It all began while reading a friend’s food blog, The Irritable Eater. Now, before I rant uncontrollably, let me advertise my menu consulting skills. The writer of this blog is the partner to a good friend of mine, and for the last several weeks they have received menu consulting from me. As you can read on her last several posts, my planning abilities have genuinely helped them eat healthier food on an affordable budget, all the while living in San Francisco (a very expensive place to live). To be honest, I’m rather proud to know that my ideas are working in another city, especially one known for its high cost.

While reading her posts I could not help but notice the advertisement for a company called “Food Buzz.” Along the right side of her blog lies a vertical row of glamorous food photography. These highly stylized pictures have the feel of some beautiful person in a pop-culture magazine, complete with the airbrush makeover and million-dollar lighting (maybe a slight exaggeration.) Well as much as I like her writing and the content of her posts, those pictures really get under my nerves. And then one day she posted this:

and I cringed.

Now it’s easy to call me a hypocrite. It’s true that I post pictures of food I make in the kitchen; and it’s also true that I attempt to make the images look good. Like other bloggers, I want a higher readership and unless this blog were devoted to crappy imagery, the photos have to look nice. And it is also a fact that this blog is devoted to food – be in political, nutritional, culinary or plain ol’ current events – I am obsessed with food. But in the end, why do I have to be called a “foodie?”

Now that I have a blog to express my ideas and criticism, this is an opportunity to provide the latter. Throughout my thinking is the this feeling of conflict, a conflicted sense of identity. On the one hand, I think about food and then write about it; I also cook it and take pictures of it. I read articles on food-related issues and bring up heated issues at the dinner table (when I have the chance.) And yet, on the other hand, I hate being called a foodie. I do not want to be a foodie. If a label were to be placed, I’d rather be an activist.

When I looked up the meaning of the term on Wikipedia (I don’t have a better source on hand), I found the following

Foodies are a distinct hobbyist group. Typical foodie interests and activities include the food industry, wineries and wine tasting, breweries and beer sampling, food science, following restaurant openings and closings, food distribution, food fads, health and nutrition, and restaurant management. A foodie might develop a particular interest in a specific item, such as the best egg cream or burrito. Many publications have food columns that cater to foodies. Interest by foodies in the 1980s and 1990s gave rise to the Food Network and other specialized food programming, popular films and television shows about food such as Top Chef and Iron Chef, a renaissance in specialized cookbooks, specialized periodicals such as Gourmet Magazine and Cook’s Illustrated, growing popularity of farmers’ markets,[3] food-oriented websites like Zagat’s and Yelp, publishing and reading food blogs (a number of people photograph and post on the Internet every meal they ever make or consume), specialized kitchenware stores like Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table, and the institution of the celebrity chef.

You will notice that nowhere in this description is there any reference to food justice; it is this particular issue that fuels my blog and campaign for culinary literacy. Before I extrapolate on the importance of food justice, let me continue my critique of the “foodie movement.”

Companies like Food Buzz are focused on consumption, be it of food or material goods (i.e. a Le Creuset crock pot.) When I come across blogs devoted to food – written by home cooks or professional chefs – I understand why most people associate the local food movement with rich people. The intentions may be harmless, but the proliferation of websites focused on the exotic, aesthetic or fanciness of food drives many people away. It’s rather paradoxical. The more people write about food and make it seem like an expensive hobby to pursue, the less other people want to attempt the process. This perspective reminds me of a fairly recent article by Michael Pollan, “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch.” Here, Pollan makes the argument that there is an inverted relation between the rise in popular cooking shows and the time most people take to prepare a meal. My criticism is akin to Pollan’s, I’m just taking it to the blogosphere.

My main concern with the explosion of food-related blogs and events like “I heart Food Buzz” is the diminished emphasis on accessibility and affordability. People are right to be critical of high-end stores like Sur La Table or the gourmet ingredient shop in the shi-shi part of town. There is no need to buy exotic ingredients that serve a minimal purpose and cost an arm and a leg. These stores propagate the antagonism towards the local food movement. All of a sudden the folks who disregard aged balsamic vinegars at 25$ an ounce are also angry at the high costs of peaches at the farmer’s market.

But there’s a huge distinction to be made here. The cost of the aged vinegar include a processing, distribution and mark-up fee so that you can buy artisanal Italian vinegar in the neighborhood. At the farmer’s market, the seemingly expensive peach is transparent in its cost. That person you buy the peach from is feeding his or her family with the money, maybe paying for the gas to get to the market. The monetary exchange is localized which means it supports an economy in your neighborhood – providing more jobs for those in the broader community. Yes, the Italian salad dressings are helping the store owners and maybe helping the farmers in Italy, but the external costs for the imported goods are significantly higher than for the fresh produce.

This brings me back to food justice. The premise of the food justice movement is providing healthy foods to disenfranchised populations, the folks who are not attending the “I heart Food Buzz” convention, the folks who don’t know the difference between vinegar and oil. Personally, I am far more interested in introducing people to the seasonality of produce, where it comes from and how different growing methods impact our environment, economy and health. I am interested in teaching food literacy so that more people can afford to shop at the farmer’s market and not be so angry at the high costs. (In fact, the more people shop at the markets the higher the demand, and eventually the lower the costs.)

I love food. I love thinking about it and writing about it and sharing my passions with others. BUT, I am not in favor of discriminating against less-educated people for their lack of culinary knowledge. With any pro-justice movement comes an education piece; that is my goal with this blog. Hopefully the pretty pictures will lure readers into the bigger issues and make room for debate and discussion.

Related posts:

1. A Future Food Project (or) An Idea is Born
2. Critical Food Literacy and a Sustainable Food Movement
3. Buy Local (or) We are “the market”
4. The “hidden cost” of convenience
5. Sourcing “The Local”

Tags: food literacy, Food Politics, local food movement, Michael Pollan, seasonal eating