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8 Food culture/culture and foodCultural StudiesMarija Andraka, PhDmarija.andraka@zg.t-com.hr

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP6SE65F-h4

(2:44)

The meaning of bread food idiomssomeones bread and butterBread always falls on the buttered side.Bread is the staff of life.break bread with someoneknow which side ones bread is buttered onMan does not live by bread alone.your daily bread

1Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and Diversity2Food and Identity (Individual and Collective)3Comparing European and other Food Cultures4Recent Food Trends5McDonaldization

1 Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and Diversity

What role does food play in peoples lives beyond nutrition?Do you know of cultural conflicts or misunderstandings over national or regional food traditions?How can food highlight various ethnic, religious, or political differences between cultures?Can food be used to bring different groups together across cultural differences?What is the role of cookbooks in defining national, regional, and ethnic food cultures?

Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and DiversityCulinary Cultures of Europe - Identity, Diversity and Dialogue (2005). Darra Goldstein and Kathrin Merkle (eds.)http://book.coe.int/EN/ficheouvrage.php?PAGEID=36&lang=EN&produit_aliasid=1912

Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and DiversityCouncil of Europe Working Group on Food as a Promoter of Tolerance and Diversity (e.g. bringing together Turkish&Greek cuisine) the importance of cookbooks as vehicles for communicationpromoting good eating and nutrition (e.g. the Northern California organic movement) more emphasis on the use of food to promote political goodwill (e.g. in Israel)

Food as a Way of Promoting Tolerance and DiversityJamie Oliver

campaigns in the UK:Jamie's Ministry of FoodJamie's School Dinners in the U.S.: Jamie Olivers Food Revolution highlights food-related health problems in various American communitieshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSoiDtdi9s

2 Food and IdentityWhat kinds of influences, beliefs, and needs beyond what tastes good influence your decisions about what to eat and what not to eat?Do your own eating habits differ from those of your family members or from your friends?How do you respond to eating habits or foods that are unfamiliar to you? How do other people respond to the kinds of food that you choose to eat?

Food and IdentityTell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are. French gourmand Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in his gastronomic masterpiece The Physiology of Taste (1826)

"Der Mensch ist, was er it."Ludwig Feuerbach in an essay titledConcerning Spiritualism and Materialism (1864)

Meaning: The food one eats has a bearing on one's state of mind and health.

English saying: You are what you eat.the earliest known printed example is from an advert for beef in a 1923 edition of theBridgeport Telegraph, for 'United Meet Markets':"Ninety per cent of the diseases known to man are caused by cheap foodstuffs. You are what you eat."

the notion that to be fit and healthy you need to eat good food

Food and Identity

Individual identity (psychological)assertions of individual identity:Im not going to eat that. Im vegetarian. Im going to eat meat. (e.g. when the parents are vegetarian) a way of differentiating oneself:youre vegetarian, youre vegan, youre freegan (free+vegan), youre a raw foodistit can be private, but (esp. in American society today) it can be very publicFood and Identity

Going freegan

Food and Identity

Collective identity (social)identifying with a group through food, a way of differentiating ourselves from othersdifferent kinds of group identity:RELIGIOUS IDENTITY based on eating practices, e.g. the rejection of particular foodsthe association of abstinence with spiritual practicesthe structuring of food according to religious categories (e.g. in yearly patterns of festivals and fasts such asLentorRamadn; Friday fasting)

Food and Identity

REGIONAL IDENTITIES - ethnic culinary identities which have to do with geographic boundaries

communities of people who have migrated or assimilated into the new cultureoften the language will be lost before food habits, even if the food is not being cooked on a daily basis

Polish delis, Indian curry houses, Jewish bagel shops, Thai and Chinese takeaways, etc.we absorb, adopt or adapt the food cultures of others thus changing our own traditions

Food and Identity

associations food/identity can often slip into stereotypesThe Swiss - chocolate, cheeseSwedes - meatballs the English - fish and chips, tea Americans - hamburgers/cheeseburgers, chewing gum Italians pizza, parmesan cheesestereotypes can be offensive, e.g.: frogs - the French krauts - Germans cheeseheads - the Dutch

Food and Identity

socioeconomic class identities food related to the social class we belong to

http://www.antalik.com/how-much-food-is-eaten-around-the-world-in-one-week/

Food and Identity

3 European and other food culturesWhat are some food traditions or ingredients that are special to the area you live in or that you have experienced in other parts of Croatia or in other countries?How important is it to preserve the food traditions of certain regions? Should we worry about food traditions that change over time as people forget recipes or experiment with new ingredients or populations migrate to new places?How important is it for you to know whether the corn, tomato, or other produce you are eating has been altered by scientists?

European and other food culturesIn Europe anti-GM movement concern over unintended health and environmental impacts concern over the increased dependence of world food production on a small group of industrial companies concern over the ethical issues of mixing plant and animal genes and tampering excessively with nature

European and other food culturesIn the U.S.in recent decades - veganism, eating local foods, farmers market foods

bans on importation of GM foods in Europe have caused trade conflicts with the U.S., which produces a majority of GM crops

European and other food culturesIn Europe Appellation of Controlled Origin (AOC), from the French Appellation dorigine contrle) - originally a French certification system for food products - in 1935the EU-wide system based on the AOC:inaugurated in 1992European PDO (European Protected Designation of Origin/in Croatian: Oznaka izvornosti) PGI (Protected Geographical Indication/Oznaka zemljopisnog podrijetla) TSG (Traditional Speciality Guaranteed/Oznaka tradicionalni ugled)

European and other food culturesthey set standards for certain products that producers have to meet in order to make products called by certain names and also define products based on geographic area

Source: http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/pages/appellationofcontrolledorigin

European and other food culturesIn Europeimportance of culinary patrimony (the idea that meaningful cultural heritage is passed down through food traditions) France applied to UNESCO to get French culinary traditions included in its Intangible Heritage List; this request wasrejected twice, in 2006 and in 2008gastronomy not yet designated as a category in UNESCOs heritage list

European and other food cultures

France vs. England, USA

France: those open to new ideas in food - not necessarilly liberal in politicsEngland, USA: those in favour of progressive political reform are also likely to favour liberal reforms in food practices

4 Recent Food TrendsHave you heard of the term locavore? (A person who eats locally grown and produced foods) What are the arguments for and against always eating locally?

Recent Food TrendsThe locavore movementtrend in using locally grown ingredients, seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservativesencourages consumers to buy from farmers markets or to grow or pick their own foodarguments: local products are more nutritious and taste bettershipping food over long distances often requires more fuel for transportation

Recent Food TrendsThe Slow Food movement (1989) Slow Food International - a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organizationled by Italian writer and food activist Carlo Petrinito counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and peoples dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the worldbrings together pleasure and responsibility , paying attention to criteria like taste and quality but also environmental and social impacttoday - over 100,000 members in 132 countries

Recent Food TrendsWho are some famous chefs or food personalities? How have they influenced your interest in food?

Recent Food TrendsCelebrity Food CultureAnthony Bourdains Kitchen Confidential and No reservations Other celebrity chefs: Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray, Nigella Lawson, etc.we live in a celebrity culturepositive: they get peoples attention, they get people thinking negative: foodie-ismFoodie:Apersonwhopaysunusualattentiontofood,cuisine,etc;devoteeof healthygourmetcookingandeating; a person having an avid interest in the latest food fads

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RThnq3-d6PY(Julia Child)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozRK7VXQl-k(Julie and Julia, trailer, 2:33)

5 The McDonaldization of World CuisineHow often do you eat at fast food restaurants? Which ones do you prefer and why?What are the effects of fast food restaurants on neighbourhoods and on the culture at large? Can there be positive effects of fast food restaurants?What do you think the term McDonaldization means? What is the attitude towards McDonalds in foreign countries?What are the most important factors for you and your family in deciding where to buy your food and what kind of food to buy?

McDonaldizationterm coined by U.S. sociologist George Ritzer the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world. On the business and production side efficiency, predictability, an emphasis on quantifiable results, and control, especially through non-human technologies. On the consumer side eating habits that emphasize food as something to be consumed as quickly, efficiently, and as inexpensively as possible Ritzer: a profound threat to the entire cultural complex of many societies"

The McDonaldization of World Cuisinecases in which the arrival of McDonalds was greeted with loud local proteste.g. Italy - McDonald's planned to build a restaurant near the Piazza di Spagna in Rome in 1986; Slow Food International founder Carlo Petrini organized a demonstration in which he and his followers brandished bowls of penne as weapons of protest; this example also prompted discussion of the ways in which local responses to the U.S. fast food chain reflect these populations attitudes toward U.S. food culture and U.S. influences in general, as well as the role of food in their own cultures.

The McDonaldization of World Cuisineways in which McDonalds adapts to suit the tastes of the local population (glocalisation)

World Food Day, October 16 in honor of the date of the founding of theFood and Agriculture Organizationof theUnited Nationsin 1945.dedicated to raising awareness about global hungerThe World Food Day theme for 2014 was Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth

one way toreduce hunger is by addressing food waste - related to the impact that farming has on the environmentaround the world food waste occurs at every step of the food chainglobally, about 24% of food calories produced for people get wasted on the journey from farm to plate how that happens is very different depending on where we live, as this chart from the World Resources Institute shows: