Over the last few years, I've gotten really into food. I've always love food and cooking (I'm a fat kid at heart), but it didn't go beyond that. Then I started reading Michael Pollan and everything changed a little. I starting thinking about the food about me in a different way for the first time. You mean, a Fruit Roll-Up isn't food? Well, no, I guess it's not. It's 'food product' dressed up as a fun, on the go treat for children. You mean that food companies don't care about our health? You mean they want to confuse us about what's good for us so that we buy more of their product and believe what they say is healthy? Their bottom dollar is what's most important to them? Shit. It's been a sad epiphany.
Since then I've read quite a few books on food and the food industry. Personally have been trying to cut out all food with ingredients that I don't understand, products that have blatant toxins in them (parabens or Bisphenol A, anyone?), and trying to purchase foods locally where possible. I like to think food is my little way to be political.
In the article Peggy Orenstein says, "Femivorism is grounded in the very principles of self-sufficiency, autonomy and personal fulfillment that drove women into the work force in the first place. Given how conscious (not to say obsessive) everyone has become about the source of their food — who these days can’t wax poetic about compost? — it also confers instant legitimacy. Rather than embodying the limits of one movement, femivores expand those of another: feeding their families clean, flavorful food; reducing their carbon footprints; producing sustainably instead of consuming rampantly. What could be more vital, more gratifying, more morally defensible?"
Upon reflection, I like the word Femivore, and although I think I might be embarrassed to admit it in a conversation, it's a word that fits me.
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2 comments:
I think this is a really interesting concept, a new take on "the personal is political."
I do have problems with this part of the quote:
Given how conscious (not to say obsessive) everyone has become about the source of their food — who these days can’t wax poetic about compost?
This is very, very classist, where "everyone" means upper-middle class America, you know?
I think this is absolutely talking about well educated people. I know a lot of very poor people, like myself, that are very interested about this. I think the common denominator is education.
As Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." If you eat a Twinkie, you don't even know what you're made of.
Oh New York Times, you cater to well educated white upper-middle class America, don't you?
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