I totally agree, and it's so fantastic for you to get us all thinking a bit about this -- not only about how we view food but how we might end up framing it for other women in our lives.
I volunteer, study and work in the food movement and as much as food security is about eating local, eating sustainably, etc. it's also about eating healthy and nutritious. Yes, a huge part of our relationship to food as women is due to the media and cultural ideas about how we are supposed to look and act. But I think a bit part of it too is the corporate, big-business fast food industry and how our cities are so often designed so that we have to drive everywhere, and when we drive we end up in at malls/strip malls where the only options for food are big chain stores. It is their JOB to convince us we should be eating (often craving) their food, their trans fats, their salts, their zero-nutritional-value potatoes shipped from hundreds of thousands of miles away.
In my city, I'm involved with a lot of really awesome groups that run farmers' markets, community kitchens, and drop-in meal centres. Every day I hear people say how good it makes them feel to plant a seed and pick a fresh tomato from their garden, how good it feels (and smells!) to bustle around a kitchen full of people laughing and chopping and cooking, how amazing it is to sit down around the table, kids running underfoot, grandparents telling stories, and eat that food together.
These are the things that the fast food industry (and a lot of the companies selling frozen meals in grocery stores) tries to make us forget, but it won't work. Food in so many other cultures--and in our own, not that long ago--is about sharing, cooking and eating. This is why I'm optimistic that we can all start doing these things more. My girlfriends and I spend one afternoon every few weeks cooking up a bunch of soups and things (usually recipes we've never tried) and enjoy it together -- some of us are on weight watchers, some of us are vegan, whatever -- we can all enjoy cooking and eating and having leftovers. :)
Whoops, sorry for the small essay. But I just wanted to say yes, THAT and also that there are so many ways in our lives and in our society to bring back the fun and the community of food!
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Date: 2010-04-01 04:43 pm (UTC)I volunteer, study and work in the food movement and as much as food security is about eating local, eating sustainably, etc. it's also about eating healthy and nutritious. Yes, a huge part of our relationship to food as women is due to the media and cultural ideas about how we are supposed to look and act. But I think a bit part of it too is the corporate, big-business fast food industry and how our cities are so often designed so that we have to drive everywhere, and when we drive we end up in at malls/strip malls where the only options for food are big chain stores. It is their JOB to convince us we should be eating (often craving) their food, their trans fats, their salts, their zero-nutritional-value potatoes shipped from hundreds of thousands of miles away.
In my city, I'm involved with a lot of really awesome groups that run farmers' markets, community kitchens, and drop-in meal centres. Every day I hear people say how good it makes them feel to plant a seed and pick a fresh tomato from their garden, how good it feels (and smells!) to bustle around a kitchen full of people laughing and chopping and cooking, how amazing it is to sit down around the table, kids running underfoot, grandparents telling stories, and eat that food together.
These are the things that the fast food industry (and a lot of the companies selling frozen meals in grocery stores) tries to make us forget, but it won't work. Food in so many other cultures--and in our own, not that long ago--is about sharing, cooking and eating. This is why I'm optimistic that we can all start doing these things more. My girlfriends and I spend one afternoon every few weeks cooking up a bunch of soups and things (usually recipes we've never tried) and enjoy it together -- some of us are on weight watchers, some of us are vegan, whatever -- we can all enjoy cooking and eating and having leftovers. :)
Whoops, sorry for the small essay. But I just wanted to say yes, THAT and also that there are so many ways in our lives and in our society to bring back the fun and the community of food!