Meanings of “Good Food” Annotated Presentation

Rebecca de Souza (Ph.D.)

Department of Communication

University of Minnesota, Duluth

rdesouza@d.umn.edu; 218-726-6616

Interviewer: So what do you typically buy at the grocery store?

Anton: I’m trying to make sure it’s healthy stuff. Well the things that you want

to get, it costs more, so by the time I get everything that I know I need for my

body, I'm low on food stamps, so I have to figure out how I'm going to eat for

the rest of the month. I drink protein shakes and stuff like that because I know

my body is low on nutrients, drinks that has fruits in it and vegetables. That

costs more, a little bit more money, but it actually lasts me through the day if I

drink that or a shake…

Interviewer: Does that help with a meal?

Anton: Yes, it does help a little bit because once you drink the whole thing you

are full for a few hours and even like a small snack or something, that will

help it.

(Anton, African-American, 22)

An excerpt from a conversation with a food

pantry user…

What can we take away from Anton’s

words?

He understands the importance of eating fruits and

vegetables.

He knows that eating healthy costs more money.

He purchases food based on a complex balance between

money and nutrition. In other words, he is always asking

the question: What can I buy with my limited resource that

will provide me with the most amount of nutrition?

http://michaelpollan.com/books/the-omnivores-dilemma/

The “Food Gap”

The good food movement is involved in transforming the food system,

but this transformation has not been the reality for all people, in

particular poor people and people of color (Allen,1999;2005)

We live in the era of a “two-tiered market place”, with “good food” for

rich folks and poor quality processed foods for poor people (Winne,

2008)

Added to that, those who eat “bad food” are blamed and shamed for

their food choices (Shugart, 2013)

“The dupe class” …ignorant consumers, engaged in mindless consumption

“If only they knew”: The unbearable whiteness of alternative food

(Guthman, 2008; 2011)

Any interrogation of the food system must

involve:

Including the voices of people experiencing

food insecurity.

Interrogating the food histories and cultures of

marginalized people within a society where

whiteness is normalized.

Transforming Food Systems

Food Access Means Different Things to

Different People*

Food access for urban and rural communities involves:

Full service grocery stores in each neighborhood, SNAP benefits, and good

public transport

Food access for Native American communities involves:

Food sovereignty (access to means to grow and produce food

independently), land and water rights, and hunting and fishing rights

Food access for Hmong communities involves access to agricultural land for

subsistence and income-generation.

What does food access mean to Latino communities?

What does food access mean to African American communities?

For all communities food shelves and pantries should only be used in case of

emergencies (e.g., loss of a job and famine) not for long term and chronic food

insecurity (Chilton & Rose, 2009; Allen, 1999)

* See Alkon $ Ageyman (2011)

“Good Food” Means Different Things to

Different People

Public health education and promotion programs typically promote a

“whitened diet” (quick, convenient, and processed foods that do not

smell, spill, or stain) and “white food spaces” (co-ops, health food

stores, upscale food markets, and nutrition based diets) (Slocum, 2006,

2007, 2011).

There is a simultaneous negative framing of non-white foods in

particular Latin, Native, and Soul Food (Boero, 2010)

Nutritionists categorize the healthfulness of foods based on a variety of factors;

most often calories and fat are prioritized over sodium or sugar as a result, people

shift from eating eggs or pan dulce for breakfast to processed sugar cereal, which

may be lower in calories and fat, but higher in sugar and sodium (Robinson et al,

2014)

Fried chicken and fat back collard greens are critiqued for healthfulness using a

“white racial frame”. But one cup of collard greens is 11 calories and one cubic inch

of fatback is 150 calories, so yes, a serving of fat-back collard greens is not as

“unhealthy” as made out to be. It also has the added advantage of being fresh, local,

and home-cooked!

60 participants

CHUM food shelf

Ruby’s Pantry (low-cost food pantry)

11

What does “good food” mean to people who

are food insecure?

No “free choice” of foods

People are aware of the importance of nutrition from a scientific

perspective, however the amount of money people have impacts the

choices they make (see Anton’s quote on the second slide).

They are always looking for how to get more food or more nutrition

with less quantity.

Cooking and eating with friends and family is important

Caught between the science of nutrition and deep cultural and historical

food traditions

How do I reconcile the cultural traditions of a backyard barbecue or fry-up

with friends with the scientific view of nutrition?

Overall, participants argued that food should be …. safe, nutritious,

balanced, and fresh

Complex Meanings and Practices

“Nutritious food, if I just go back in time, it's your freshly

grown and freshly prepared foods. Everything now comes

through a processing plant, so you can only trust that

people are making things healthy for us since we've got to

go in the store and just pay cash for what we need off the

shelf. It's just that trust factor. Nutritious, that's just what I

think, fresh foods, like growing your own vegetables,

having your own chickens, getting your own eggs fresh out

of your own barn. Nutritious, to me, is just country

living.” (Michael, African American, 40)

Excerpt from our conversation with a food

pantry user…

What can we take away from

Michael’s words?

The notion of good food being natural and fresh resonates with

Michael.

He challenges the commercial nature of “good food” or “white food

spaces”, which are costly.

He underscores the importance of trust in the food system. For

communities who have suffered ongoing injustice within dominant

(white) systems, food sovereignty (or growing and producing your

own food) is a often seen as the only trusted solution.

Something to chew on: How are Anton (slide 1) and Michael

different in their understandings of good food?

Person Action Steps

Critical awareness

Food access and good food mean different things to

different communities (although we typically only hear

about “white foods” and “white food spaces” being

good.)

Cultural traditions present barriers to health, but more

often than not there are strengths or “cultural enablers”

that can be harnessed for health and wellbeing.

The food system is not always trustworthy; in

particular for communities of color.

Community Action Steps

Re-imagine a culture-centered Daniel Plan

Consistent with a whitened narrative of food, the Daniel Plan talks

about “Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus, and Friends”, but without

reference to culture, history, and tradition.

So, what would a culture-centered Daniel plan look like?

And how do we balance the richness and goodness of culture with

the clinical lens of nutritionism?

How do we use advocacy to transform food systems?

For instance, how do we fight for access to communal lands, access

to full-service grocery stores, or better bus routes?

The End

References

Alkon, A. , & Agyeman, J. (2011). Cultivating food justice : race, class, and sustainability. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Allen, P. (1999). Reweaving the food security safety net: Mediating entitlement and entrepreneurship. Agriculture and Human

Values, 16(2), 117-129. doi: 10.1023/A:1007593210496

Allen, P. (2004). Together at the Table: Sustainability and Sustenance in the American Agrifood System. University Park, PA:

Penn State University.

Boero, N. (2010). Fat Kids, Working Moms, and the Epidemic of Obesity Race, Class, and Mother-Blame. In E. Rothblum &

S. Solovay (Eds.), The Fat Studies Reader. New York: New York University Press.

Chilton, M., & Rose, D. (2009). A Rights-Based Approach to Food Insecurity in the United States. American Journal of Public

Health, 99(7), 1203-1211.

Guthman, J. (2008). “If They Only Knew”: Color Blindness and Universalism in California Alternative Food Institutions. The

Professional Geographer, , 60(3), 387-397.

Guthman, J. (2011). “‘If Only They Knew’: The Unbearable Whiteness of Alternative Foods. In A. Alkon & J. Agyeman

(Eds.), Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability (pp. 263-268). Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of

Technology Press.

Shugart, H. (2014). Food Fixations: Reconfiguring Class in Contemporary US Food Discourse. Food, Culture and Society: An

International Journal of MultidisciplinaryResearch, 17(2), 261-281. doi: 10.2752/175174414X13871910531665

Slocum, R. (2007). Whiteness, space and alternative food practice. Geoforum, 38(3), 520-533. doi:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.10.006

Slocum, Rachel. (2006). Anti-racist Practice and the Work of Community Food Organizations. Antipode, 38, 327+.

Slocum, Rachel. (2011). Race in the study of food. Progress in Human Geography, 35(3), 303-327. doi:

10.1177/0309132510378335

Winne, M. (2009). Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty Beacon.