Food. It's what's for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, dessert, and mindless munching. It's what keeps you healthy. It's what can kill you.
There were two groups this week who talked about food. There were two groups who talked about genetically modified foods. Triforce focused on golden rice which has the ability to help India's blindness issue but only if consumed in large quantities. When I discussed GMOs with Esther from The Seven Deadly Sins (7) it became apparent that discovering which foods have GMOs and which don't is excessively difficult, unless the food is an out and out GMO like golden rice. But why does knowing if your food has GMOs matter so much to some people? Why do people really care what they're putting in their mouths? As 7 said it's the unknown that people fear. But I also think that the fear of consuming GMOs is also due to identity. Do people want to brand themselves as being consumers of GMOs?
I think the issue with GMOs comes down to identity formation through food. There's the saying, "You are what you eat," and I think it holds more true in the US than anywhere else. In the US most of us have the choice to go and find out what foods are 'natural,' organic, have GMO's, are vegetarian or vegan, are gluten free, and then we can eat those foods. I'm probably oversimplifying this to an extreme, but in some places I think people are defined by if they eat not what they eat.
Food here in the US leads to an identity. Moms saying, my baby is an organic baby, or exclusively breast fed, or that their kids don't have any GMO's, or people saying they only eat local. It all leads to an identity.
When I was talking to Jeehye the other day she mentioned her mom thought that our background report was strange. Saying that it didn't matter whether the beef was grass fed or corn fed. Food is food. And you eat it.
And Jeehye CONSTANTLY reminding us that in Korea, things never have this shape. Eat. Talk. Live.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much tragedy in our (American) attitude toward food. If this attitude could shift, people would be much happier. Eat. Talk. Live. Yes! Of course we should be health conscious, but I wouldn't eliminate any of the junky, over processed foods that are a part of our food vocabulary today. In fact, I love greasy, fatty foods and greet them with little guilt because they in themselves bring a sort of joy. Everything in moderation I believe. Junk food isn't evil! It's awesome when in balance with everything else... not just food wise, but body and mind as well. For a large part of my life I had an unhealthy relationship to food and a horrible body image, up until the past two years where my relationship to food drastically changed. The way I was living also changed, and who knows which sparked which... but I now love food and drink, it's a large part of my relationship to people and how I socialize, it's something to be shared and enjoyed by everyone... not tormented over. That's why I don't take much interest in the health concerns that GMOs raise (but that don't exist?) and I don't really care for the people who are so concerned about eating organically and blah blah blah because I don't think it really matters? Then again I'm the person who doesn't believe in germs, but I won't get in to that.
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