Introduction
"Foodways, or the intersection of food, culture, tradition, and history, are not separate from other cultural features and reflect local worldviews and ways of knowing. As foodways reflect “behaviors and beliefs surrounding the production, distribution, and consumption of food” (Counihan, 1999, p. 6), food is not simply what we eat but how and why we eat it, and more importantly, what it means. As Anderson (2005) explains, every society uses food to communicate messages: messages about religion, ethnicity, gender, identity, and other socially constructed regimes. Our attitudes about food, and our practices and ritu-als around eating, reflect our most basic beliefs about the world and ourselves. Within this view, foodways become “texts to interpret and analyze” (Anderson, 2005, p. 7). Therefore, through a foodways lens, the dichotomy of “store food” versus “traditional food” becomes more than non-nutritious foods versus nutritious foods but rather reveals contrasting Eurocentric and Indigenous worldviews;"
Despite creation of a Canada Food Guide with traditional foods and translation into several indigenous languages, it is still a Eurocentric document with a Euro understanding of food structure. The structure of meals represents beliefs about food and eating. The Guide reflects the idea of servings from the food groups at each of 3 structured meal times on an individual plate. Challenges Inuit understanding of meat and fish in their lives, different conception of mealtimes and when they happen. Euro Nutritionism vs. cumulative experiences and teachings. Food is much more than nutrients, it is the spirit of the animals and the relationship with the landscape and its organisms, relations of food sharing within the community. Well being vs. biomedical view of the body.
Dawson in Settee and Shukla
many different ethnic groups contest Canada's dominant discourses on healthy eating and the food guide, sometimes finding them inherently racist because of their Eurocentric roots (Beagan and Chapman, 2017).
However, in a sustainable diet and health perspective, most diets need adjustment and this can be challenging for many ethno - racial diets, not just Western ones. For those who come from warmer climates, a focus on a fresh can be challenging in a Canadian context, although helpful is the preserving food skills of many (cf. Bron et al., 2020).
Cooking as anti-racist practice and decolonization. Brady, J. (2011). Cooking as Inquiry: A Method to Stir Up Prevailing Ways of Knowing Food,
Body and Identity. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 321-334.
City of Toronto. (2021). Advancing Black Food Sover-
eignty – Update. https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/
mmis/2021/hl/bgrd/backgroundfile-165110.pd
Valiente-Neighbours (2012) “immigrant identity-based localism”. Valiente-Neighbours, Jimiliz M. 2012. "Mobility, Embodiment, and Scales: Filipino Immigrant Perspectives on Local Food.” Agriculture and Human Values Journal 29(4): 531-541.
Often tensions for immigrant families, the desire to use food as part of retaining culture, but also using it to acculturate. Can produce intergenerational conflicts within families (Beagan and Chapman, 2017).
Heldke, L. (2008). Let's Cook Thai: Recipes for Colonialism. In C. Counihan and P. Van Esterik, Food and Culture: A Reader (pp. 394-408). London: Routledge. cookbooks don't identify the history of their recipes and from whom it originated. by placing our colonizing relationship “squarely in in the center of the dining table” (p.). But how does the state encourage this? Cookbooks and travel are typically a new kind of colonialism, theft and appropriation, the adventure seeking, the exotic, the other, and much of this about commodifying food in ways that favour the white euro over the cultures from which food comes.
Licensing and accreditation of chef's schools
Procurement and government cafeterias
School meals
Next iteration of food guide
Black food sovereignty plan, https://africanfoodbasket.ca/
Black cookbook authors, https://www.eater.com/22824425/embracing-black-cookbooks-publishers-bookstores
From homogeneity to diversity
From conventional to heritage varieties
From meal times structured around the industrial workplace to ..... celebration and ritual
From the standard food guide to ....
Cookbooks - names and ancestry
TV presentation of food
Holidays
Cooking schools
Food and agricultural shows
The role of popular chefs and influencers in promoting diverse diets (Halvorson)
Food has made its way off our plates and onto the internet; in the digital age it can now be consumed in an entirely different manner, through posts, follows, likes, and shares, with recipes and how-tos, provided at the click of a button by amateur cooks and professional chefs. This new arena has emerged with immense power to “reshap[e] our relationship with food”, but as with any space, some voices dominate discourse and exercise disproportionate influence and power (Goodman & Jaworska, 2020, pg. 183). In a study done in the UK, this digital foodscape was found to be largely made up of white, middle- or upper-class personas who reinscribe and reenforce the “hegemonic gender, racial, and class norms and structures” of UK society online (Goodman & Jaworska, 2020, pg. 191). These influencers largely promote “clean” lifestyles; eating good food in combination with fitness and exercise – this “right”, holistic way to live is also moralized, as its proponents are associated with “self-empowerment, inspiration, charity campaigning, and awareness raising” (Goodman & Jaworska, 2020 pg. 191). Clean eating is typically (and loosely) described as “eating local, ‘real’, (non-processed), organic, plant-based, home-cooked foods”, and in some instances, reducing or removing dairy, gluten, grains, meat, or sugar from one’s diet (Ambwani et al., 2019, pg. 2 - 3). While its definition is varied, clean eating is often viewed favorably and part of a desirable lifestyle, although can lead to disordered eating and malnutrition when applied restrictively (Ambwani et al., 2019; Negowetti et al., 2021). Clean eating, like other diets, is also easily co-opted; some foods advertising “clean” dietary labels also promote unsubstantiated health claims such as causing weight loss, cleansing/detoxification, and curing cancer (Negowetti et al., 2021). In looking towards food influencers to promote diverse, sustainable diets, care must be taken to ensure voices who disrupt current societal structures are better platformed, and that the foods endorsed are not just healthy and nutritious, but accessible, affordable, and culturally and regionally appropriate. Role for the state?
Compared to traditional media, the digital foodscape does allow more opportunities for woman and novel voices to emerge, and provides diverse and highly connective avenues to explore different food pedagogies (Goodman & Jaworska, 2020). In North America, some food influencers disrupting the status quo and encouraging diverse diets are Alexis Nikole Nelson, better known as the @blackforager and Mariah Gladstone of @Indigikitchen. Alexis Nikole Nelson is self-described as a “foraging and enviro sci enthusiast”, with almost 4.2 million followers combined on Instagram and TikTok. Her videos showcase both native and introduced plants in eastern North America, providing tips on how to safely find, identify, collect, and consume forage, with recipes on teas to soups to baked goods prevalent on her page (Mohtasham & Zomorodi, 2021). She promotes people to forage as a way to appreciate and connect with the natural world and as an affordable alternative to current food systems. She approaches foraging from a distinctly anti-racist and historical perspective, raising awareness on how foraging sustained many Black, Indigenous, and racialized folks in early American history, and how laws were implemented post-slavery to attempt to prevent and further exclude BIPOC from this use of the land (Mohtasham & Zomorodi, 2021). In a society that privileges few access to these spaces, her activism investigates what it means to be a Black woman embracing the outdoors, encouraging others to do the same.
Indigikitchen is an “online cooking show dedicated to re-indigenizing our diets using digital media”, created by Mariah Gladstone, an environmental engineer and Pikuni and Tsalagi woman based in western North America. Her website and Instagram feature cooking videos, seminars, and school programs that seeks to increase the knowledge and appreciation of traditional Indigenous foods. Recipes featured on her website include preparations like maple roasted delicata squash, butternut bison lasagna, and Potawatomi berry rice, with much of her work focused on taking familiar recipes and replacing ingredients with ancestral, seasonal, locally available alternatives. Using new cooking equipment and culinary techniques, Gladstone’s work emphasizes that Indigenous peoples are not some historically entity, but are living and thriving now, and have always been able to adapt and use what is accessible (Ologies with Alie Ward, 2022). This approach “recognizes that ancestral wisdom, the Indigenous brilliance of agriculture, harvesting, foraging, [and] hunting… along with [their] presence in this day” (Ologies with Alie Ward, 2022, ts: 16:37). Like Nelson, Gladstone brings awareness to the intentional, historical and current dispossession of land experienced by Indigenous peoples and the disruption of their ancestral food systems through colonialism. Her work seeks to promote both physical health and health of the natural world, asking “how [can] our food take care of us, but also how can we take care of the places where our food comes from?” (Ologies with Alie Ward, 2022, ts: 21:06). She also highlights the power of sharing knowledge, featuring recipes from other Indigenous chefs and peoples across Turtle Island.
References:
Ambwani, S., Shippe, M., Gao, Z., & Austin, S. B. (2019). Is #cleaneating a healthy or harmful dietary strategy? Perceptions of clean eating and associations with disordered eating among young adults. Journal of Eating Disorders, 7(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40337-019-0246-2
Goodman, M. K., & Jaworska, S. (2020). Mapping digital foodscapes: Digital food influencers and the grammars of good food. Geoforum, 117, 183–193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.09.020
Mohtasham, D., & Zomorodi, M. (2021). Meet Alexis Nikole Nelson, The Wildly Popular “Black Forager.” NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2021/09/09/173838801/meet-alexis-nikole-nelson-the-wildly-popular-black-forager
Negowetti, N., Ambwani, S., Karr, S., Rodgers, R. F., & Austin, S. B. (2022). Digging up the dirt on “clean” dietary labels: Public health considerations and opportunities for increased Federal oversight. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 55(1), 39–48. https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.23585
Ologies with Alie Ward. (2022). Indigenous Cuisinology (NATIVE COOKING) with Mariah Gladstone of Indigikitchen. Alie Ward. https://www.alieward.com/ologies/indigenouscuisinology
