Food For Thought..

                                                  Food For Thought

When we think of food, the first thought that comes to our minds isn't poverty of a world scale, or directly opposite of that, world obesity. "Global hunger and obesity are symptoms of the same problem," (Patel, 2007, p.1)

Patel argues that we assume, and have always assumed that to be overweight you have to be wealthy, however this is no longer the case. With this, we realise that nowadays it has become alot cheaper and more convenient to buy a cheeseburger from the drive thru at McDonalds, than it is to buy the ingredients for a nutritional meal and cook it at home. 

It is shoved in our faces daily, television ads bombarding us with Maccas and KFC and we are ALL susceptible to it. Not only is there advertising on television, but social networking is a newer form of advertising food.

                              Image 1 Retrieved from: http://forefront.tv/5-dumb-things-people-do-with-smart-phones/#

Those of us who social network, know how far people go showing off their cooking skills on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. What I have noticed with twitter is, there are whole pages dedicated to recipes accompanied by of course, the photos. One particular page I found was labeled “Food” and the caption underneath was “We are addicted to good food, are you too? We keep you updated with mouth watering recipes and food pics“ “Their tastes for food and other commodities may be a badge of their identity” (Atkins and Bowler, 2001, p. 272)

People may post pictures of food to represent some part of them selves, and to represent that what I learnt in this week’s lecture, taste is culturally constructed (Dr. V.Kuttainen. 2013) it may be that they enjoy cooking and/or it represents their culture.

Then is this way of sharing ourselves, and our food, shaping our lives, and even the food industry?

References: 

Dr. V Kuttainen, V. (2013). BA1002: Our Space, Networks, Narratives and The Making Of Place, Lecture 7: Food: A Case of Rum [PowerpointSlides]. Retrieved   from: http://www.learnjcu.edu.au

Atkins, P., & Bowler, I. (2001). Food in Society: Economy, Culture, Geography. London, England: Oxford University Press.

Patel, R. (2009) 'Introduction', in Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System, pp. 1-19. Toronto, Canada: Harper Perennial.

Foodable Network. (2013). Tech and Social Media, Changing The Way We Think About Food. Retrieved from: http://www.foodabletv.com/blog/2013/8/10/how-technology-and-social-media-is-changing-the-food-industry

Image Credits: 

ForeFront TV. (2013). 5 Dumb Things People Do With Smart Phones. Retrieved from: http://forefront.tv/5-dumb-things-people-do-with-smart-phones/#