February 4, 2011

By Ian

It’s not a story, just more thoughts, ideas, directions that I find fascinating.

I think it’s interesting that so much of our food is created in a way that is deliberately invisible.

From farms and slaughterhouses to restaurant kitchens, the place where we consume our food (be it a restaurant table or a supermarket aisle) is a space removed from where our food is created.

It seems that as a society we are more concerned with the manufacturing process of our cars, computers, and furniture than we are with the way our food is produced. (this is changing, but IMHO has been the norm for decades.)

It’s as if we want it to be a secret- we just want the food to *appear* without origin. And because of this invisibility big Agra has been able to essentially do what they want when it comes to production with little public oversight. The Monsanto company is a great example of a mega-powerful conglomerate using government sanctioned legal bullying to control and profit from food production in this country.

I think there is something urgent about exploring how hunger is being “solved” through business practices that would make 19th century tycoons blush- and how the cultural desire for food to appear out of nowhere encourages and enables the Monsantos and ConAgras of the world to continue business practices that in many other industries would be front page news. Nike can’t make sneakers in sweatshops overseas without drawing public heat, but these companies run sweatshop slaughterhouses in the U.S. that draw little public ire.

I think it would be interesting to ask why that is- I think it has something to do with this desire for food to “appear” and how that is a marker of civilization- we lay out houses to have a kitchen (place where food is created) and a dining room (place where food is consumed.) What is it that makes this desire to separate food production and consumption so fundamental?