National Award-winning Writer and Media Producer
By Suzanne Corbett
I’m here for the food. Nope, not looking for a free lunch. I’m craving food news, food edutainment and those tasty tidbits of tweeted food gossip. Call it an obsession but I’m not alone and the media has taken note along with politicians, environmentalists and countless marketers. Each have a long history of crafting messages that not only effect how we eat but shape our perceptions that define who and what we are. After all, we all have to eat, which makes food a powerful tool.
Herbert Hoover knew that when he promised “a chicken in every pot” during the 1928 presidential campaign. During World War II, the War Department turned to food rationing as a method to unify the home front through shared sacrifice and hardship, which decades later was uncovered as skillfully crafted political guise.
The manipulation of food messages today are now targeted to hit on a personal level, asking us to define who we are by what we don’t eat. The latest, the “don’t eat that eat this” campaign. As a result after hearing nutritional news reports one can feel guilty for simply indulging in a moderate serving of bread and butter. Granted, there remains a need to inform and encourage healthy eating and caution against over indulgence. Yet, with more food choices being rolled out each season we given the message to eat-up.
Meanwhile, health considerations as calorie-count and fat often take the back seat to a more powerful food factor, political correctness. PC foods often drive the nutritionally confused public. Therefore, don’t even think about super sizing those fries and forget about bleached white flour opting in flavor of all things whole wheat. Then there are the hot potato issues of veal and foie gras, a controversy that still rages among animal activists against food producers and chefs.
Let’s not forget the Locavore movement, the farm to fork concept now driving customers to restaurants, farm markets and natural food stores as Whole Foods, whose name itself is a subtle message. Gee, makes me wonder if the foods I eat are less “whole” than what Whole Foods sell? Quick, I’ll check the web or a consumer watchdog report for the answer, where I can expect to find more than one answer attached with a disclaimer.
I understand the farm to fork and how eating fresh is better. After all I was raised on a truck farm. However, after having taught cooking for over 30 years I’ve always believed there isn’t any food that’s naturally bad – only those that are poorly prepared. I also believe food grown safely and efficiency keeps it affordable in addition to offering a variety of choice to help build a healthy diet whether its certified organic or not.
Looking at the Center for Media Literacy’s project, Deconstructing Food Advertising, which takes a closer took at how food ads affect our food choices, I felt one fact had been overlooked – alarming numbers of people can’t cook. Many never learned that has resulted in a lost life skill; instead cooking has become a hobby, a fact that’s illustrated everyday since the Food Network debuted in the 1990’s along with the explosion of food programming and niche publications both print and on-line. There are food stars, iron chefs and a mountain of information delivered in our mailboxes, still the numbers who cook daily drop yearly.
It’s a quandary, considering the millions who now consider themselves foodies, a label that has replaced those once called gourmets. A casualty of the times, reflecting the cultural shift that now associates “gourmet” with over indulgence, high fat, unhealthy eating. Too bad, for this perception no doubt contributed to the 2009 death of Gourmet Magazine. Nonetheless, foodies digest the daily food news and continue to define our culture through their purchases that advocate living green to agri-sustainability to artisan made full flavor (higher fat) cheeses and craft beer, which are ironically considered by dietitians as not the healthiest.
As the food media continues to fill our minds while our farmers bountiful harvest fill our plates I pause and wonder. I wonder if McLuhan would choose to eat politically correct or opt to super size the fries.
Great article, Suzanne! Going to repost for all my “foodie” (gasp!) friends.
Great article by Suzanne Corbett and I concur that cooking is becoming a ‘lost life skill.’ When an employee’s 5-year-old daughter accompanied her mother to work she jumped excitedly at the sound of the microwave ding. “Food’s ready,” she chirped. It struck me then that the little angel might not know that the free-standing range in her family’s kitchen was NOT intended as a community catch-all.
That was 15 years ago and many more cooking devices bear the name of the latest, greatest Food Network star. In fact, my 20-year-old nephew countered a benefactor’s warning that his career choice – chef – would be to choose a very hard life. He knew that… but only for a little while since his path would take him to cookbook authoring, his own television show and, of course, his own line of cookware. I am not sure about his kitchen prowess but he certainly had the ‘looks’ to pull it off.
On a side note, the layout of this site left me a bit confused. Under the title of the article ‘Serving Up the Message with a Side of Fries” is the by-line of Jessica Z. Brown. Suzanne Corbett’s by-line is secondary and is accompanied by a photographs of Jessica?? Suzanne?? Scrolling to the end is an “About Jessica…” section.
In ‘past lives’ I have served both as an editor and as a web designer so my first guess is that this is a webmaster’s error. Correct? (I know the photograph is Suzanne only because I know her – as may be the case with your audience.)