After experiencing a variety of contemplative practices, I have realized that food is strongly tied to the inherent privilege that individuals possess, or rather, do not possess. For Americans, whether we can afford healthy food options or not, there is always a readily available supply for purchase. We retain the privilege to a seemingly endless supply of food. We also possess the ability to be ignorant towards the origins of a variety of commonly consumed foods. Many of the individuals who acquire such a privilege to food place themselves, and their personal benefit, at the center of food. They fail to realize that there is much more involved within the larger picture than themselves. For instance, when eating a chocolate bar, we take for granted each of the complex processes involved before we, the consumers, procured the especially familiar food. However, the average cacao farmer of areas alike the Ivory Coast, have rarely encountered a chocolate bar, nor tasted the results of the cacao bean which is essential to their livelihood. Thus, a chocolate bar is simply magical to them. It is mind boggling that such a thing can be crafted. When the cacao farmers were given the opportunity to taste the chocolate bar for the first time, they could not believe that something so sweet and decadent was produced from a bean which was once bitter and bland. For the cacao farmers, tasting chocolate for the first time was a remarkable experience. Yet, those who are privileged lack such marvelous experiences with food in general. Eating is done without taking into account the food\u2019s wonders and origins. There is a lack of attachment and respect for food. We simply take the wonders of food for granted. With such privilege, we have come to shame the beauty of food and eating. It is a rather selfish relationship we have with food. Individuals who possess such privilege to food need to take their heads out of the sand and truly experience what they are eating. Whether this be educating themselves on the origins of their foods, taking the time to experience its flavors, or sitting and eating with others to enjoy its nourishment, we need to change the way we experience food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After experiencing a variety of contemplative practices, I have realized that food is strongly tied to the inherent privilege that individuals possess, or rather, do not possess. For Americans, whether we can afford healthy food options or not, there is always a readily available supply for purchase. We retain the privilege to a seemingly endless supply of food. We also… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemplative-practices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1409,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1396\/revisions\/1409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}