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As we scour the internet this week for Thanksgiving side dish recipes, the following excerpt from Michael Mikulak’s The Politics of the Pantry: Stories, Food, and Social Change serves up some food for thought.
What to eat? It seems like a simple question, but a quick glance at bookshelves and the media reveals scores of literary works, movies, TV shows, documentaries, and blogs devoted to this seemingly simple, mundane and everyday act that most human beings accomplish several times a day. Why this resurgence in interest? Why this nostalgic pining for simpler times when, at least in the West, technology and a hugely elaborate division of labour has ostensibly liberated many of us from the toil of soil and kitchen? Why do contemporary humans feel the need to get expert advice on this topic? What could be simpler than deciding what’s for dinner?
(…)
The concept of storied food is about creating readable narratives of the foodshed which have the potential to reveal the social mystery of capitalism in a lived, material way, and as such, help create the conditions for sustainability. Many of the books and films in this genre represent the struggle against a system designed to make it difficult to trace the path. The chain of meaning can be obscured, as in the case of a frozen burrito, or it can be revealed, more or less honestly, as in the case of a farmers’ market stall. In the process, questions of agency, economics, politics, and ethics become enmeshed in the cultural production of food. Crucially, the meaning of food is always mediated by culture, whether through traditions passed along by generations of cooks and eaters, or through the comfort marketing of Quaker Oats and Aunt Jemima.
(…)
Jamie’s Fowl Dinners (2008) employs similar tactics in order to reveal the whole story of the chicken and the egg. Hosted by [Jamie] Oliver, this ninety-minute special challenges many of the expectations of the cooking-show genre. Staged as a gala dinner, the show is a vehicle through which Oliver brings forward the true story of cheap food in the hopes that the truth will convince people not to eat battery-cage chickens and eggs. From the opening credits, the announcer asks: “Will they change what they buy when Jamie tells them the truth about fowl dinners?” The audience, consisting of self-avowed junk food addicts, organic foodies, “average” people, and executives of food-processing and distribution companies, is placed in the middle of the story. The stage surrounds a typical white linen service – a gala dinner complete with silverware, waiters, and expectant diners. All around them are various stages and screens, each relating to an aspect of the chickens’ life.
(…)
In the end, “authentic” pastoral imagery is used to revive the sense of consumer power. Both Food Inc. and Jamie’s Fowl Dinners rely on this somewhat ironic return to the pastoral, which can be read in a number of ways. At best, the commodity biography helps foster a sense of co-production. In the case of the two documentaries I cite, this co-operative sense comes from the consumer’s choice to support a farmer who treats animals and land with respect. For Oliver, this means free-range and organic farming of birds. But this is the point where the apocalyptic mode becomes subsumed by ecological modernization and the promise of green capitalism. As an antidote to the anxiety produced by his in-your-face approach, Oliver offers a pastoral farm scene that shows what a chicken’s life can be. In a situation with no resemblance to the horror of the industrial shed, these birds play in the dappled sunlight of shade trees and roam about pecking the dirt in search of grubs and other delicious morsels.
Although Oliver encourages everyone to buy these kinds of chickens and eggs, he realizes not everyone can spend the money, since the birds cost up to three times as much. As a middle ground, he supports the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ Freedom Food Standard, which recommends open- concept barns with roosts, natural light, and an overall more stimulating environment for the chickens, and only costs an additional pound per bird. The RSPCA establishes and monitors a number of standards, which include maximum animal density, availability of shade, and other elements related to animal welfare. It is not perfect, but Oliver realizes he needs to get people in the door and address the real concerns of class and accessibility. As with many certification schemas, the consumer must trust the organization that sets standards according to “the limit of what is achievable, in terms of an animal husbandry and commercial viability.” While Oliver is clearly not fully satisfied with the standard and its ambiguity, he nonetheless supports its recommendations as an alternative to factory farming and as a means of assuring a basic level of animal welfare for those concerned but unwilling or unable to afford organic birds.
To learn more about The Politics of the Pantry, or to order online, click here.
For media inquiries, contact MQUP publicist Jacqui Davis.
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