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鈥淚f we are what we eat, what is it that we鈥檙e eating?鈥�
Normally when someone asks that question, they鈥檙e thinking in medical terms: Am I eating healthy enough? Are there harmful chemicals or pesticides in my diet? But when anthropologist Elizabeth Fitting poses the question, she鈥檚 trying to provoke a broader discussion about how our food is produced and what its path from producer to product says about our values as a society.
In a global food system, food not only travels enormous distances, but it encounters a wide variety of regulatory regimes, political decisions and cultural meanings.
鈥淔ood is a good window to look at cultural, social, political and economic systems,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚n a global food system, food not only travels enormous distances, but it encounters a wide variety of regulatory regimes, political decisions and cultural meanings. There鈥檚 a lot we can learn from that.鈥�
The days in when we could draw a straight line from the farm to the family table are long gone, replaced by a system of mass production that interlinks companies and consumers around the world. And while we are inundated with health information about much of what we eat, its origin is often more mysterious. That鈥檚 why people are increasingly asking tough questions about where their food comes from, and why terms like 鈥渓ocal source鈥� and 鈥渇air trade鈥� are becoming common chatter at the supermarket.
In Dr. Fitting鈥檚 case, questions about agriculture and community have taken her from the farmlands of Mexico to the AV俱乐部 classroom. She鈥檚 currently working on a manuscript exploring how the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has affected peasant farming in Mesoamerica. NAFTA has led to a dramatic increase of U.S. corn flooding the market in Mexico, not only making it difficult for small-scale producers to sell their maize, but in some cases unintentionally introducing genetically modified corn to areas where it is prohibited. Reacting against this, a political movement of scientists, academics and farmers鈥� organizations has emerged, operating under the banner 鈥�Sin maiz, no hay pais鈥� (Without corn, there is no country).
That connection between food and national identity is one of the many ideas that Dr. Fitting will be exploring in her new course, 鈥�,鈥� starting this fall.
鈥淭he idea is to really get students to think about the food they eat, the journey it takes and who participates in that journey, from peasant farmers through to multinational corporations,鈥� she explains. 鈥淭ake corn as an example. What does it mean to a Mexican peasant versus a middle-class professional in Mexico City? What does it mean to a Canadian farmer? What does it mean to you?鈥�
Nathan Pelletier has seen first-hand what food means to people. The PhD student in 鈥渆cological economics鈥� set off a cyberstorm earlier this year when speaking at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago. With a headline referring to hamburgers as 鈥渢he Hummers of food,鈥� news stories about his research into the environmental impacts of meat production led to harshly polarizing reactions on blogs and message boards across the Internet.
A reporter came up with that provocative title; Mr. Pelletier prefers to describe his findings in less-sensationalist terms. Still, he concedes that there鈥檚 quite a bit of truth to the sentiment.
鈥淏eef is a cultural icon in so many ways, and it wasn鈥檛 until I engaged the beef question that people really got riled up about my research,鈥� he explains. 鈥淏ut I think most people would be shocked at the role that livestock plays in environmental degradation on a global scale. It seems counter-intuitive to a lot of people that food systems are such a key driver of environmental change.鈥澛犅�
The numbers speak for themselves. On an equal weight basis, beef produces 10 to 20 times more greenhouse gases than chicken or salmon. It accounts for only 30 per cent of meat consumption but a staggering 78 per cent of emissions (not including land-use changes). And a household that chooses not to eat red meat or consume dairy products for a year saves the same amount of carbon emissions as if they cut 13,000 kilometres out of their driving.
鈥淐hris Weber [engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University] raises the point that we don鈥檛 really make day-to-day decisions about a lot of things that affect our environment, such as what we drive, where we live or where our electricity comes from,鈥� says Mr. Pelletier. 鈥淏ut our food consumption is affected by conscious choices that we make all the time. It鈥檚 not that we have to give up entirely on these products. We just have to be more cognisant of our consumption habits, recognizing that eating better will not only improve our personal health but the health of our environment.鈥�
Just as North Americans feel a strong connection with beef 鈥� and Mexican farmers with corn 鈥� peoples around the world are using food as a way to express and define their identity. Amal Ghazal of the Department of History examines the global and historical dimensions of this in her course, 鈥�.鈥�
鈥淲hen my students and I explored the role that community dinners play in Muslim culture, they were surprised to see how much food was shared between the different facets of society,鈥� says Dr. Ghazal. 鈥淭hey started to see a more multicultural perspective.鈥�
In the course, Dr. Ghazal and her students travel through the history of Islamic civilization with food as the guide, from the counterculture foundation of the coffee shop 鈥� originally an Ottoman invention that terrified the governing elite 鈥� to exploring why certain countries compete to claim certain foods as their own. For example, Baklava is cited as a Turkish, an Arab and a Greek creation 鈥� evidence of the shared Ottoman history of both a pastry and three peoples.
鈥淲hat students learn quite quickly is that they鈥檙e not exploring a homogenous Muslim community, but one with many borrowed cultures and various traditions,鈥� she says. 鈥淢uslim society is defined by different connections, including food. It helps us break down the stereotypes and misconceptions.鈥�
As our disparate societies around the world continue to connect through globalization, such mixing and mingling of food cultures is only going to expand 鈥� as will the environmental, political and identity issues alongside. The dinner plate of 2109 will likely be unrecognizable to us, just as today鈥檚 meals would seem foreign and strange to earlier generations. We are what we eat, after all 鈥� and 鈥渨hat鈥檚 for dinner?鈥� is always up for debate.