THREAD
@bittman I thought the goal of 'real food' used to be because, as a rough heuristic (see also: Rule of Thumb), it was more healthful and better for the environment (among other things - which we'll get to).
wired.com/story/foodies-…
#fafdlstorm
@bittman I thought the goal of 'real food' used to be because, as a rough heuristic (see also: Rule of Thumb), it was more healthful and better for the environment (among other things - which we'll get to).
wired.com/story/foodies-…
#fafdlstorm
Now that there might be replacements for the most environmentally impactful foods with potential nutritional improvements, 'real food' becomes the ultimate goal, and concrete goals like improving the environment and nutrition go out the window.
This is the same thing that happened with locavorism. It was about the environment until, under scrutiny, that didn't pan out and then other rationalizations came to the fore. And when those were called into the question, the reasons became more intangible.
In either the case, it becomes clear was that the motivation was about an aesthetic sense or spiritual need and that the goal came first and the material rationalizations would be filled in and adjusted as needed.
The goal becomes solipsistic, sufficient unto itself. It simply becomes the lilies in the field.
This has been the problem with the bourgie food movement all along. While there have been paeans to the important connections around food and friends and family and among communities ...
... much of the discussion was not honest that they were solving for a spiritual problem — solving for something is legitimately lacking in so much of modern, industrial life (dare I say driven by neoliberalism) — but because the fixes here are so bourgeois ...
... and rarely linked honestly to issues of inequality in time and resources, the drive is so bourgeois that it's embarrassing to state it plainly and it becomes not enough for 'real food' to provide authenticity and connection — it has to Save the World™.
But when it is shown that it either won't Save the World™ or that something synthetic or industrially processed or globally-sourced might Save the World™ the deck furniture starts getting shifted around quite nervously.
PS The 'bourgie food movement' is a subset of the overall movement and often quite distinct from genuine grassroots, social justice work being done under that banner.
