Food has always been a large part of identifying an individual in US history. Food is something that we can’t live without because we need it to maintain life and growth. Within a larger country such as America, many different ethnic groups come in and are able to bring their own cultural ways and practices regarding food. It doesn’t matter whether it was voluntarily or involuntary for the individual or group to come into the nation they are still able to declare their identity with food. It is not a secret that America has many different groups of people living in the country, with that in mind foodway deals greatly in shaping identities of many Americans. Through foodway people can show their identity to their ethnic and racial groups. Ever since the first immigrants came to the America the idea of America having one particular foodway to shape their identity was no more. Native American and African enslaved people food traditions are linked to American’s food identity. As stated in Jennifer Wallach book “How American Eat” due to United States history of conquest, enslavement, and immigration, the country …show more content…
Earlier generation of immigrants made food diverse. According to “Crossing the Boundaries of Taste” by Donna R. Gabaccia, “American’s newly wealthy industrial robber barons discovered cosmopolitan, French inspired food and made it a culinary symbol of their newly status”. Italian Swiss immigrants the Delmonico’s family opened a large restaurant for the wealthy American eaters. In one of these restaurants they had new French cuisine with over 349 entries. This was around the time French cuisine entered American. Social class quickly comes into play in these modern food politics. Mass produced convenience foods and fast foods are among the most affordable food options but also the least
In “Called Home”, the first chapter of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver presents her concerns about America's lack of food knowledge, sustainable practices, and food culture. Kingsolver introduces her argument for the benefits of adopting a local food culture by using statistics, witty anecdotal evidence, and logic to appeal to a wide casual reading audience. Her friendly tone and trenchant criticism of America's current food practices combine to deliver a convincing argument that a food culture would improve conditions concerning health and sustainability. I agree with Kingsolver that knowing the origin of food is an important and healthy benefit of developing a true food culture, but it is impractical to maintain that everyone is able to buy more expensive food. Kingsolver presents a compelling argument for developing a food culture, however this lifestyle change may not be practical or even possible for a poverty-level citizen. The following essay will summarize and respond to Kingsolver’s argument to demonstrate how “Called Home” is a model for novice social scientists.
"Eating is not only a political act but also a cultural act that reaffirms one's identity and worldview." (Salmón, 2012, p. 8). It is the statement from the book Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience that reflects the author’s main idea. The book is a cultural and geographical travel through the southwest part of the United States of America and northern Mexico. In his book, the author is focused on demonstrating the world of indigenous food and accentuates some direct connections between this food, the culture of people and understanding of the environment that surrounds them.
Section 1: Typically, we need a well-balanced meal to give us the energy to do day-to-day tasks and sometimes we aren’t able to get home cooked meals that are healthy and nutritious on a daily basis, due to the reasons of perhaps low income or your mom not being able to have the time to cook. People rely on fast food, because it’s quicker and always very convenient for full-time workers or anyone in general who just want a quick meal. Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation argues that Americans should change their nutritional behaviors. In his book, Schlosser inspects the social and economic penalties of the processes of one specific section of the American food system: the fast food industry. Schlosser details the stages of the fast food production process, like the farms, the slaughterhouse and processing plant, and the fast food franchise itself. Schlosser uses his skill as a journalist to bring together appropriate historical developments and trends, illustrative statistics, and telling stories about the lives of industry participants. Schlosser is troubled by our nation’s fast-food habit and the reasons Schlosser sees fast food as a national plague have more to do with the pure presence of the stuff — the way it has penetrated almost every feature of our culture, altering “not only the American food, but also our landscape, economy, staff, and popular culture. This book is about fast food, the values it represents, and the world it has made," writes Eric Schlosser in the introduction of his book. His argument against fast food is based on the evidence that "the real price never appears on the menu." The "real price," according to Schlosser, varieties from destroying small business, scattering pathogenic germs, abusing wor...
In Lavanya Ramanathan’s Washington Post article published in 2015 titled “Why everyone should stop calling immigrant food ‘ethnic’”, she discusses about people’s preconceptions on the type of food that should be labelled ethnic. Ashlie Stevens also touched on a similar topic in her Guardian article published in 2015 titled “Stop thinking and just eat: when ‘food adventuring’ trivializes culture”. She talks about how people assume that just by eating food from a certain culture, they are able relate to the culture as a whole. Both authors acknowledge the importance of appreciating authentic cuisines, but takes different approaches to convince the audience. Both authors establish credibility by using a wide range of substantiated evidences. While,
I have always observed how food is connected to culture; however, I seemed to think of this connection as a positive one. This subject introduced the negative rhetoric of food, and not just the positive links to culture. This made me think of my father’s memories of when he was young and the whole family would get together for the annual Thanksgiving feast. He talks about the negativity experienced during this celebration, since the family didn’t get together that often, many disagreements within members of the family would turn into huge blow outs. A cousin of his came over to spend Thanksgiving with us one year; he was waiting for disagreements to arise as we ate the meal.
We are a confused society not knowing what to eat. This why I have chosen to talk about my model on feeding America, so we can get our culture back.
In the writing “If You Are What You Eat, Then What Am I?” Geeta Kothari describes the differences in the American and Indian cultures through her unique description of the food differences. As a little Indian-American girl, Kothari curiously wanted to eat what of kids her age ate, tuna salad sandwich, hot dogs, and foods of such nature. Kothari describes her first encounter with a can of tuna fish as it looks “pink and shiny, like an internal organ” (947). As Kothari ages, it becomes clear that she sees American food much the way her parents saw it- “repugnant… meat byproducts… glued together by chemicals and fat” (947). Even though Kothari describes American food as strange, disgusting, and foreign; it was also “infidelity” to eat it (951).
The book called Fast Food Nation is an insightful book that even in the title itself creates an impact on readers, and gets their minds to visualize what exactly it means. Our country has slowly but surely become centered around fast food and all the wonderful things that appear to come along with it. Almost everything we have in our country goes back to the fast food industry, and how it influences the everyday lives of Americans. This influence that is inflicted upon the US citizens is not a positive thing, because of the horrible impact that it is having on the the consumers of the fast food. Fast food can cause results that are negative to consumers that eat this particular style of food that has swept the nation, because of the unhealthy
The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, a work examining the country’s fast food industry (Gale). Schlosser sets off chapter 5: “Why the Fries Taste Good,” in Aberdeen,
Having the opportunity to be in different countries since I was a little girl, was always an advantage for me and my family due to the fact that we experienced different restaurants. Therefore, we always had the opportunity to taste excellent food. Moving from Honduras to the United States has been one of this experiences. I’ve lived in the U.S.A. since six years ago, and I noticed that the majority of food is fast food. Fast food contains cholesterol, and it is very unhealthy. In difference of, small restaurants like cuisines, and family restaurants, fast food, is a no go for my family and I. The specialty of the small restaurants is the taste of the different spices, creating the healthy explosion of taste in your mouth in each and every
“Food is the material object we have the most intimate contact with on a daily basis.” Stated in research paper called Survivor Woman: colonial edition, this statement magnifies that role that food plays in people’s lives. Most people are almost constantly preoccupied physically and mentally with food. Not only that it is vital part of human life where without it, it would be impossible to continue on with one’s life. Also a great deal of time we spend with food tells us that people are inseparably connected to each our food that we eat. (Gabaccia, 7) We spend time with food preparing meals everyday, thinking about what to eat for lunch or dinner, and we also taking time eat. Beyond simply necessary human obligation, eating has important implications on how we think of ourselves, mainly how we relate to a specific culture of which we are a part. Food study and cultural identity is bound to be connected.
America is a capitalist society. It should come to a surprise when we live like this daily. We work for profit. We’ll buy either for pleasure or to sell later for profit. It should come to no surprise that our food is made the same way because we are what we eat.
With the fast pace of life, people pay more attention to increasing their quality of life. Thus, Americans tend not to spend their free time cooking. One of the Founding Father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin said that “Time is money” (Brainyquote). Time has great value to Americans, so they do not want to waste it doing unimportant things. Most Americans want to use their time efficiently, which allows them to achieve desirable goals. Fast food chains offer Americans the opportunity to save time. Preparing French fries, fried chicken, and hamburgers in fast food restaurant only takes a few minutes, which satisfies people’s demands and expectations. For example, I often see some students or commuters buying breakfast at a fast-food restaurant when they are in a hurry to go to school or work. Also, when our family has a journey by car, we like to take a break at a fast-food restaurant. This not only saves our time, but it also fills our bellies. Moreover, fast food restaurants provide reasonable prices on food, which also attracts consumers. Thus, people prefer fast food. The article, “Introduction to Fast Food: At Issue” describes the problems that fast food brings to our society during the development of fast food. “In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2014, fast food sales were projected to be more than $195 billion. According to a 2013 Gallup poll, eight in ten Americans report eating fast food at least once a month, with almost half saying they eat it at least once a week” (“Introduction to Fast Food: At Issue”). The statistics show that people really like to go to fast food restaurants. Although fast food is adapted to the demands of people’s fast-paced life style, fast-food production has a negative influence on American
American culture is changing dramatically. In some areas it’s a good thing, but in other areas, like our food culture, it can have negative affects. It is almost as if our eating habits are devolving, from a moral and traditional point of view. The great America, the land of the free and brave. The land of great things and being successful, “living the good life.” These attributes highlight some irony, especially in our food culture. Is the American food culture successful? Does it coincide with “good living”? What about fast and processed foods? These industries are flourishing today, making record sales all over the globe. People keep going back for more, time after time. Why? The answer is interestingly simple. Time, or in other words, efficiency. As people are so caught up in their jobs, schooling, sports, or whatever it may be, the fast/processed food industries are rapidly taking over the American food culture, giving people the choice of hot
Food is vital to cultural identity and is much a part of a person’s culture as their language or religion. The food that people eat communicate their beliefs and social backgrounds. This essay will explore different ways that people choose to perform their identities through the foods that they prepare and eat. With the United States exportation of SPAM to the Philippines and fast food ‘glocalization’, Matejowsky highlights the importance of food choices by showing how different people in diverse countries view the same food item.