Maintained by pioweb@ucsc.edu
© 2008 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

September 10, 2007

Alternative food movement gains political clout, says coeditor of 'politics of food' issue of Gastronomica

By Jennifer McNulty (831) 459-2495; jmcnulty@ucsc.edu

This year's unprecedented public interest in the federal Farm Bill signals a major political shift in the alternative food movement, says food scholar Melanie DuPuis, coeditor of the current special "politics of food" issue of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture.

DuPuis welcomes the change in focus from individual eating habits to broad-based policy reform.

"This level of public input is extraordinary, and it shows that people have become increasingly aware that individual commitments aren't enough," says DuPuis, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and part of a group of UCSC scholars who have, over the last decade, criticized the individual, one-diet-at-a-time approach to food reform. This group is featured in the just-published summer issue of Gastronomica.

"Community-based initiatives like the 'buy fresh, buy local' movement have opened the door to greater public scrutiny of our entire food system, and now we're seeing this new level of legislative activism, which is exactly what it will take to get things back on track," says DuPuis.

Published since 2001 by the University of California Press, Gastronomica is a quarterly journal that presents food-oriented writing, humor, fiction, poetry, and images. The new issue features articles by five UCSC scholars on topics as diverse as the vagaries of government regulation, tequila and Mexican pride, and cloaked "blame-the-victim" messages embedded in popular discussions of obesity.

DuPuis is the author of the book Nature's Perfect Food: How Milk Became America's Drink and numerous scholarly articles on food and food-related topics. In her Gastronomica article, "Angels and Vegetables," she traces the historical arc of food reform movements in the United States that began in the late 1700s. Today's movement leaders are "the latest in a long line of Americans who have sought to perfect the nation through its stomach," she writes. Throughout American history, food reform movements have popped up when the middle-class was feeling vulnerable about its ability to maintain its status in society, and today's alternative food movement is no different, says DuPuis.

"I look at the history of diet as a history of people losing faith in society and their government," she said. "Rather than turn to private solutions to public problems, we as a society need to think about current problems in our food, education, and health care systems as products of economic and political inequalities. That's why public activism around the Farm Bill is so important. People are getting involved and regaining faith that they can have a government that represents them."

Brief descriptions of the five articles authored by UCSC affiliates follow. In addition, culinary pioneer and former restaurateur Jozseph Schultz contributed an essay about his experience as the owner of India Joze, a "destination restaurant" in Santa Cruz and community institution for three decades. Describing his "polytheistic culinary vision" in an article entitled "A Heretic in the Church of Food," Schultz chronicles the emergence of "absolute systems of food beliefs" and the transformation of formerly adventurous eaters who "retreated into their own insular communities of food righteousness."

Food advice--DuPuis outlines the historical path of "health prophets" in the United States, from food reformers who claimed a divine calling to encourage vegetarianism to today's proponents of slow food. "Americans tend to obsess about improving our food as a way to improve our society," says DuPuis, who illustrates the link between food and morality that has underscored the country's food reform movements.

Government regulation--An expert on U.S. drug policy, sociology professor Craig Reinarman responds to New York City's recent ban on trans fats in his article, "Policing Pleasure: Food, Drugs, and the Politics of Ingestion." Reinarman illuminates similarities between the pleasures of food and the pleasures of drugs and cautions against overly intrusive government control of dietary issues. Citing the failures and excesses of Prohibition and the contemporary "war on drugs," he urges "fans of foie gras and other intoxicating but artery-clogging foods" to consider what they have in common with people who ingest illegal drugs. He calls for vigilance against state policing of food consumption and warns that the erosion of civil liberties that has accompanied anti-drug campaigns could accelerate with government regulation of dietary choices. "We could be approaching the day when dietary matters--such as being overweight or failing to eat so as to reduce one's cholesterol--constitute sufficient reasons for insurance companies to refuse or cancel coverage," writes Reinarman.

Hunger--When the U.S. Department of Agriculture last year eliminated the use of the word "hunger" and replaced it with "very low food security," it removed one of the most important tools in the fight against hunger, says author Patricia Allen, director of the UC Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems. Although this was not the intention, asserts Allen, this rhetorical shift derails several decades of progress in the fight to end hunger and gives people the impression that there is no hunger in America. "How can food activists and policy makers seek redress for something that doesn't exist?" asks Allen in her article, "The Disappearance of Hunger in America."

National identity--In a photo essay entitled "Tequila Shots," sociology doctoral candidate Marie Sarita Gaytán profiles the town of Tequila, Mexico, where the agave-based liquor has been distilled since the 16th century. A symbol of national identity and pride, tequila embodies a unique Mexican blend of indigenous traditions and European technology, writes Gaytán.

Obesity--In her article "Can't Stomach It: How Michael Pollan et al. Made Me Want to Eat Cheetos®," Julie Guthman critiques the "moral superiority" that she says pervades popular food writing. An associate professor of community studies, Guthman is critical of apolitical approaches currently fashionable in contemporary food movements, and she challenges the rhetoric of popular food writers who assert that overproduction of grain crops--a product of current farm policy--is causing an obesity epidemic. She calls the current outcry over obesity "remarkably insensitive," and chastises popular authors who "seem unaware of how obesity messages work as admonishment."

#####

Editor's Note: Melanie DuPuis is available for media interviews; she can be reached via
e-mail at emdupuis@ucsc.edu. To reach any of the UCSC authors, contact Jennifer McNulty in the UCSC Public Information Office at jmcnulty@ucsc.edu or (831) 459-4399.

#####