Contemplation is a form of deep, reflective thought which allows one to look at something for a long time, and sometimes in a new light. Everyday we might make choices regarding what we will eat for breakfast or whether to go to a restaurant or cook at home, but rarely do we engage in contemplation with our food. As a product of the industrialization of the food industry, and the lack of contemplative thought surrounding food, Americans have become blind to the process it takes for our meals to arrive on our plates.
Americans eat chocolate everyday, but do they know about where it comes from? Lots of it comes from the Ivory Coast, where farmers of the cacao beans, from which the bitter chocolate taste is extracted, have never even eaten a candybar. Our relationship to the cacao bean is backwards compared to that of the Ivory Coast farmer. Cacao farmers are in touch with the food that they grow. They follow the cacao bean through every stage of its early life before processing, but never get to indulge in its delicious taste. We, Americans, on the other hand, consume chocolate nonchalantly and without any regard as to where it has come from.
It is common to say that ignorance is bliss, but bliss at the expense of underappreciation of others contributing to our own well being is discourteous. If we can grow an appreciation of food, we can also grow our empathy and open mindedness.
Contemplative practices help us slow down so to realize we have much to be grateful for, and that everything has its own history. A bar of chocolate would not be possible without the cacao farms of the Ivory Coast. Noticing this relationship shrinks the globe, revealing the interconnectedness that humankind shares as a result from trade, and makes you realize your privilege only exists because there are other people out there working on your behalf.
Hi Elena!
I really liked your discussion of slowing things down, which I think is especially living in such a fast paced lifestyle like in the US. I never think about where my fruit comes from, or how long it must take to complete a harvest- I never take the time to think how slow it is to produce these things. I find I’m always busy thinking about where I can get my food the fastest and cheapest, and never what goes into that process and how many systems my single choice may be effecting.
I find it funny that cocoa farmers are so in touch with the cocoa, while here often people use chocolate as a form of comfort/getting in touch with their feelings instead. I wonder what this tells us of our own society, and how we value many aspects of life over process and food. I love contemplative practices because it brings together both of these things, as it allows us to indulge in our own feelings but also think about what happens for us to be able to do that. Living in the western world, we are so privileged to even have the time to do contemplative practices, while other developing countries don’t even have foods like chocolate. I wonder what a contemplative practice would look like in those countries, since they are already much more connected with the food.