american way of eating

Reading Tracie McMillan's book The American Way of Eating: Undercover at Walmart, Applebee's, Farm Fields and the Dinner Table convinced me to do a couple of things different. Things I already had a sense about, but McMillan provided good evidence in with her investigative journalism.

For the most part, migrant workers welcomed her as she went undercover working in California's fields picking garlic, peaches, and onions. She crisped lettuce, asparagus, and other items in the produce department at Walmart in Detroit. And she expedited food in the kitchen at an Applebee's in Brooklyn. She did all of this to learn what it's like to live and eat on minimum wage and also to figure out why we eat the way that we do. 

She had the opportunity to drive home how our food preferences divide us along class lines, but she didn't make a strong case. Okay, maybe she did, and I just think that it should be stronger, because much of the information she covered was not news to me. And I think she could have presented stronger evidence, or been more persuasive about the type of poverty migrant workers experience.

One anecdote she presented was when her roommate Gabriel and his friend Martina were talking about foodies. Martina spoke about her experience with this foodie and how he's talking about how foodies are really into food and care about food. And Martina explains how her grandma cared about food and how she grew herbs and tomatoes and chiles and everything. Martina illustrated that her grandma was a foodie, too, or as Barbara Mandrell would sing, "I was country, when country wasn't cool."  So this is the excerpt from the book:

Right! says Martina. And so this guy, he says, "Oh no, not like that." and I can't get him to tell me what the difference is, he just keeps saying, "It's just, like, you really, really, like your food," and I keep saying "Like. My. Mom." And we go back and forth like this and finally I just old him, straight up, "That's classist, you just don't get it." And finally all he could say was, "Foodies really care about what they eat."

As someone who has never "belonged" I'm quick to point fingers at the exclusivity of foodies and so I love how Martina called out "this guy" and tried explaining to him that everybody loves food. Not just foodies. And labeling ourselves with a term that divides us from the plebes or from people whom we imagine have no taste or preference for fresh food or organic food does more harm than good. Food should bring us together, not divide us.

One thing that surprised me in McMillan's book was research indicating that lower-income people value organic food more than upper-income people. Who knew? 

McMillan enjoyed working at Applebee's the most out of all her jobs. In fact, she excelled and was told that she could easily ascend into management given time. As an expediter she was responsible for adding sauces to all the plates as they came up in the windows before servers took them to tables. She confirmed something that I suspected: Most of their food is frozen and merely microwaved before being served to customers. Nothing is fresh. 

All in all, The American Way of Eating is an excellent introduction to the lifecycle of food as it goes from farm to grocery store to table or to restaurant and can answer questions that most folks never knew they had about agriculture, food deserts, how we shop for food, and why we prefer to dine out rather than cook for ourselves. 

And what did I learn, or reconfirm? Eat at home more often where I'll have more control over my food. I can nuke frozen food cheaper than I can than paying for someone to do it for me at a chain restaurant. Buy fresh produce from a farmer's market or local grocery store, not Wal-mart. Plant my own garden so I'll have fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, and others things as I need them.

Comments

[ruthie]

Regarding "this guy," can you say "Poser"?

I consider myself a "foodie," but to me being a foodie means that you love food, you love to learn about it, you love to experiment with it, you love to share it, and you love to eat it.

So, yeah, I care about my food, but I also know what I'm putting into my mouth. The dividing line is between the folks who know and love food and those who just want to be like the cool kids. Heh. We're the cool kids! ;)