not fuel us?" That's a really good question. As someone who was raised within a culture that sees food as a healing source, I completely agree with you. However, there are a lot of Americans, particularly the poor and working class, who are taught to see food as a way to fill us when we are hungry and not necessarily to be the fuel that energizes us throughout the day. For a lot of people their introduction to what is healthy and what is not healthy, is based on what they are taught in school. From the Nestle article we can see that the information that is provided to our educational system (e.g. Food Pyramid) has political ties to our food producers. Thus, it's very confusing and often difficult for people to determine whether they should focus on what fills them or what will provide them the energy needed throughout the day.
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