SOC 808 Midterm: Midterm notes
25 Jun 2018
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Module 1
What Makes Food Sociologically Interesting?
We often think of our food choices as something we decide on individually and
consciously. For example, when asked why they eat particular foods, people often
say that they choose based on aesthetics (e.g., how a food tastes, smells, or looks)
or practicalities (e.g., how much it costs or how easy it is to make).
But food habits are also shaped by other things, often beyond our direct and
conscious control. This becomes clearer if we consider how people eat in different
geographic areas, in different social groups, and in different time periods.
For example, why do you think the following things are true?
Canadians eat more meat now than in the past (Weis, 2015).
Men eat more meat than women.
On average Canadians eat two times more meat than Japanese people
and twenty times more meat than people in India (FAO, 2013).
If food choices were only individually based, we wouldn't see these kinds of larger
patterns.
When thinking about reasons, did you consider the role of culture, including
changing ideas about health and masculinity and femininity? What about the role of
the economy and government policies or institutions?
Sociologists emphasize that eating does not simply fill a biological need: it carries
diverse social and cultural meanings.
Our food habits and our food system are influenced by a complex set of social
relations, processes, structures, and institutions. Food scholars also emphasize that
the food system is structured by relations of power, which lead to inequalities—both
within and across nations—and contribute to both a direct impact on individuals in
societies as well as broader impacts on the environment and non-human world.
In the following pages, we'll look at some of these issues in more detail.
Food, Culture, and Identity: The “Micro” Level
1
The 18th century French epicure Brillat-Savarin famously said, “Tell me what you
eat and I will tell you who you are.”
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Think about this quotation for a moment in relation to your own food habits and
those of people around you. What do you think what you eat says about
who you are?
Here's an activity to help you think about this more. Picture the following person in
your head, without thinking hard about it:
A vegan.
What does a vegan look like (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, age, fashion style, body
type, etc.)? Did you assume anything else about them (e.g., income, class,
education, etc.)?
Now do the same for:
Someone who often eats at McDonald's.
Someone who makes jams and preserves from scratch.
What did you notice about your assumptions?
Our assumptions show that social discourses (ideas that circulate in our society
about particular issues) shape the identities we ascribe to people–and that which
they ascribe to themselves–based on personal food choices.
Food, Culture, and Identity: The “Micro” Level
2
As you probably noticed from the activity on the last page, food does not simply
sustain our physical bodies; food has social, emotional, spiritual, and political
meaning. It is integral to our interactions and connections within family and
community as “a symbol, a product, a ritual object, an identity badge, an object of
guilt, [and] a political tool” (Reardon, 2000, p.1).
Let's look at some of the roles of food:
A symbol: A sit-down meal, especially in the evening, can symbolize and create
feelings of “family.” Holiday foods are essential markers of holiday meals and
celebrations.
A product: In 21st-century Canada, where people grow food themselves much less
than before, food is almost always a product or a commodity—something
we buy from a store or restaurant. It is not something we can normally access for
free, such as tap water. (Think about why—after all, we need both food and water to
survive. More about this later in the course.)
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find more resources at oneclass.com
A ritual object: Food can be a symbol during religious ceremonies or rituals. For
example, horseradish is a symbol of the suffering of Israelite slaves in Egypt in the
Jewish Passover Seder meal (see Figure 1.1). Food can also be involved in more
everyday rituals, such as the giving of a gift to the host/ess (e.g., a bottle of wine,
chocolates) when one is invited to his or her home.
An identity badge: An upper middle-class Torontonian might eat foods from various
ethno-cultural backgrounds to indicate (perhaps unconsciously) that she is
“knowledgeable” or “hip.” A teenager might eat fast food to fit in with his peers.
An object of emotions: We might feel guilty after eating what we think are unhealthy
or fattening foods. We might also seek comfort or nostalgia in foods we ate as kids.
Boredom, loneliness, and a myriad of other emotions may trigger a desire for
certain foods.
A political tool: Eating organic or local food, or boycotting certain products, may be a
way people hope to improve the food system. Activists might stage hunger strikes.
Food and Political Economic Relations: The
"Macro" Level
Sociologists are also interested in the “macro” level of the food system. They
consider the influence of agri-food policies, national political economic systems, and
international relations and trade on food habits and cultures.
The case of corn in North America demonstrates the complex relationships between
these macro-level structures and what and how we eat every day.
During the early 20th century, depression and war resulted in food shortages in
North America. As a result, governments put into place subsidies for farmers. The
more of a crop a farmer produced, the more financial support he or she would
receive.
This resulted in an abundance of certain grains, most notably corn. Because there
was a corn surplus, and because governments were subsidizing corn
production, corn prices fell. Meat producers began to see corn as a cheap source
of cattle feed.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
We often think of our food choices as something we decide on individually and consciously. But food habits are also shaped by other things, often beyond our direct and conscious control. This becomes clearer if we consider how people eat in different geographic areas, in different social groups, and in different time periods. Canadians eat more meat now than in the past (weis, 2015). On average canadians eat two times more meat than japanese people and twenty times more meat than people in india (fao, 2013). If food choices were only individually based, we wouldn"t see these kinds of larger patterns. Sociologists emphasize that eating does not simply fill a biological need: it carries diverse social and cultural meanings. Our food habits and our food system are influenced by a complex set of social relations, processes, structures, and institutions. In the following pages, we"ll look at some of these issues in more detail.
