Food Colonialism -- Handwringing Over Veggie Trends
Ridiculous post at BitchMedia by Soleil Ho, "The Cost of Kale: How Foodie Trends Can Hurt Low-Income Families":
The phrase "food gentrification" is a lightning-quick synthesis of complex values and ideas into a compact form. Though it may seem unduly weighed down by its provocative nomenclature and its association with the plagues of coffee shop Columbuses that have descended on places like Brooklyn, Oakland, and New Orleans, gentrification's original meaning holds true: it represents renovation, refurbishing, rebranding--and, some would add, rebirth--seemingly for the purpose of accommodating WASP tastes. At times, food gentrification and neighborhood gentrification can be seen to work in tandem, as in cases where community gardens have attracted wealthier residents to working class neighborhoods. Whether it's the fetishization of hole-in-the-wall restaurants, twerking, or Sriracha, the gentrification cycle has birthed the momentary relevance of countless ideas and materials. Their blip on the mainstream radar is at once both novel and tragic; typecast Cuban groceries and Korean BBQ joints function as both pawn and king in the game of conspicuous consumption that manifests through venues ranging from Instagram to the Academy Awards.A quick glance at any food-related hashtag or blog will show you that the presentation of our meals has become a kind of dilettante art form. Like aristocratic incense sniff-offs of Heian-era Japan, amateur-level foodies flaunt works like an arms race where the winners are the ones who can pull out the most obscure ingredient and the most sophisticated combination of aromas. Like it or not, Whole Foods has successfully mastered this process and is now able to mobilize a substantial PR fund to kickstart new trends from the ground up.
For example, Whole Foods' work to establish certain produce items as cancer-fighting "superfoods" has proven to be an effective and profitable marketing tool. In the European Union, it is illegal to sell a product as a "superfood." According to a BBC article on the subject, the marketing of an item as a "superfood" has correlated with price increases. In the United States, we can see this at work with kale, which has been heavily marketed as a superfood since 2011. Since then, the average price of a bunch of the hardy green has increased by 25 percent: from $0.88 a bunch to $1.10.
It's hard to believe that these forces are working simultaneously: how can we fetishize the act of eating so much while also making food more inaccessible to the people who need it the most?
What a bunch of ridiculous bullshit. Caitlin Flanagan showed that in an Atlantic piece:
Anyone who says that Americans have lost the desire and ability to cook fresh produce has never been to the Superior Super Warehouse in Compton. The produce section--packed with large families, most of them Hispanic--was like a dreamscape of strange and wonderful offerings: tomatillos, giant mangoes, cactus leaves, bunches of beets with their leaves on, chayote squash, red yams, yucca root. An entire string section of chiles: serrano, Anaheim, green, red, yellow. All of it was dirt cheap, as were the bulk beans and rice. Small children stood beside shopping carts with the complacent, slightly dazed look of kids whose mothers are taking care of business.What we see at Superior Super Warehouse is an example of capitalism doing what it does best: locating a market need (in this case, poor people living in an American inner city who desire a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and who are willing to devote their time and money to acquiring them) and filling it.
Who can't afford to eat organic or much organic food? I can't. Not much, anyway. I also don't think it's all worth it.
I eat organic half-'n'-half, pasteurized butter, and Omega-3 eggs. Otherwise, it's the regular stuff. What saves money is not eating packaged foods, including cookies, crackers, potato chips, and the rest.
And, pray tell, what's the answer, Soleil Ho? Telling wealthy people it's like drowning a kitten every time they eat a serving of collard greens?
Just tweeted to somebody:
@amyalkon
In fact, right next to Venice, CA Whole Foods, 99 Cent Store has the organic lettuce box WF sells for $7.99ish for…99 cents!
Amy Alkon at March 16, 2014 7:46 AM
Progressives gain status by finding new and exotic ways to shame people.
White people eating Americanized Korean food is racist - got it?
Race mixing is bad, again - now we call it 'appropriation'. Above all, we must ensure racial purity.
And all white people are now WASPS. Congratulations.
milo at March 16, 2014 8:55 AM
There is a large sign in the produce department of my Whole Foods that says "COLLARDS ARE THE NEW KALE."
The difference to me is that collards are delicious, and kale is ornamental freeway landscaping.
Kevin at March 16, 2014 9:07 AM
The use of the word "gentrification" says to me that some group is trying to promote socialist ideas. Everyone should have equal outcomes not equal opportunity.
Why should I be stuck with hamburger while you can buy Kobe steaks. I should be able to get them as well. Why should be stuck eating iceberg lettuce while you can afford kale for your salad.
Why should you have hardwood floors in your house while I'm stuck with linoleum in mine.
This is an ignorant argument that needs to be shot down very hard.
Jim P. at March 16, 2014 9:26 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/food-colonialis.html#comment-4389660">comment from KevinKale tastes like ass, only slightly worse. I make up for this by cooking the hell out of it in bacon grease.
Amy Alkon
at March 16, 2014 9:55 AM
When whites move out of a neighborhood it's called "white flight" and whites are evil for doing it.
When whites move into a neighborhood it's called "gentrification" and whites are evil for doing it.
Pretty easy to understand, right?
David Crawford at March 16, 2014 11:03 AM
Organic food doesn't need to be that expensive, a $1 packet of seeds, add water, sweat, and time pounds of food as organic as you want it to be. That's the way we did it, and even though I live in a city, on the 3rd floor, I still have boxes and pots with things growing in them.
Joe J at March 16, 2014 11:53 AM
Kale tastes like ass, only slightly worse. I make up for this by cooking the hell out of it in bacon grease.
Bacon grease is my preferred method for making kale palatable. Hubby says it smells like rotten broccoli, and I've never tried it raw.
On topic, kale goes for about $1.40 per bunch at my local grocery store (I live in the middle of nowhere, no Trader Joes or Whole Paychecks within about a two hour drive). It is about half the cost of a package of cookies, and would take about the same amount of time to go through, if I still ate store bought cookies.
Jazzhands at March 16, 2014 12:10 PM
David Crawford:
"When whites move out of a neighborhood it's called "white flight" and whites are evil for doing it.
When whites move into a neighborhood it's called "gentrification" and whites are evil for doing it."
Yep, and when working class whites have their property stolen by the government through eminent domain to be sold to developers, it is for the "common good." How dare they protest!
Oh, and Amy, as you well know, just about ANYTHING cooked in bacon grease tastes good!
Charles at March 16, 2014 12:41 PM
Kale tastes like ass, only slightly worse. I make up for this by cooking the hell out of it in bacon grease.
Bacon grease is my preferred method for making kale palatable. Hubby says it smells like rotten broccoli, and I've never tried it raw.
Other solution: Don't cook or eat it!
Kevin at March 16, 2014 2:05 PM
Recipe for Marinated Kale Salad.
It's delicious!
2 tbsp. miso (i use garbonzo bean miso cause i don't do soy)
6 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 juice of a whole citrus fruit (my fave is 1/2 a lemon, 1/2 a lime)
1 or 2 cloves garlic.
Whisk all that together into a creamy dressing. Chiffonade your kale (cut it into long thin strips) and use your hands to mix the dressing into the kale, breaking down the kale a bit as you mix.
You can add other stuff too if you want.
amy glin at March 16, 2014 3:40 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/food-colonialis.html#comment-4391501">comment from amy glinThank you, Amy. I might give that to the food-preparer in my relationship. Garbanzo bean miso? Readily available?
Amy Alkon
at March 16, 2014 4:29 PM
If you're eating a lot of kale be sure to compensate w/ iodine (e.g. iodized salt) . Kale is a strong goiterogen - i.e. it damages the thyroid causing goiter. All of the sulfurous cole crops, like collards and chard are associated w/ goiter and thyroid damage.
Before these vegetables became trendy, they were sold as low grade fodder and were known to cause stillbirths and goiter in farm animals. This is why their traditional preparation, in soul food, involved denaturing. Blacks in the south ate cole crops because they were cheap, but they knew to cook them for a long while with pig fat to neutralize the toxic affects.
Kale at March 16, 2014 7:53 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/03/food-colonialis.html#comment-4392660">comment from Kalethey knew to cook them for a long while with pig fat to neutralize the toxic affects.
I cook the crap out of them in bacon grease.
Amy Alkon
at March 16, 2014 8:57 PM
I had no idea Compton was "America".
I suspect most of the nation has no idea of this crisis.
Radwaste at March 18, 2014 7:07 AM
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