When I was considering universities my senior year of high school, one of the programs that brought me over to the dark side from UNC to Duke was DukeImmerse: a semester-long undergraduate seminar experience where all four classes center around one subject, field components are mandatory, and everyone voluntarily enrolls to explore a theme about which they are passionate. Each year, Duke offers a handful of Immerse programs, and, luckily for me, they offered a Food Studies program this fall. I am linking to the description here. The Food Studies Immerse (also dubbed "The Future of Food") has mainly brought together people from environmental science backgrounds and cultural anthropology backgrounds. The courses satisfy a wide variety of requirements, and they are introducing some of us to disciplines we would never otherwise explore. Our classes analyze plant growth and yield; how food and farming are presented in literature; the food supply chain and Environmental Life Cycle Assessments; and the social, political, and cultural implications of food. We are spending two weeks working on the Duke Campus Farm, will spend one week travelling around farms near San Francisco, and will visit several farms in North Carolina (both sustainable and otherwise). I wouldn’t call my course material and textbooks “work.” I wouldn’t call the hours I sit at my desk “studying.” I am in complete bliss learning about this subject. I want to use this post to pose a few questions and thoughts the first week elicited. 1. Is being a “locavore” always more eco-friendly? There is a huge emphasis on reducing food miles right now, but the relative eco-friendliness of local food must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Consider this:
Wine A is produced on a farm down the street from me that has 200 units of environmental impact. Wine B is produced a thousand miles away from me on a farm that has 100 units of environmental impact, and shipping it adds only 50 units. In this case, it would be more eco-friendly to buy Wine B than the local Wine A. Remember that “local” does not necessarily mean “better”; sometimes different climates are more suited to producing certain crops and sometimes foreign farms are just equipped with better technology and farming methods. 2. What is “authentic” cuisine? Why is a burrito found in a hole-in-the-wall Latin American restaurant considered more authentic and delicious than an expensive burrito prepared by a white chef at a five-star restaurant? When it comes to culinary tourism, perhaps “authenticity” simply equates to “expectations.” Obviously, taste is more than just a function of ingredients; taste relies upon atmosphere and memory as well. There inevitably lays reverse snobbery and covert prestige (having the know-how when it does not fit the expectations of your class/gender/race/etc.) in taking your friends to that hole-in-the-wall burrito joint. Need more evidence? Next time you are at a romantic restaurant, note how the dim lighting, intimate tables, carpeted floors, and the timing of the meal are suggestive of the bedroom. 3. The potential of feeding the world in 2050 does not rest upon population growth alone. Consider that with more people entering the middle class, there will be more demand for meat. Decreasing crop yields and limited land, accompanied by a predicted slow growth/adoption of technology, will drive food prices up significantly and impact the urban poor and landless rural communities most significantly. 4. How does farmwork instill agency in those tending the land, and how can this play out in gender dynamics? Farming allows people to provide for their communities, and their communities therefore give them respect. As agribusiness continues to replace small-scale farms run by women in places like Africa, how will this affect their rights and means of expression? I don’t know the answers to all these questions, and in an ever-evolving world, nobody truly does. That does not diminish the significance of considering them; mitigation of present and future harm is still available, as is the promotion of present and future benefits.
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