Janet A. Flammang

I had my suspicions about this book from the first, due to the heavy use of the words civilization, civility, civilizing, without the author unpacking the colonialist, classist and racist baggage behind those terms. The ruling powers have long used the idea of civilization to subjugate other people, and the author of this book makes no mention of that, instead arguing that civilization is good without looking any deeper.

In general, this book offers a lot of analysis on topics relating to food. There's almost no synthesis, and the thesis was not well-stated in the introduction, so I can't say what the author really meant to say, and if she was successful. This book really read like a giant review article; Plato said this, Brillat-Savarin said that, some study said this, done. There was a lot of gender essentialism, Freudianism, and mind-body dualism taken at face value; which I thought was particularly annoying. The author wants to challenge the idea of food being in the woman's sphere, but never unpacks either the gender essentialism inherent in that statement, and other than saying that it should be challenged, never backs it up with an argument.

I really thought the entire section about Alice Waters could have been omitted. Waters is hardly the only person in the local/organic/slow food movement, and she hardly brings great food to the masses (the ones who can't afford to eat at her restaurant). The book wound up repeating itself in the next section anyway, where school/jail/community/victory gardens and farmers markets were covered more generally. Again, of course, with no synthesis or unique and compelling arguments on behalf of the author.

Finally, I really disliked that the author never talked about the racism and classism implicit in (sort of, because the author never really comes out and says it) promoting eating at home as the cure for civilization. As the author pretty much avoided making any original thoughts in this entire book, I guess it's not surprising that she never asked for institutional change to see that this can become a reality for many people whose food options are far more limited than those offered by the culinary elite (such as Alice Walker).

If you're interested in farmers making a difference, read Farmer Jane (Temra Costa). If you're interested in the radical food movement, read something by Vandana Shiva. American Terroir by Rowan Jacobsen is also a great read. If you're interested in the politics behind particular foods, Banana (Dan Koeppel) or Tomatoland (Barry Estabrook) are great options. This book does not add to the discourse.… (mehr)