Sometimes, it’s easy to forget both where your food comes from and how it gets to your table. Our contemplative activities are moments when we get to stop for a moment and actually focus on food and the way we view it, consume it, and create it.
The first contemplative practice we did in class was the raisin activity. When we think about the lifecycle of our food (such as a raisin), it’s easy to think of food starting at the store and ending with our mouths. But, there is so much history for consumables in our global food system. Raisins, for example, are grown on plantations and harvested by farmers/agricultural workers and sundried. Afterwards, they are processed and packaged in a factory and shipped to stores. All the while, other systems are affected too as raisins, like other foods affect water usage and are then harvested by migrant workers and/or with heavy machinery and that affects our domestic consumption of oil and gas.
When I felt that raisin in my mouth during that time, I would like to say that I felt the world. I would like to say that I felt the global system in one bite. I would like to say that I could feel the labor and money that went into producing this one raisin that I’m enjoying. But I didn’t feel any of those things and I think that’s one of the problems with modern agriculture.
We, as consumers, have become so detached from the sources of our food, that the biggest impact on our consumption is not the unethical force this industry has on migration and workers’ rights or even the aquifers we’re depleting, but rather, the dollars and cents in store.
Hi Abner,
I think your title is very clever. It’s what caught my attention to read your blog post. I think the ideas you present are very true and important to acknowledge. Before this class, I have never really took the time to contemplate the food I was consuming. I think its important to mention how the idea of localism has been the solution to being more aware of where our food comes from and how it is produced, but also how that can be limiting thoughts on the global food system as stated in Professor Litfin’s article on Loacalism. As you mentioned, I agree that we need to think globally and locally to enlarge our sense of global identity and responsibility. This will help us all coexist in a way that is not so damaging to either the earth or one another. We will be able to systematically think about how our consumption and actions in regards to food can be far reaching to beyond our immediate communities.
Hi Abner!
I definitely like when you highlighted the complicated and inhumane processed behind not only raisins, but food on a global scale. We constantly forget to appreciate and pay our respects to the workers who produce our food products. Food is such an essential component of our nature, that we tend to ignore how we were even able to obtain it in the first place. Expanding beyond just food processes, you mentioned the the ridiculous consumption of oil and harmful gasses. The excessive use oil and gas ultimately affect the outcome of the production of our agricultural goods. Unfortunately, the conversation of the damages of mass production are still being discussed as destructive to our environment and our bodies.
First of all, great title. Second, I really like how you said that you were disappointed with what you felt from just one bite of a raisin, and attributing that to the disconnect we, as consumers, have with the growing and producing part of our food. I think that was the biggest feeling I got from this contemplative practice too, and I thought that I did the contemplation wrong at first. Then, I started thinking about how hard it can be to feel connected to our food, even when we take ten minutes to focus on something as simple as a raisin, and that was pretty profound to realize through the practice we did. A food item as small as a raisin has a process that involves so many individuals, and it is interesting that none of that gets factored into how we consume, or how much we pay.
Response 3: Don’t worry about not feeling the world, labor, and money that went into producing the raisin, only a pretentious hipster would say that’s what they felt after eating only one raisin. Like you said, we’ve become detached from the real world and care more how much a food costs and not what it took to get to the store. We don’t care about what it took to be manufactured, we care about how it tastes, and if it tastes good then it doesn’t matter where it came from, and if it tastes bad we’ll blame things like the store or other factors, we might even go so far back as to say it was picked from a bad batch, but we still won’t think about what that means. Most people don’t know where their food comes from or how it was prepared. Think back to the ad about Doritos and their use of palm oil, the viewers were shocked to know about all the destruction caused to the environment, but not shocked enough to stop eating Doritos. They demanded the problem be fixed, but then went right back to eating Doritos after they had their say. One advertisement against Doritos isn’t going to change much because it isn’t enough. It might highlight one problem, but there are many other problems for many other types of food, and none of them are getting much recognition. People don’t know what goes on, and even if they did they would still care more about how much their food costs at the grocery store than they care about the cost it took for their food to get their. That’s why you can’t taste the world in your mouth after eating just one raisin, a raisin isn’t nearly enough of the world to grasp.
Don’t worry about not feeling the world, labor, and money that went into producing the raisin, only a pretentious hipster would say that’s what they felt after eating only one raisin. Like you said, we’ve become detached from the real world and care more how much a food costs and not what it took to get to the store. We don’t care about what it took to be manufactured, we care about how it tastes, and if it tastes good then it doesn’t matter where it came from, and if it tastes bad we’ll blame things like the store or other factors, we might even go so far back as to say it was picked from a bad batch, but we still won’t think about what that means. Most people don’t know where their food comes from or how it was prepared. Think back to the ad about Doritos and their use of palm oil, the viewers were shocked to know about all the destruction caused to the environment, but not shocked enough to stop eating Doritos. They demanded the problem be fixed, but then went right back to eating Doritos after they had their say. One advertisement against Doritos isn’t going to change much because it isn’t enough. It might highlight one problem, but there are many other problems for many other types of food, and none of them are getting much recognition. People don’t know what goes on, and even if they did they would still care more about how much their food costs at the grocery store than they care about the cost it took for their food to get their. That’s why you can’t taste the world in your mouth after eating just one raisin, a raisin isn’t nearly enough of the world to grasp.
Hi Abner, I agree many of the previous comments on this tread and your title did grab my attention. I found it very interesting given the simplicity of the raisin, you were able to draw on all the factors of production that are present in the grape to raisin transformation. I would imagine its hard to taste those factors of production in your food. I want to add to your extrapolation of the raisin and other food Americans eat on a daily basis. It might be hard for that average american eating a Big Mac to connect ideas to the production of beef (pink slime, methane from beef production, global hunger). I think anyone who hears the words pink slime would put their big mac right down in disgust. I think you highlighted the disconnect people have concerning food today. People do not want to think about their food that way and would rather the simple “out of sight and out of mind” mentality when they eat food. Thats what is excellent about the contemplative practice and because we cant taste the factors of production, we are encouraged to sit and think about where that one morsel of food came from aside from the obvious factors (cost, consumer appeal, tastes ect).
Hi Abner,
One thing I like in this post is when you mention that in “modern agriculture” era, we as consumer are already detached from the source of food. We no longer produce food by ourself but rely on the supply chain that eventually sitting in store and waiting to be purchased. Unlike before, we grow out own food, farming by ourself, and therefore knowing how to appreciate food. For example, in Taiwan, a lot of old farmer who don’t eat beef and the reason behind it is because they use ox to farming. For appreciation, they don’t eat beef.
When I had that raisin in my mouth, I do not really fell anything because there is no connection between me and producing raisin. All I know is I go into the store, get the raisin, go to cashier, and enjoy the taste of it instead of appreciation. This is the problem that most of people facing nowadays: money replace the appreciation we possess.
hey Abner, very clever title, i see what you did there, ha! i enjoyed your post. I had a different connection to the raisin when i was eating it. For me, i have used food too much as a fuel source rather than an enjoyable item. I see caloric intake. Fat, carbs, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and more. sadly, to me the raise was nothing more than sugar and some fiber to me. nothing more, nothing less. I see it as necessary fuel for my body to do the things i want to do and maintain my strength and energy levels. Every since i entered athletics, foods have been “ruined” to me because this is the only way i look at them now. It is almost like a job more than a pleasure.
I can walk around the grocery store and look at food and all i do is think about the hard work and time it took to get this item to me. from its original raw material state, to its intermediate production state , to its finished form and placed on transportation to be shelved for us to enjoy. I am always intrigued by the travel our food takes to make it to our tables. I miss when i didn’t care but that is the main issue we have today and how wasteful we are as a society. I think if we all had a class like this one, the population as a whole would find better ways to harvest, create, develop, and produce our food.
good post abner, keep them coming.
-rob