Feeding Ourselves in a Postmodern Era

I came across an interesting article last week on the way our culture thinks about food. The essay discusses the antipathy toward junk food and fast food that adherents to the organic, anti-processed food movement have, and why that abhorrence may be unfounded. The author makes the case that those who advocate the farmer’s market, whole food approach to health get caught up in the details of food manufacturing and miss the end goal of nutrition— i.e. your vegan, locally-sourced, sustainable smoothie actually contains 1,500 calories and a lot of fat.

I wouldn’t place myself squarely in either camp. Cooking from scratch gives me sense of accomplishment and helps me appreciate the food I consume. However, my choice to do so is intuitive and voluntary, not based on science or fear. On the other hand, many of the people who most frequently rant about GMO‘s lack solid evidence to back up their claims that highly-tinkered-with food is bad for us. For example, look at the label on a diary product: one is alerted that, don’t worry, there’s no rBGH in here, since people seem to be terrified of but, to be fair, it’s never been shown to be harmful. Clearly, there’s a war between the two factions of American food.

It’s a postmodern problem we’re confronted with. Countless of scientists engineer food products to fit not only our nutritional needs, but our taste buds. The FDA spends a great deal of time inspecting food quality and safety before it ever reaches us. But despite our usual tendency to do whatever scientists and government reports advise (see: the food pyramid, “new study shows that coffee drinkers live 4 years longer!”), we find ourselves just flatly, intuitively opposed to the takeover of food by science and efficiency. The science may not support the visceral hatred many people have toward genetically-modified foods but their gut does.

While this irrationality is easy to poke fun at, it’s actually a good thing. The inconsistency of rejecting “progress” in feeding ourselves is linked to the inability to articulate a different kind of objection. People don’t like food being created this way because it compromises a family centerpiece—in home meal-preparation and eating—and tries to make an art into a science. Instead of standing on shaky and controversial “studies”, those who object to engineered nutrition should make the real objection: it is an inhumane way to sustain ourselves.