a rainy day food inquiry

 

Food is historical and spiritual. To eat is to engage in a ritual, a scared practice shared by all living creatures on earth. Everything we know today, every action of our lives, can be defined by culture. The root of this word, and the reason humans could develop “culture,” comes from agriculture, “agra” field and “cultura” to cultivate: quite literally “to cultivate soil”. Man had finally understood how to “control” nature, and the human ego inflated once again, creating a relationship with food which was both perverse and beautiful. 

 

The downfall of the perfect world was food. As Eve broke the skin of the forbidden fruit, she also broke our intimate bond with the creator. Perhaps our dichotomous thinking about food stems from this instance. And since, food has remained dichotomous, encompassing both good and evil, life and death. For me, consuming food is as much a historical and spiritual experience as it is an ethical decision. While most people’s decisions about what they eat surround three basic categories, such as “is this what I’m in the mood for?” or “will this make me fat” or “is this worth the price I’m about to pay,” my questions about food become seemingly infinite. Eating an orange is not just eating an orange for me.

Why kind of an orange is this? Is it a Valencia orange? Was it grown from an already existing species of orange or was it grown from a genetically modified seed? Is this strain of orange devastating naturally occurring strains of oranges, overtaking them until the genetic variety is so scarce there only exist in small pockets of the world 7 truly different types of oranges? Who owns the genetically modified orange? Do I support the ownership of genetic material, the building blocks of life? Are there any alternatives?

 

Is there a chemical wax coating to preserve its freshness? Do I need to wash this chemical off? Was that chemical tested on animals before it was approved safe for human consumption? What will that chemical do to my earth once it is placed in a garbage heap?

Where was my orange grown? Whose land was this orange grown on? Did it once belong to native populations, but when a large food company viewed it as potentially prosperous, did they pay the government to slowly force the people off the land their families had owned for generations? Do they crop dust, causing the locals to have serious health problems, and babies to have serious birth defects?  Does the water they used to nourish the growing oranges come from an already depleted reservoir, or a renewable source?

Who picks the orange? Are they paid fair wages? Do they receive good health benefits? Do they live in decent housing? Are they old enough to be considered an eligible worker, or did a child pick this orange?

How did this orange get to this store? Was it transported by a carrier which also pays its workers fair wages? Does it use environmentally conscious methods of transportation?

How was this orange packaged? With plastics that cause so much pollution in their production? With wood, which contributes to deforestation? Who designed the graphics for this company? Did they ever think about what actually goes into the making of this orange, all of the lives, both human and animal, it affects or destroys?

What does this store, which I am purchasing the orange from, support? Are they making black market deals with ConAgra for their produce, simultaneously supporting the murdering of peasants in Paraguay and Uruguay?

What will eating this orange do to my body? Will it taste good and bring me pleasure? Is it healthy for me? Will it provide my body with the nutrients it needs, while not polluting it with so many toxins it overrides any benefit it could provide? And lastly, how much does this orange cost? Do I have enough money to purchase this orange?

On a spiritual and physical level, you are what you eat. Do I want this orange to become a part of my body, the house of my soul? Can I eat this orange and feel good about it, ethically, spiritually, sensually? By eating this orange am I supporting suffering? Am I supporting death by giving myself life? I’m going to give myself an ulcer just thinking about food. This is my ethical experience with food: neurotic, paranoid, philosophical, and usually not enjoyable.

For me, all food is food for thought.