Is Our "Foodie Obsession Driving Americans Apart?" Newsweek Says Yes.
By Anthony Todd in Food on Nov 29, 2010 4:40PM
In today's issue of Newsweek, Lisa Miller takes on a story that we have been following for months - the effect of our changing dietary habits on American society. Unlike most of the media coverage of this issue, which has focused on a ridiculous (and mostly made-up) "war" against foodies, Miller writes about the impact of new food trends on America's perception of class. Despite the hysterical cover title ("how our foodie obsession is driving Americans apart") she ends up with a fairly dead-on description of the problems underlying America's food culture.
Almost twenty years ago, Ruth Reichl published an essay entitled "Why I Disapprove of What I Do" about the contradictions between being a food critic and someone who cares about poverty and nutrition. These problems haven't gone away - if anything, they have gotten worse. Obesity and malnutrition have become the diseases of the poor, paradoxically going hand in hand. The subjects of this article, primarily Brooklyn foodies who grow their own vegetables, raise chickens and pack lunches for their children, are hardly criminals or snobs in a traditional sense. But they do have access to things that the poor simply do not, and there are growing national consequences to this divide.
Their idol is Michael Pollan, and Miller quotes Adam Drewnowski, an epidemiologist at the University of Washington. "Pollan is drawing a picture of class privilege that is acute as anything written by Edith Wharton or Henry James," Drewnowski argues, pointing out the inherent class problems in books like Omnivore's Dilemma. Foodies retort that this isn't the fault of Pollan and his ilk, but of ill-conceived government subsidies and food distribution problems that ensure that the poor are trapped in food deserts. Even Pollan weighs in, pointing out that "Essentially, we have a system where wealthy farmers feed the poor crap and poor farmers feed the wealthy high-quality food."
How do we respond to this and other articles? Some initiatives, like giving food stamp recipients bonuses for shopping at farmers markets, are already in place, and others are being developed. As Reichl reminded us, we can still eat well while avoiding "restaurants where rich people get to remind themselves that they are different from you and me." Despite glamorous stories about home cooking, the food world is not simply focused on our homes. We must remember the hungry, and devote some of our time and money to education and change, not just to meals at the latest gastro-paradise. Support farmers, teach your children to cook and eat well, keep reading and thinking, and remember that bad food and poverty don't have to be linked.