The group action project was a test in our ability to wrangle our ambitions to convey the relationship between food and public health into a tangible event. One could say we were successful in so far as we put together an event. One could also say we were unsuccessful in fulfilling a larger purpose with our project, as was my perceived intention of the task given to us.
Initially, there were links between public health and the course material that we intended to demonstrate through our action project. It proved difficult to see this come to fruition as our project diverted further from our original plans. What stood out as the most salient link between public health and the course came from Michael Pollan’s In Defence of Food, specifically his articulation of the Western diet that has consumed modern consumers. The Western diet has formed symbiotic relationship with the industrialisation of food production, from agriculture to mechanical factory. Pollan encapsulates this relationship as “the industrialisation of the food chain [having] involved a process of chemical and biological simplification” (114).
How much a farmer produces that is consumable for the average American is taken in terms of calorie yield per crop (Carolan 135). This is not indicative of the edibility or dietary needs of the individual, that is the real nutritional value in the crop, but the given calorie intake of a man or woman. We had hoped to organise a project that would bring these facts to light in an engaging way, either through a food demonstration with HFS, or a panel discussion. The challenges in organising such events meant that it became difficult to convey such deep links between public health and the content of the course. A documentary showing, whilst informative, lacked the active engagement that would have solidified the ‘action’ requirement of our group project.
Perhaps in the future of this task, there could be some way to amalgamate groups around a particular topic to create a louder voice and a broader web through which a more real action project could take place.