There's something about standing among mountains of beautiful fresh fruit and vegetables at markets and produce stands that make me feel at home--as if I'm surrounded by family and friends. With Ryan away in Exeter for a couple days this weekend, I was feeling a little lonely this morning, and knew just the trick to lift my spirits: a trip to Nag's Head! There is a plethora of fresh produce markets in London, especially on the weekend, but as it was drizzling on and off and already 3pm, I decided to head to Nag's Head, our neighborhood hodge podge of stores and market stalls, many of which are Greek or Cypriot (from Cyprus). The stalls are hit or miss in their quality, but the prices are low and there's not a tourist in sight. My favorite produce shop, Michael's Fruiterers (at least that's what the English sign says), had an especially beautiful display today, probably due in part to the recent rain which turned the potatoes into a vibrantly warm fall-orange and the leafy greens into a tropical-green. The chard looked especially perky and voluptuous, so I grabbed two bunches. A lady next to me asked, "how do you cook that?" I described different methods of pan frying, steaming, or cooking it in a soup. She admired the color but ultimately decided to go with the pointy shaped English spinach.
I wandered through the fruits and stopped when I saw them: deep purple figs nearly the size of a tennis ball! They were huge! I cautiously extended two fingers and gently squeezed their sides, as if about to disturb a sleeping baby: perfectly ripe! With great deliberation and consideration I chose four that I deemed perfect and gingerly placed them in a paper sack. I moseyed by the olives and savoy cabbages--the colors, textures, and smells sedating me further and further into a peaceful happiness. At the check out counter, the usually talkative young woman commented, "someone's being healthy" as she bagged my bunches of chard. "Yes, and they're delicious!" I replied. She made a face of disgust and said, "yeah, I'm so hungry right now and all I can think about is which take-away (fast food) do I want." I laughed and noticed the moist dates sitting on the counter. "Should have bought some of those," I thought to myself.
As I walked back home, I thought about what the Greek produce lady had said and it reminded me of something we discussed in one of my classes this week. Our readings focused on the history of food safety and regulation and the implications for the safety of food (and the health of consumers) in an increasingly commercial food industry. Whose responsibility is it that consumers eat safe and healthy foods? Is it the farmer, the processor, the vendor, the government, or the consumer? Many of the readings highlighted that this responsibility has historically been placed on the consumer who is often uninformed about the source or processes of their food.
This then made me think, what influences my food choices? So much of it is tied into the availability of food, the information made available about the food, social perception (and advertisement) of the food, and the money and time I have available. But there's something more than that. What I perceive as easy, convenient, safe to eat, or tasty is very much culturally determined by my upbringing and surroundings. I wasn't buying the chard because I thought, "I'm going to be healthy." I bought the chard because I wanted to make one of the dishes that my mom always makes. I wanted to feel closer to home. The figs, on the other hand, were spontaneous, an indulgence in the aesthetics of the fruit and my conception of the figs as a kind of luxury. Some people dislike figs, but my taste buds say 'yummy!' Especially when paired with some equally decadent blue cheese....ooo!
So why did I buy the chard, the one lady bought spinach, and the produce lady fantasized about McDonald's? I don't know. What I do know is that it is important to understand our food decisions as complicated, layered processes that in turn have a profound impact on the shape of the food industry as well as our individual well being, happiness, and health.
Before all this thinking makes me too skeptical of everything I eat, I'm going to go enjoy some figs!
For some informative reading, check out:
Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism, Marion Nestle, 2003
Spoiled: The Dangerous Truth About a Food Chain Gone Haywire, Nicols Fox, 1998
Food Regulation and Trade: Toward a Safe and Open Global Food System, Tim Josling et al, 2004
Trust in Food: A Comparative and Institutional Analysis, Unni Kjaernes, Mark Harvey, and Alan Warde, 2006
No comments:
Post a Comment