Analysis Of The Pleasure Of Eating By Wendell Berry

When people ask what Food Studies is about, I tend to refer them to passages from Michael Pollan, because I think he paints such an incredible image of the joy and power of being in touch with one’s food. However, I find the suggestions of Wendell Berry to be of greater importance. His words encompass not only the personal benefits of growing and cooking food at home, but the positive impacts on the land, food workers, environment, and the political “vote” we make through our food choices for the kind of future we envision.

American poet and Civil rights activist Maya Angelou once said “Eating is so intimate. It 's very sensual. When you invite someone to sit at your table and you want to cook for them, you 're inviting a person into your life.” Throughout the history of humans, food has been a constant in cultures, traditions and everyday life. People have evolutionized to crave food because it gives us the nutrients and minerals that are needed for survival. Interestingly, as things like transportation, shelter, warmth, health and ideology have changed over long periods of time to become more efficient, food has remained close to the same. The food that is given to humans today from the time they are a small child is quite similar to the food eaten hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Food has become such a large part of the human culture that it has not advanced to the degree that other things such as the human home has changed in order to become economical. In the article “The End of Food” by Lizzie Widdicombe, Widdicombe discusses the story of Rob Rhinehart who embellishes the idea of changing food to become more useful and efficient to humans. While working long hart hours, Rhinehart creates Soylent, which is a mixture made up the necessary nutrients and minerals for survival, in order to reduce the amount of time and money he spends on eating everyday. In other words, unlike Maya Angelou, Rhinehart does not view eating as intimate or sensual. He views eating as an inconvenience that

According to Robert Kenner, creator of documentary Food inc., the agriculture business produces food that is unhealthy to the environment, along with non domesticated animals. Environmentalist and author Wendell Berry states in his paper From The Pleasures of Eating, “When food, in the minds of eater, is no longer associated with farming and with the land, then the eaters are suffering a kind of cultural amnesia that is misleading and dangerous.” Today, humans find the most effortless food options to go about their daily lives, hence all the processed, microwaveable foods. Unless consumers take a larger part and responsibility in the economy of food, the “cultural amnesia” will continue to mislead and be dangerous.

Morality among individuals has depleted over time due to the art of manipulation. Thoughts of high aspirations dwindle inside many bright minds and soon desire overpowers that which is still free from the narcissistic actions that soon follow. Said actions make up a vast majority of marketing methods within the food industry. Innocent consumers become naïve and convince themselves that those in the food industry have integrity, yet one common misconception diverts from manipulation. “Dear American Consumers: Please Don’t Start Eating Healthfully Sincerely, The Food Industry” by Patrick Mustain, satirically illuminates the enraging ideas behind the food industries objectives through the perspective of a producer. The online article titled “Lies

The people that get food should be grateful because most of the time I am positive that the ones that are not picky and will eat anything that they can get will get healthy food products but they can also get unhealthy food. The purpose of what I am saying is that not everyone will get perfect food that they want, but the best part is that factory farms are the solution to getting healthy food because they do gardening and make their own fruits and vegetables. In Wendell Berry’s article he explains how some consumers out in this world buy food products because of what they crave at that moment in time but also they look to see what the price of that food product is and if they are able to buy it then they will get it just because they are hungry and they do not care if it is not healthy. Berry is trying to send a message to the community or anyone that is listening to him that when someone gets a food product they do not look at what is in it for example, calories, protein, carbohydrates,

My concept of food has changed throughout this course within all the information that I have learned. In the past, I considered that all kinds of food are similar; organic food and labels from the supermarkets are authentic without any hidden information behind them. During my grocery shopping, I rarely pay attention to food labels or intend to discover where the food came from or how is it produced. Through several readings, not only I have changed my definition of what food means to me, but I have also gotten details and information about what am I consuming on a daily basis. Lectures and documentaries have shown the reality of how the food is produced, what ingredients are included and reveal the complete truth that as customers normally

Until recently, I have never been consciously aware of my food choices. I was one of the many passive consumers in today’s society who viewed food as an abstract idea. I chose whatever I felt like eating that day without a second thought to what I was eating or how this food became available to me. Therefore, I found the trip to the Michigan State University’s Student Organic Farm an enlightening experience. It not only provides an opportunity for students to become engaged in the agriculture of their food, but it also allows them to also appreciate the amount of hard work that goes into cultivating their own produce. This is something that isn’t commonly available to the vast majority of communities. The concept of food has been revolutionized over the past few decades. They have been industrialized and packaged in a way that makes the process of consumption cheaper, and more convenient. Thus, quantity has been favored over quality. As a consequence of the changing food industry, consumers have become passive in regards to the substance on their dinner table; thus shaping the way in which the food industry operates today. Therefore, I believe that the consumers’ lack of knowledge about the food that they consume is one of the most pressing issues in today’s society.

Bittman’s call for greater awareness, responsibility, and sustainability of the welfare involved with the food industry is admirable. The widespread access to food from all over the world has certainly created great ambiguity around food sources. As a result, food production and transport methods can evade public awareness, individuals

Consuming food is an essential part of every day life, we can all agree. We can’t live without it, nor would we want to. Aside from it being necessary on a biological aspect, it also has become a social aspect. Eating food isn’t just for us to function, it’s a way of connecting us to our friends, and family, along with holidays, and other cultural reasons. When we wake up every morning, we have the choice to decide what it is that we are going to consume; regardless of how it got there, if its meat, cheese, etc. When we put that piece of food in our mouth, we know and have accepted how that food is produced. All these factors and decisions we make daily have a huge impact on our society, and our relationships with others and food.

People hold a very intimate relationship with food, whether it be for nourishment, a peace offering, trade, part of a religious practice, to provide a sense of community, or to satisfy a personal need. Its meanings are rooted deep within and are the foundations of many cultures. There was a time when humans were very connected to the food they ate. Not only did they know its origins, but they ate what was needed for survival. They were as much a part of earth as any other animal, although they had an intelligence to understand,

When it comes to fruit and vegetable, accessibility and affordability are not the only factors that play a role if someone will consume them. This can be depicted in the 2015 Community Health Needs Assessment where of those who were surveyed, only 36.8% of adults in the medium to high-income level reported consuming the recommended daily fruit and vegetable intake. In the USDA’s recently released 2015-2020 dietary guidelines for Americans, the guidelines suggest that individual factors such as knowledge, skills and personal preferences can also have an impact on if someone will eat more fruits and vegetables (USDA, 2016). At some point in our lives, we are all taught that we should eat fruits and vegetables because they are good for us. However, for some individuals, this is as far as the education on the topic goes. Having a true understanding of why we need to eat fruits and vegetables, what to look for when we go to buy them, how to store them when you bring them home, and how to go about preparing them while keeping the nutritional benefits in tact are topics that can help enhance an individual’s likeliness to eat fruits and vegetables more regularly.

Consumer behaviours have changed over the years; this is shown by consumers today purchasing a more healthy variety of products, as information today is known about products that was not known many years ago. Factors such as these, change the way we perceive and value products, as we now are more knowledgeable as well as manufacturers having by law to print the ingredients and content of the products ingredients on the back of most food products, allowing consumers to become more educated. The typical consumer today watches what they eat; they are more aware and exposed to factors that have brought about change in consumer behaviours.

We must eat to survive and fulfill or basic nutritional need, but a quarter of it does that while the other three quarters is keeping our doctors alive. We consistently recite phrase of not to fall into trap of buying these cheap and artificially flavored foods, but one’s mind cannot resists the cheap prices and the push to buy the food. This is why we should better educate ourselves on the best nutritional diet. Good nutritional practice can help us avoid harsh emotional factors such as depression and low self-esteem. Before you snack on that granola bar or that bag of chips, read the ingredients and understand what you’re eating. This is why I believe that you must pay-attention to where your fruits, vegetables, and meats come from. If you live in a rural area, don’t assume that the meat and produce in your local grocery store or local restaurants comes from nearby farms. Taking the initiative to make these changes

Consumer behaviors are constantly changing, as can be seen with the recent trends of obesity in the global north and hunger and malnutrition in the global south. Understanding global food systems is very important as it helps explain opportunities and well as problems that exist in the current global food system. In 1950’s and 60’s an industrial food formula, was created in order to take strides towards delivering ample, affordable, healthy and safe food in the global North (Roberts, 2013). This Industrial formula has not lived up to its standards however and has caused some disappointment. As new generations emerge, so do aspirations that “food should taste real, provide fulfilling careers, support health, contribute to local communities, honor the environment and enhance global sustainability” (Roberts, 2013: 11). This new trend has been termed the ‘New Food Equation’ by Kevin Morgan and is a way to present the food problem as a challenge and urge people to solve the problem by making good food choices (Rogers, 2013).

Food is an essential part our lives, and we all have a set of values that we try to embody in as many ways possible. For example, we might choose to not shop at certain stores because they exploit women or we might choose to buy recycled goods because we support sustainability. Typically however, we do not see our values translated into our food consumption. There is a saying, “you are what you eat”; in an average setting most people would not condone violence against animals, yet people continue to support factory farms who practice animal violence.