My Year of Meats

What is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about the American identity? Coca Cola beverages? The sport of baseball? Dare I mention apple pie? Allow me to dig a little deeper. The American identity is built on the premise of opportunity and individualistic expression. A multitude of customs and practices have blended into a diversified culture that allows the American tradition to differ from the cultures of other countries.

In Ruth L. Ozeki’s book, My Year of Meats, she showcases the differences that exist between both American and Japanese cultures and, in the process, reveals the true nature behind the American identity. Ozeki’s character Jane Takagi-Little, the director of My American Wife, attempts to link Japanese housewives to America through the concept of food preparation. The food item she and her producers emphasized greatly was beef. Jane’s vision was to produce a show that documented the personal lives of average American families in order to demonstrate the diverse and unique customs associated with America (9). However, Jane’s producers didn’t agree with her vision. They believed that it was imperative to showcase families that Japanese citizens could readily recognize and identify as being American. These families were expected to consist of white members belonging to the middle or upper classes of society. In addition to this, the families had to be attractive and free of blemishes (12). Families such as these were considered to define the prototypical American family, and only these families would be appealing to the Japanese audience.

This concept immediately caught my attention. It became quite clear that Japanese citizens envisioned American families as being structured, harmonious, and overall perfect. America families come in a plethora of shapes and sizes, and not all families look alike and live perfect lives. Therefore, any family depicted as such couldn’t possibly be authentic. This sense of perfection is also emphasized in Anne Allison’s article “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus”. In this article, Allison discusses the immense responsibility given to Japanese mothers during the preparation of the obento lunches for their children. The obento meals were expected to be perfectly constructed in both appearance and proportions (84). This is how the mothers showed their love. The Japanese mothers dedicated time to this task, and failure to effectively construct the obento meant failure as a mother. In a sense, the Japanese identity is becoming dependent on its connection to American practices. Is this priority for perfection caused by the desire of Japanese mothers to become more like idealized American mothers?

                It’s a mind game and an affair of illusions. Japanese housewives are willing to live their lives according to the American standard. The producers of My American Wife took advantage of this concept. By fabricating ideal American families cooking meals consisting of beef, Japanese citizens could become immersed in the façade and be tricked into believing they were participants of the American culture. However, it’s important to note that this was more of a marketing strategy to make Japanese households purchase more American beef. The end result remains the same; Japanese citizens receiving false ideas about the American culture.

Jane, however, didn’t agree with this premise. She believed that it was important to provide an accurate depiction of America to her viewing audience. One such documentary was that done on the Martinez family. Alberto Martinez was a debilitated farmworker who emigrated from Mexico with his wife Catalina.  Both Alberto and his wife worked tediously in order to support the family and were eventually able to purchase their own barn and acres of land (58). The Martinez family exemplifies the concept that has become known as the American dream. They moved away from their homes in Mexico in order to better their lives and provide their son Bobby with an opportunity to live a good life. In the process, they were able to widen the viewer’s understanding of what it truly means to be American. Jane also chose to film them preparing burritos instead of ordinary beef dishes. This helped to establish a sense of individualism and introduce a sense of rich diversity that characterizes America.

By depicting the American identity, Ozeki was able to highlight glaring differences exist among the cultures. Americans aren’t as strict as the Japanese with their meals. In fact, Ozeki mentions that Japanese housewives prefer to receive their foods from vending machines instead of interacting with people behind counters (87). Also, Americans place a heavier emphasis on guns ownership and protection. It is because of this custom, Ozeki asserts, that the American culture is viewed by the Japanese as one being rooted in violence (89). The Japanese culture places a huge emphasis on wives bearing children. This concept was illustrated throughout the novel as Joichi continuously hounded his wife Akiko about her inability to become pregnant.

Even though these cultural practices differ, it’s important for people to interact with other cultures in order to learn and further understand the customs associated with them.

Fast Food Labor

        Whenever I enter a McDonald’s restaurant, I expect a systematic, scripted routine. I arrive with a particular order in mind and I am aware that the employee on duty is going to attempt to alter that order. The employee may attempt to persuade me to upgrade my drink size or hint that there is something I should add to my meal. When I decline, the crew members are going to assemble the pieces of my meal like a machine, deliver it to me, and merrily send me on my way. However, there is a much larger construct operating behind the scenes. Within this same system, female workers are succumbing to difficult conditions that threaten to strip their very identities away from them.

        The film Fast Food Women documented the labor conditions affecting the lives of Kentucky women occupying fast food jobs. The film further outlined the restrictions placed on women within the work force and how creativity is replaced by a desire for conformity. One restaurant from the film was Druthers Restaurant located in Whitesburg, Kentucky. Female Druthers employees were interviewed and described their workload as being incessant and chaotic. Due to the immense amounts of orders, employees rarely chatted and breaks were scarce. This fast paced service, coupled with compact space, lead to accidents like burns, sore feet, and overall exhaustion by the female workers. Similar experiences were shared by female McDonalds employee Zelphia Adams who worked twenty-five hours a week taking orders, cooking, sweeping, and performing other exhausting tasks that earned her under four dollars an hour. In addition to these conditions, the identities of the female workers were erased as their individuality was eliminated from the work system.

        Mike Kull, the senior executive vice president of Druthers Inc., claimed that the prosperity of any business is through establishing a system of rules and regulations. These rules must be obeyed by employees, and these same employees must exhibit content on following these procedures. This idea seems practical, but there is a notable consequence. If the system that Kull enforces is ideal, that would imply that creativity is shunned by Druthers executives. Why would managers prefer their employees to conform to a system that lacks individual expression? Barbara Garson, the author of The Electric Sweatshop, stated that employees are placed in an environment where they are forced to learn certain systematic skills. These repetitive skills become encoded within an employee’s mind and become a natural procedure that requires little thought. This, in a sense, transforms the employees from humans with free thought into machines with programmed orders.

        This concept was demonstrated by the female Pizza Hut employees such as Pam Banks, a former waitress, who were expected to remember certain protocol when greeting their customers. Essentially, these rules provide a structured and well-ordered unit of workers that are all capable of performing identical tasks. However, this eliminates distinctions among the workers and creates a distance between them and the company owners. In short, companies like Pizza Hut were distancing themselves from their female employees by transforming them into a uniform blend of replaceable parts. This transformation causes the company to devalue the female employees over time. If the employees aren’t valued by the company, that company has no incentive to provide them with either suitable working conditions or suitable pay. Also, the time and effort put into their jobs by these female workers is overlooked by the owners. The company focuses on production and, in a system of uniform workers, any of the interchangeable female workers can be replaced.

        The film also discussed how many of these female workers were forced to work in fast food facilities when their husbands loss their jobs at the coal mine. The livelihood of their families depended on the income produced by them. This creates a rift as the female workers become further distanced from their jobs and focus primarily on their duties within their homes. This concept of distancing is illustrated in Deborah Barndt’s article “On the Move for Food: Three Women Behind the Tomato’s Journey”. In her article, Barndt discusses the struggles demonstrated by three tomato pickers as they attempt to survive within their roles as female workers in a widespread economy. One story in particular is that of Irena. Irena worked four months of the year as a tomato picker on a farm in Ontario where she worked twelve hours a day for almost a full week. During her work, Irena moved away from her family in Mexico and lived in substandard housing conditions. Even though she received health care and pension payments, she only received minimum wage for her work and received no overtime or vacation pay (138).

         Bardnt comments on how Irena, as well as the other female workers in the article, are disconnected from their tomato work. Even though they spend most of their days picking tomatoes, these women experience no affectionate bond that links them to the tomatoes that arent delivered to their homes. Instead, their focus shifts to their domestic lives as they establish more personal attachments to foods that are produced and directly given to their families. This further distances the female workers from their jobs.

        It is important to note that this film was produced in 1992. In addition, not every employee was interviewed during this film. It cannot be assumed that all employees share similar experiences as these Kentucky workers. The same can be said for the tomato pickers discussed in Barndt’s article. What cannot be ignored however, is the fact that the value of female workers continues to be diminished in food systems that desire to eliminate their identities.

Coffe Buzz

Coffee is a very popular drink that comes in a variety of assortments and is consumed by many people on a daily basis. It is a beverage of habit, and many people cannot start their day without having at least one cup of coffee. However, what consumers fail to realize is that each cup of coffee tells a story. These stories are grim, bleak, and speak of the oppressions faced by the people who tediously toil under the sun to produce the beans that give life to the coffee we drink with delight. The lives of these people are tied to the coffee market, and their livelihood is connected to the consumers who purchase coffee.
 

 

In the film Black Gold, the lives of Ethiopian coffee farmers were documented, and the hardships associated with their arduous labor was projected on the screen in detail. One story in particular was that of Burte Arba; a farmer located in Bule Hora, Ethiopia. Arba stated that his work is very time consuming. It takes four years for coffee trees to fully grow, but it takes an additional year for the beans to become suitable for use. Despite the strenuous work load and amount of coffee beans produced, Arba receives only a minimum amount of money. Due to this, he and many other farmers are unable to generate sufficient income to support their families. Burte Arba’s story illustrates to coffee consumers the actual longevity and effort associated with producing coffee beans for sell. It further demonstrates the subjectivity of Ethiopian farmers to the demands of the coffee market and how this mistreatment contributes to the poverty that many of these families face.
 

 

It is important to note that Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Thus, Arba’s story and the lives of Ethiopian farmers are not definite representations of the lives of all farmers. The life of an exploited farmer living in Ethiopia may differ from that of a farmer living in another country. In fact, the lives of the Ethiopian farmers documented in the film may differ from other undocumented Ethiopian farmers. What is important to consider however, is that we, as consumers, tend to underappreciate the production process behind the products we enjoy and consume without hesitation. Consumers tend to overlook how the decisions they make, in reference to certain food items, can affect the lives of the people producing those food items. By choosing certain coffee brands over Ethiopian coffee, Ethiopian farmers like Burte Arba are forced to sell their coffee beans at lower, insufficient prices and live a life of destitution.

 

This concept of exploitation within the coffee market is further demonstrated in Daniel Reichman’s article “Justice at a Price: Regulation and Alienation in the Global Economy”. In this article, Reichman discusses the injustices associated with the production and selling of coffee, and further asserts that social connectivity is necessary for citizens to understand their roles in the global market (103). This is particularly true in the case of Taiwanese immigrant Tony Chan. Tony Chan, a former McDonalds employee, sells his coffee in the cargo area of the JFK airport in New York. Chan doesn’t grow the coffee beans himself. Instead he has a farm in La Quebrada, Honduras where the beans are grown and picked by workers and shipped to the United States (104). Chan’s workers however, felt that they were being under paid for their labor and decided to lash out against him. They resorted to stealing his crops, burning his home, and even attacking him with machete-like weapons (105).
 

 

In this instance, Chan was wrongfully accused by his workers of exploiting them for their work and benefitting at their expense. Ironically enough, Chan’s coffee sells weren’t providing him with a stable income either. He himself was, in a sense, being abused by the coffee market in the form of companies and major brands that were taking business away from him. Fundamentally, both parties were struggling to live a modest life and were at the mercy of the global market. Consumers don’t realize that they play a crucial role in the economic market at large. Reichman believes, in this instance, that people are able to recognize their positions within the global economy by using the production and consumption of coffee as a reference point (102). His article emphasizes the importance behind recognizing the status of all parties involved within the exchange of coffee. Both the lives of Chan and his workers are directly related to the success of the coffee trade, and we, the consumers, are linked to their lives by our consumption of their coffee. In this sense, the life of the coffee consumer becomes integrated with the lives of those who produce the coffee.

 

Coffee is more than just a beverage. What seems like a simple commodity for most is a crucial way of life for others. There is no need for consumer to change their coffee brands or daily coffee routines. Consumers simply need to recognize that time and effort produced the warm liquid swirling around in those Styrofoam cups. Appreciate every sip.

In reference to our trip to Buona Caffee Artisan Roasted Coffee: How often does the roaster receive new coffees?

Food Origins

          Many people live within communities where cultural differences have become integral parts of everyday society. These diverse cultures are able to illustrate distinctions and retain their authenticity in a myriad of ways. One important way is through food consumption. The types of foods eaten by certain people is important in showcasing the authenticity of that culture. However, another important concept is understanding the origin of these food items. Through this knowledge, connections are established that demonstrate how foods can both affect people physically and link them to a diversity of culture.

          The consumption of food is a process done by everyone with very little thought. Just as some of us do not take the time to consider why we eat the foods we do, others do not consider the source of their foods. How was this product made and where did the ingredients originate? According to Richard Wilk, these questions are very important and should always be present in the mind of a consumer. In his book Home Cooking in the Global Village: Caribbean Food from Buccaneers to Ecotourists, Wilk discusses the importance of being aware of where foods originate.  He asserts that people are able to access the safety of the foods they consume as well as the state of the workers and the environment by being cognizant of the origin of food and its ingredients (3). Fundamentally, understanding the origin of food helps reveal the conditions in which it is prepared. The foods I consume are not limited to the state of Georgia simply because I live in Georgia. I enjoy the taste of a good hamburger, but I certainly wouldn’t be able to list the origin of each of its ingredients if asked. The burger I ate a few days ago could have contained tomatoes that were grown in California. The onions could have come from Ohio, and the peppers from Wisconsin. But why limit the ingredients to just the United States? These ingredients could have originated from other countries on other continents. Due to this scale, I should be conscious and cautious of the foods I consume.

          This concept is further illustrated in a recent article written by James Andrews. The article, entitled “Germany Identifies First ‘Mad Cow’ Case Since 2009”, discusses how a cow that was originally diagnosed as being at healthy levels for consumption was discovered with bovine spongiform encephalitis. BSE can cause Creutzfeldt - Jakob disease and, due to this, the cow and its offspring have been properly disposed of (1). As a fellow consumer of cow beef, I found this discovery to be interesting.  I don’t know the origin of most of the products I consume. What if the beef in my burger was in close association with the cows found in Germany? Even though those cows were quarantined, what do I know of the food conditions occurring in Germany? This isn’t to say that Germany should not be a trusted source for cow beef. Discrepancies can be found wherever food is being produced. In fact, Andrews also mentioned in his article how a similar case occurred in California about teo years ago (1). What this does emphasize however is the importance of knowing the source of the foods we eat in terms of how they affect our health.

          Food is made a global mechanism by means of mass production and Wilk asserts that it has been this way for many centuries (8). Along with this fact, he is also emphasizing that mass production also assists in revealing the interactions among cultures. In this sense, countries are linked together within an international web based on the exchange of foods (15). People should proactively learn the origin of their foods in order to understand the cultures that are being shared. Mass production has worked hand-in-hand with globalization and has played a key role in allowing different areas of the world to come into close contact with each other.  These interactions have fueled a type of influence that food has over people, and this influence has endowed foods with symbolic meaning. These food items are then exchanged and their influences are felt in other areas of the world.

          Food is diverse and, being so, its origins should be explored and appreciated. Although I am unsure exactly how diverse my hamburger was, I know that it has traveled through many lands and cultures to arrive on my plate.

Works Cited

Andrews, James. "Germany Idenitfies First 'Mad Cow' Case Since 2009." Food Safety News. 21 Jan.           2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2014.

Does Food Make Us Human?

             In the beginning, the diet of our ancestors was predicated on fruits and vegetables and the energy derived from these food sources. This all changed when meat became an option of the menu. This simple change transformed not only the hunting styles of our predecessors, but also the environments that they occupied. This transition seems miniscule when compared to the application of fire to meals. With the introduction of fire as a way of preparing foods, our ancestors were able to increase development and enhance their evolution. In today’s society, fire still plays a crucial role in food preparation, but it’s not emphasized. What seems to be important however, is how we make food choices in relation to others. In this way, we are using food to develop social mechanisms that will allow us, as a species, to evolve.

In the film Did Cooking Make us Human?, an experiment was conducted in which a “giant stomach” was created with the ability to simulate the digestive processes that occur during food consumption. The purpose of this experiment was to observe how the stomach responds to both raw and cooked foods. The experiment demonstrated that the stomach exhibits slower rates of digestion with raw foods than with cooked foods. I found this interesting because it explained how obtaining new food sources wasn’t enough for our ancestors to fully evolve. Cooking was extremely essential, and continues to be, essential to our development because it is through cooking that our bodies are able to extract all the nutrients from food and give our bodies a large amount of energy.

Cooking allowed our ancestors to break down the food they consumed more easily, and supply their bodies with energy that increased their chances of survival and reproduction. The film also asserted that, because eating cooked foods decreases the digestive process, our ancestors were able to save energy and use it to power the production of larger brains. Personally, whenever I’m eating cooked foods, I’m not taking the time to relate dinner to science. I eat cooked meals on a daily basis and have done so since I was a small boy. That is the environment I grew up in and have become accustomed to. Eating cooked foods benefits the body more than raw foods, and also, in my opinion, they taste better.

With all practicalities aside, the question still remains. What exactly is the human component associated with food? The answer lies in the modernization of the ever changing food industry.

According to Jack Goody, in his article “Cooking Cuisine, and Class: A Study In Comparative Sociology”, making food available to the public was a primary concern for industries during the period leading into the 1900s. This initiative was complemented with a heavy emphasis on marketing (163). This means that advances in machinery and technology were made in efforts to increase the production of foods and in the distribution of these food items to willing consumers. These advances are still being made in today’s food industry. Food products are present in an abundance within the community. These foods are constantly advertised whether on enormous signs in front of buildings or on television sets within personal homes.

The abundance and proximity of stores or restaurants that sell these foods makes them easily obtainable. In Gisele Yasmeen’s article “Not ‘From Scratch’: Thai food systems and public eating”, she discusses how food industrialization has affected Thai patterns of food consumption. She states that, “As society industrializes and urbanizes, it becomes uprooted from its agricultural way of life, and food becomes a commodity purchased from the market” (344). Yasmeen observes that more and more people living within these societies are willing to eat “fast foods” in a public setting instead of taking the time to prepare meals themselves at home.

 

This infers that the food industry has caused a shift in tradition. The importance in food preparation has become linked with an equal importance in the foods we choose to eat and the settings in which we consume them in relation to others in our immediate surroundings. This idea is seen in the social systems established in Bangkok. Bangkok has constructed a type of societal hierarchy separated into two divisions based on the mannerisms of food consumption. The upper class citizens make up the first division and are able to consume homemade meals prepared by others in the comfort and privacy of their own homes. Whereas destitute, working citizens make up the second division and either, prepare, sell, or deliver the foods and are more likely to eat in public settings (Yasmeen 345). People are given an identity within society based on their relation to food.

The evolutionary success of our predecessors was predicated on the invention of cooking. However, today’s society illustrates a heavier interest in the industrialization of foods. Perhaps this suggests that the identities of individuals and their roles within the social systems created by food industries is the key to further evolution.

Image Cited

"Alcohol Doesn’t Really “Cook Out” of Food in Most Cases." Photograph. n.d. Google. Index. 16
             Jan. 2013.

"Evolution Stops Here: Future Man Will Look The Same, Says Scientist." Illustration. Google.
             ScienceTech. 16 Jan. 2013.

"Lights Out From The Storm?" Illustration. n.d. Google. Holistic Wellness Network. 16 Jan .2013.

"Who We Are." Photograph. n.d. Google. Restaurant. 16 Jan. 2013.

Instagram Your Lunch

 

 

Food items come in an assortment of different shapes and sizes. Food differs in both its preparation and consumption, but, more importantly, its reasons for consumption. On the surface, it would appear that certain foods are consumed based on the alluring appeal they possess that target specific individuals. However, there is a concealed component that explains why we eat the foods we do. The foods we eat reveal the lives we live and are shaped by personal experiences and routines within a particular culture that extend to other aspects of our lives.

The food items included within my “meal” are personal lunchtime favorites that I eat on a regular basis. The question that remains is my reason for consuming them. One safe assumption is that I enjoy these foods for their delectability. Another explanation is that I live an active lifestyle. Due to this, I prefer to eat standing up and on the move. That certainly explains why I eat packaged, easily transportable foods such as these. I’ve also noticed that my closest friends share similar lunch items. Could I be eating these foods simply because my friends do? Or is it the brand that gives them some type of value? This is a good start, but there must be an underlying reason for why I enjoy the foods I do.

Growing up, my parents took the responsibility of preparing my lunch throughout elementary school. The “menu” usually included: a sandwich of some sort, fruits, chips, applesauce, and a dessert like treat such as cookies. I was also provided a juice box. My responsibility, as instructed by my parents, was to eat the entire meal and not share with any of the other students. I was also instructed to eat my food items separately and in a specific order. I was required to eat the main item first (the sandwich), then the sides (the fruit, chips, and applesauce), saving my cookies for last. These mannerisms were practiced both at school and within my home.
 

                     

This form of discipline is similar to that exhibited by nursery school teachers in Japan. In Anne Allison’s article “Japanese Mothers and Obentos: The Lunch Box as Ideological State Apparatus”, she discusses the strict tone assumed by the Japanese teachers when monitoring the children during lunchtime. It is the duty of a child to consume the entirety of his or her homemade meal in a rapid, efficient manner that doesn’t impede the progress of the other children. Failure to do so results in chastisement from the teachers to the dissatisfaction of the child (90). Luckily for me, my parents didn’t take as critical an approach when constructing their rules as these teachers. Their rules were more practical in the sense that my parents simply wanted to ensure that (1) I was receiving the nourishment my body needed, and (2) I was practicing frugal customs. These mannerisms became incorporated in my habits and are still in practice today. They became a part of who I am, and have even translated into other areas of my life. I am a very organized and detail oriented person. This is true in manners regarding education, work, and simple day-to-day living.

Is it possible that the culture orienting my food choices has helped to shape other traits and decisions within my life? Possibly. And who’s to say that my habits aren’t rubbing off on others? Maybe I choose the foods I do because I see others incorporating my eating habits into their own. Anne Allison said that “culture constructs both the world for people and people for specific worlds” (82). Culture shapes an individual’s identity and continuously influences the choices that they make within their lives. I’m no exception to this. Even though I’ve added new items to my diet, I still save my sweets till the end.