Summary of the book ‘Food and Society’ by Amy E. Guptill
Index
CHAPTER 1 Principles and paradoxes in the study of food .............................................................. 4
Case study............................................................................................................................................ 4
Foodways............................................................................................................................................. 4
The food system .................................................................................................................................. 4
Three principles ................................................................................................................................... 4
Paradoxes: the individual and society ................................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER 2 Food and identity ....................................................................................................... 5
Case study............................................................................................................................................ 5
Introduction: food and identity ........................................................................................................... 5
Food and national and regional identity ............................................................................................. 5
Food and racial-ethnic identity ........................................................................................................... 6
Food and social class identity .............................................................................................................. 6
Food and gender identity .................................................................................................................... 7
Culinary tourism .................................................................................................................................. 7
CHAPTER 3 Food as spectacle: the hard work of leisure ................................................................. 8
Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 8
Fine dining and invisible labor ............................................................................................................. 8
Food entertainment media ................................................................................................................. 8
Food porn ............................................................................................................................................ 9
CHAPTER 4 Nutrition and Health: Good to Eat, Hard to Stomach .................................................... 9
Case study............................................................................................................................................ 9
Introduction: nutrition and health ...................................................................................................... 9
Constructing nutrition advice .............................................................................................................. 9
Marketing Health, Manufacturing Taste ........................................................................................... 10
Obesity: epidemic or epic delusion? ................................................................................................. 11
Defining overweight and obesity ...................................................................................................... 11
Obesity – health risk or hype? ........................................................................................................... 11
Impacts of the medical model of obesity .......................................................................................... 11
Upstream approaches: food in schools ............................................................................................. 12
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 12
CHAPTER 5 Branding and Marketing: Governing the Sovereign Consumer .................................... 12
Case study.......................................................................................................................................... 12
, Introduction: the myth of consumer sovereignty (afhankelijkheid/oppermacht)............................ 13
The system of mass consumption ..................................................................................................... 13
Consumer culture .............................................................................................................................. 13
Brands and branding ......................................................................................................................... 14
Coca-Cola as food icon ...................................................................................................................... 14
The retail revolution .......................................................................................................................... 14
Children and youth ............................................................................................................................ 15
Conclusion: manipulated or empowered? ........................................................................................ 15
CHAPTER 6 Industrialization: The High Costs of Cheap Food ......................................................... 16
Case study.......................................................................................................................................... 16
Introduction: the industrial food system .......................................................................................... 16
The industrialization of milk .............................................................................................................. 16
Social costs ........................................................................................................................................ 17
Environmental costs .......................................................................................................................... 17
Conclusion: why is cheap food so costly? ......................................................................................... 18
CHAPTER 7 Global Food: From Everywhere and Nowhere ............................................................ 18
Case study.......................................................................................................................................... 18
Introduction: international versus global .......................................................................................... 18
The colonial division of labor............................................................................................................. 18
Decolonization and development ..................................................................................................... 19
Case study: cocoa in Ghana ............................................................................................................... 19
The globalization project ................................................................................................................... 20
Food for global elites ......................................................................................................................... 20
Conclusion: food from everywhere or somewhere? ........................................................................ 20
CHAPTER 8 Food Access: Surplus and Scarcity ............................................................................. 21
Introduction: poverty and social exclusion ....................................................................................... 21
Defining a social problem .................................................................................................................. 21
The scarcity fallacy ............................................................................................................................ 22
Anti-hunger efforts in the United States and Canada ....................................................................... 22
Food aid and the Green Revolution .................................................................................................. 23
Conclusion: why deprivation amid excess? ....................................................................................... 23
CHAPTER 9 Food and Social Change: The Value of Values ............................................................ 23
Case study.......................................................................................................................................... 23
Introduction: the decommodification of food .................................................................................. 23
Local food systems ............................................................................................................................ 24
Values-based labeling ........................................................................................................................ 24
,Alternative identities ......................................................................................................................... 25
Food democracy ................................................................................................................................ 25
,CHAPTER 1 Principles and paradoxes in the study of food
Case study
Patterns of food production, preparation, and consumption are not universal, natural, or
inevitable (Germov and Williams 2004). These patterns are created and continually recreated
by individuals’ actions and interactions.
Foodways
Foodways: the patterns that establish what we eat, as well as how and why and under what
circumstances we eat (Edge 2007). It is focused on food preparation and consumption (and
culture). Foodways are used to maintain, and dispute inequalities of power and privilege
with respect to gender, social class, race and ethnicity, sexuality and age.
Food system: focuses on other aspects of humans’ relationships with food.
People can eat many foods, and try to make inedible ones (olives, cassava) edible, with a long
process.
The food system
Food system: the set of vast, interlinked institutions and processes that transform
sunlight, water and soil into meaning (food). It highlights the production, processing and
distribution of food → materiality.
The system is a set of independent parts that all must be in place and working (Hesterman
2011).
The purpose of the food system is ‘to provide nutrition to keep us all alive’ (Hesterman).
How well it does, depends on the parts and their relationship. Some parts are beyond control
(weather).
Food system were quite small and localized; people produced for themselves. But through
technology and population growth, it became more complex. Now people are far removed
from the social processes and participate as consumer. This took its toll on the environment,
human health and traditions → high costs associated with cheap food.
Array of processes:
Production → planting, harvesting
Processing → happens minimally (fruit) or heavily, now the food becomes edible
Distribution
Purchasing
Consuming
Waste (packaging, wastewater, chemicals from processing, left-overs)
Relationship between foodways and food system: Jewish, kosher people don’t consider
edible material as food, unless it is prepared according to a certain set of practices; the most
important one is that meat and dairy cannot be mixed.
To keep kosher, Jews need to be part of a food system that can produce, process and
distribute food in their own way. In order to observe these foodways, they need access to
food products that can be managed in their way.
Three principles
Both the social and physiological dimensions of food help explain food choices.
Socially, student’s chosen comfort foods shared 3 traits:
- feeling familiarity/being cared for (family is physically absent, but psychologically present)
- eaten for an emotional boost
- eaten when alone
, People’s experiences with food are both individual and social; the practices we
participate in (or avoid) reveal much about our social location and multiple identities. For
example, gender shapes choice of comfort foods; men prefer hot meals, women ready-to-eat
snacks.
Foodways and food systems both reflect and shape social inequality; some people
enjoy more material and cultural privileges than others. Even school lunches reveals
underlying dimensions of inequality (mother is expected to care for it, and children to eat it
in a particular manner; China).
Paradoxes: the individual and society
To what extent are individuals free to create the conditions of their own lives amid the myriad
social and cultural forces they must navigate?
Earlier, sociologists had a structural insight regarding the food system and how it
operates. Now, a social constructionist perspective is taken. It emphasizes individual
agency; when people make choices and behave in certain ways, they help to shape the social
world in which they live. Such patterns persist when they are continually reproduced by
human action. It focuses on the meaning we attach to our engagement with foodways.
Agency does not mean freedom of social influence; it means navigating and shaping social
and cultural landscapes individually and collectively.
The debates between structuralist-constructionist perspectives are more revealing than each
on its own.
CHAPTER 2 Food and identity
Case study
Food can signify inclusion (unite) and exclusion (divide) through the association of
food and national, regional, racial-ethnic, social class and gender identities. Like the fact that
Vegemite is considered to be a typical Australian product; when someone eats it, he/she is
considered to be Australian.
Introduction: food and identity
Identity work: an activity through which we define ourselves and others who we are
socially and culturally - What foods we eat, how and when we prepare, serve and consume
them.
Symbol: something that stands for something else. Symbols carry shared meanings within
particular cultures.
Status symbols: objects that signify ones position (or social status) in society. Food also
functions as a status symbol; we engage in identity work by learning what we like and
dislike, and choose to consume some foods but not others. Symbolic meanings of foods are
often established and maintained through rituals: social activities performed for their
symbolic significance, not for practical ends (like the ritual of eating the small piece of bread
with wine as a symbolic act to act within the Christian faith → not practical because of very
small nutritional value). Religious rituals contribute to the social solidarity (feeling of
we-ness).
Food and national and regional identity
Cuisines: distinct sets of ingredients, flavor principles and cooking techniques. Something
can be seen as a national cuisine (like Italian; pasta and pizza), but regionally, there are also
