Philosophy
I had a student write a fascinating thesis this semester on taste. On the one hand, taste is a direct sensory experience, on the other hand it is mediated by a huge number of environmental and biographical factors, some of which are class related. Think of the words we use to describe food such as rich and decadent. Food is certainly a class indicator: think iceberg lettuce vs. radicchio, white bread vs. whole grain, local organic vs. canned vegetables.
But while what we eat is in part defined by socio-economic status, there's an odd thing about food. Where you see class aspiration attached to other class indicators, it's not so with food. You see many working and middle class folks trying to acquire the clothing, cars, jewelry and other trappings of wealth; yet when you mention the "fancy food" to these same folks there is absolute revulsion.
Is there something different about food?
- The Pedagogical Value Of Gardens
NPR has been running a series on financial literacy in which people are arguing that it is essential to work into middle and high school curricula modules teaching children about money and how to handle it. Last week, I was chatting with someone who made...
- Artificial Flavors
TheWife and I worked hard to keep the kids eating real food as long as we can before the larger cultural influences started exerting their unhealthy pressures. The less short of the short people had a class camping trip and on it, she tried soda. Come...
- How Contextual Is Taste?
There is no doubt that taste is not directly accessed, but is influenced by all sorts of other factors. The question is how sensitive taste really is to that which has nothing to do with chemistry, physics, or biology. My kids, like all kids, insist that...
- Dan Barber - How I Fell In Love With A Fish
Do you like genuinely delicious food? There is an extent to which that's a tricky question because it presupposes that we actually know what delicious food tastes like. Consider, however, how so much of what we ordinarily consume is full of toxic...
- Organic Foods...no Better
Now science has offered an opinion regarding organic foods...no better and marginally nutritional as its counterpart. Was this nothing more than a marketing ploy? "Organic food is no healthier, study finds" by Ben Hirschler July 29th, 2009 Reuters ...
Philosophy
On Taste and Class
I had a student write a fascinating thesis this semester on taste. On the one hand, taste is a direct sensory experience, on the other hand it is mediated by a huge number of environmental and biographical factors, some of which are class related. Think of the words we use to describe food such as rich and decadent. Food is certainly a class indicator: think iceberg lettuce vs. radicchio, white bread vs. whole grain, local organic vs. canned vegetables.
But while what we eat is in part defined by socio-economic status, there's an odd thing about food. Where you see class aspiration attached to other class indicators, it's not so with food. You see many working and middle class folks trying to acquire the clothing, cars, jewelry and other trappings of wealth; yet when you mention the "fancy food" to these same folks there is absolute revulsion.
Is there something different about food?
- The Pedagogical Value Of Gardens
NPR has been running a series on financial literacy in which people are arguing that it is essential to work into middle and high school curricula modules teaching children about money and how to handle it. Last week, I was chatting with someone who made...
- Artificial Flavors
TheWife and I worked hard to keep the kids eating real food as long as we can before the larger cultural influences started exerting their unhealthy pressures. The less short of the short people had a class camping trip and on it, she tried soda. Come...
- How Contextual Is Taste?
There is no doubt that taste is not directly accessed, but is influenced by all sorts of other factors. The question is how sensitive taste really is to that which has nothing to do with chemistry, physics, or biology. My kids, like all kids, insist that...
- Dan Barber - How I Fell In Love With A Fish
Do you like genuinely delicious food? There is an extent to which that's a tricky question because it presupposes that we actually know what delicious food tastes like. Consider, however, how so much of what we ordinarily consume is full of toxic...
- Organic Foods...no Better
Now science has offered an opinion regarding organic foods...no better and marginally nutritional as its counterpart. Was this nothing more than a marketing ploy? "Organic food is no healthier, study finds" by Ben Hirschler July 29th, 2009 Reuters ...