The politics of food

I have a sociology paper to write! I was thinking about doing something related to food politics in some way, which I find super interesting.

Any particular issue I should look into? I was thinking about exploring how health has become a socioeconomic class issue, as healthy food is more expensive. Or how size discrimination is actually a form of classism. Or... how companies use additives to make food addictive? Erm, that one I don't know much about.

What do y'all suggest? And any books etc. that I should look into?

Original Post by evolution_revolution:

What do y'all suggest? And any books etc. that I should look into?

"The Omnivore's Dilemma"  by Michael Pollan  (Haven't read it, but it's next on my list just based off the description alone - it's been highly recommended by many CCer's as well)

For a topic, you might also consider looking into the politics of corn - yep, CORN. HFCS has been deemed one of the poisons of modern food manufacturing, making it very cheap to make very high caloric, addictive, and artificially preserved food - heck, it even has it's own pro-HFCS lobbying website.  That combined with the ever increasing pushes for ethanol, the corn grower's lobby basically has Washington by the cajones.  Just a thought...

The Ominvore's Dilemma and The Vegetarian Myth.  Both great books but I'd go with The Vegetarian Myth.

If this were my paper I'd write about how just a few companies (like Cargill) own 95% of our food production and how they own the patents for our food crops. 

"Food Politics" and "What To Eat" by Marion Nestle. What to Eat is not a diet book so much as an explanation of the additives, marketing, science and business behind most of what we eat.

"Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal" by Tristram Stuart.

"Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty" by Roger Thurow.

"In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan.

Out of all of these, Food Politics by Marion Nestle would be my most highly recommended choice.

I haven't read Food Politics, but I have read Pet Food Politics by Marion Nestle.  I can attest to the fact she is a good writer and she can provide a ton of information packed into a very readable book.

Twinkie, Deconstructed.  Amazing analysis of processed food.

I think you have some good ideas already!

The interaction between health and social class is an interesting one for sure.  There are definitely studies on differential access to healthy foods, a lot of them from public health journals.  Here are a few cites from articles I happen to have lying around:

Hendrickson, Smith, and Eikenberry (2006) Fruit and vegetable access in four low-income food deserts communities in Minnesota. Agriculture and Human Values 23.

Moore and Roux (2005) Associations of Neighborhood Characteristics With
the Location and Type of Food Stores. American Journal of Public Health. 96(2).

Wiig and Smith (2008) The art of grocery shopping on a food stamp budget: factors influencing the food choices of low-income women as they try to make ends meet. Public Health Nutrition.

Zenk et al. (2005) Fruit and Vegetable Intake in African Americans: Income and Store Characteristics. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 29(1)

Zenk et al. (2005) Neighborhood Racial Composition, Neighborhood Poverty,
and the Spatial Accessibility of Supermarkets in Metropolitan Detroit. American Journal of Public Health. 95(4)

Wang et al. (2009) Socioeconomic and food-related physical characteristics of the neighbourhood environment are associated with body mass index. Journal of Epidemiological Community Health. 61.

Another angle on the health/class relationship is how health impacts social class, rather than the reverse.  See, for example:

Blane, Smith, and Bartley (2008) Social selection: what does it contribute to social class differences in health? Sociology of Health & Illness. 15(1)

Some of the articles I cited above might also be helpful for making a case about the relationship between class and weight discrimination, and this book chapter might be helpful for that topic as well:

Brown and Bentley-Condit (1998) Culture, Evolution, and Obesity: Higher Weights Inversely Correlated with Social Class in Heterogeneous and Affluent Societies like the United States. In Handbook of Obesity, ed. George Bray, Claude Bouchard, and W. P. T. James

How companies make food seemingly addictive sounds intriguing and Marion Nestle's book would be a great resource, but you should just be sure you have a clear sociological spin on the topic.  Could you perhaps provide a sociological explanation of why food companies do what they do, what social institutions are used to assist in this process, etc? 

Other topics I can think of would be the relationship between gender norms and the discourse on obesity and health, the framing of obesity as a moral panic or public crisis (see the Saguy and Riley cite below), the medicalization of obesity (I think Jeffery Sobal has written on this)

Saguy and Riley (2005) Weighing Both Sides: Morality, Mortality, and Framing Contests over Obesity. Journal of Health, Politics, and Law. 30(5).

Also a couple of websites you should find useful...

Food Consumer

The Grist

A big 'food politics' subject is the development of GM (Genetically Modified) foods.  Could be the saving of mankind enabling us to produce more food in a smaller area for an increasing population... OR... could be a stranglehold on third-world countries as the licences for the products are held by just one or two companies.

Food politics surrouding the whole business of levys, taxation and food subsidies could be interesting.  The protectionist policies of the US and the European Union, for example, making it prohibitive for other, less wealthy nations to trade their goods.  What free market?

Corn subsidies and why they are making Americans fat.

Why processed food costs more than the whole foods it takes to make them.

'Nother vote for Omnivores Dilemma. Haven't read In Defense of Food yet, but OD was great.

The Sexual Politics of Meat, Carol J. Adams http://books.google.ca/books?id=AwrwRKNavtAC& amp;dq=the+sexual+politics+of+meat&prints ec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei= soXXSon9OIjSMva10NgH&sa=X&oi=book_res ult&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CBUQ6 AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false

I've got one that's been driving me crazy...

The government subsidizing the production of junk food (High fructose Corn Syrup via corn subsidies) and then turning around and charging people a Sin Tax that consume it.

The latter hasn't happened yet but its being seriously kicked around in a lot of circles. 

The politics of nutrition is discussed at great length in Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

Even those who do not agree with Taubes' hypothesis about obesity, agrees that his book is a great window into the history and politics of nutrition.

Patrick

My personal choice of project would be on the ethics and effects of infant formula marketing.

The marketing of baby formula has been so manipulative and aggressive that international laws have been drafted to try and control what formula companies are allowed to do and say. (The United Nations now has a code of ethics for infant formula marketing).

The fact is, populations only grow at a certain rate, and even with babies being born every year, nearly all babies can be breastfed - for free. What's more, breast milk is nutritionally superior to manufactured formulas.

So, to continue growing, formula companies must a) convince mothers of breast-fed babies to switch to formula, b) convince parents to keep their children on formula for longer or c) look for new markets.

The first two points result in fear marketing: your baby is missing out if you don't feed him formula.

The search for new markets has resulted in aggressive marketing in developing countries, to poor families who would be better off breastfeeding than paying for formula. In addition, formula requires dilution in water - and thousands of families in developing countries do not have access to clean water. Formula also requires refridgeration and knowledge of how to prepare and dilute it to the correct degree without causing contamination.

Without clean water, refridgeration, sanitary preparation areas and adequate knowledge, infants are killed every year by being fed expensive baby formula, when their mothers were perfectly capable of breastfeeding.

Another very readable book about how we should eat is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  She and her family spent a year on her husband's family property in Appalachia eating only food that they could grow or was locally produced.   It has lots of references and data packed into sidebars as well.

Another book I found really interesting is Nickeled and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (sp?).  It isn't about food per se, but she talks about the reality of existing in America on minimum wage jobs with no family support.  It is really hard to eat well when you live in a residential hotel and have no refrigerator, no stove, no security, and no money.  You can't get into an apartment because you can't come up with first, last, and a security deposit.  "Cheap" calories from McDonalds and convenience stores become your only food choice.

I also found The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food great reads.  I just read in the paper today that Michael Pollan was slated to lecture at Cal Poly SLO, and Harris Ranch (a feed lot/beef producer) threatened to withdraw their donation to the school if he was given an "uncontested" forum.  I guess the compromise is there will be a panel with an conventional farmer, and organic farmer, and Michael Pollan speaking.  Shows that he has become pretty influential if he has corporate agribusiness running scared.

Wow, guys. Some really really great suggestions so far! Coreyander- that list may well prove to be instrumental so my essay, really thank you for the effort you put into your post. Although I'm TOTALLY with you about the portrayl of the obesity crisis as some kind of moral epidemic, I unfortunately don't think I'll get a chance to discuss that in my paper. And Meryl- the marketing of baby formula is something I didn't know too much about, but wow, deffinitely something that interests me. Breast is best, girl ;)

Actually, just a lot of really great suggestions all around. I'm really astounded at how useful a resource CC can be.

Ok so I didn't want to reply until I was at least slightly more confident about what I wanted to write about. Sociology is all about how personal issues are actually linked to greater issues of social structure, so I kind of wanted to look at how rising obesity rates are actually a result of government/corporate policy in the United States, specifically.

Unless y'all have an idea of a better thesis! I still haven't started. But anyways-

My first argument can be about the HFCS in processed food as a result of corn subsidies, and the influence of the corn growers lobby- is there a lot of information out there about this?

Then my second argument can be how poverty contributes to poor food choices. Coreyander, that's where your list will be helpful. (Thanks again!)

Then, if you guys know where I could look, maybe there's something about addictiveness of food? Or erm... advertising? Seriously, what else can I talk about that would tie into my thesis? Something that can show how a social/government policy/issue somehow inhibits excersize- though I can't imagine how that would be so. Hmm.

And would reading In Defense of food be useful for this topic? Or is it not super related?

Lastly, a friend mentioned that there might be some reasons that this isn't an accident- that the government has reasons for wanting to keep America sick (i.e. pressure from the pharmaceutical lobby, etc.). That seems a little far fetched to me, but it would make a pretty sweet essay if there was validity to such a claim. Anyone have/know where I could get information on this idea?

Seriously, just keep throwing out suggestions, help me in any way you might think. Any other resources I should check out that aren't yet listed? I would really appreciate any further input!

Iowa is the state that produces the most corn in the United States.  It produced 18% of the total US crop last year.  Iowa is also the first state to vote in the presidential primaries which makes it hugely influential.  Very few candidates can survive a poor showing in Iowa and many previously minor candidates have gotten a huge boost by a good showing in Iowa.  Pissing off the corn lobby can be political suicide.  That is why we have subsidies and HFCS will never be controlled by congress.

Original Post by evolution_revolution:

Wow, guys. Some really really great suggestions so far! Coreyander- that list may well prove to be instrumental so my essay, really thank you for the effort you put into your post. Although I'm TOTALLY with you about the portrayl of the obesity crisis as some kind of moral epidemic, I unfortunately don't think I'll get a chance to discuss that in my paper. And Meryl- the marketing of baby formula is something I didn't know too much about, but wow, deffinitely something that interests me. Breast is best, girl ;)

Actually, just a lot of really great suggestions all around. I'm really astounded at how useful a resource CC can be.

Ok so I didn't want to reply until I was at least slightly more confident about what I wanted to write about. Sociology is all about how personal issues are actually linked to greater issues of social structure, so I kind of wanted to look at how rising obesity rates are actually a result of government/corporate policy in the United States, specifically.

Unless y'all have an idea of a better thesis! I still haven't started. But anyways-

My first argument can be about the HFCS in processed food as a result of corn subsidies, and the influence of the corn growers lobby- is there a lot of information out there about this?

Then my second argument can be how poverty contributes to poor food choices. Coreyander, that's where your list will be helpful. (Thanks again!)

Then, if you guys know where I could look, maybe there's something about addictiveness of food? Or erm... advertising? Seriously, what else can I talk about that would tie into my thesis? Something that can show how a social/government policy/issue somehow inhibits excersize- though I can't imagine how that would be so. Hmm.

And would reading In Defense of food be useful for this topic? Or is it not super related?

Lastly, a friend mentioned that there might be some reasons that this isn't an accident- that the government has reasons for wanting to keep America sick (i.e. pressure from the pharmaceutical lobby, etc.). That seems a little far fetched to me, but it would make a pretty sweet essay if there was validity to such a claim. Anyone have/know where I could get information on this idea?

Seriously, just keep throwing out suggestions, help me in any way you might think. Any other resources I should check out that aren't yet listed? I would really appreciate any further input!

The best argument for this would be zoning regulations.  Most zoning in the US calls for a high-density urban core, with minimum road width requirements, heavy traffic regulation, parking, etc.  As you move away from the urban center, development is less dense and typically has different requirements for landscaping, driveways, sidewalks, speed limits, etc.

Point I'm making is that lots of US cities are built for driving, and certainly that's the case in the urban center.  New York is probably the most notable exception with Central Park providing some major open space in the core of the city.  Western cities are typically more "planned" than eastern cities and are more likely to establish different use areas ... a chunk of residential here, a chunk of commercial there, connected in such a way that it is presumed you will be driving between your destinations.  Maybe look at a city like L.A. or Phoenix.

If you're interested in this topic, you might do some research on "smart growth."  It's a new(ish) development theory that focuses on mixed uses, so instead of having the grocery store segregated out with the other commercial boxes, you site the grocery store right near where people live and can walk to it.  Traditionally, the idea was that it would devalue your property if you lived next door to the grocery store.  Smart growth is looking for ways to redesign neighborhoods to challenge the prejudice against mixed uses.

Also, mixed use is much more "European" in flavor.

Just some thoughts for you.  Good luck with your paper!

Sounds like everyone else has given you some seriously good sources. If you do pursue the "classism" of healthy food, it might also be positive to tie in a section on proposed legislation in several iterations of the healthcare bills which would impose penalties on unhealthy eating and drinking. Given that many of the nation's poor cannot afford alternatives to fatty fast food, this would seem to be a prime example of social injustice if the section of the bill regarding imposing what is essentially a "sin tax" on junk food remains in the legislation.

Something that can show how a social/government policy/issue somehow inhibits excersize- though I can't imagine how that would be so. Hmm.

Lys gave some excellent tips on this part above. Before I saw her comments I was thinking about how moving to the suburbs came to be. Everyone wanted out of the city. They moved to rural areas where there were no sidewalks and no corner stores. This had to do with zoning, but it also had to do with fair housing laws and desegration.