HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

Dominant discourses are discussions or debates about widely talked about topics. It is the leading idea of either the majority or the people who hold the power and when dominant parties contribute to a conversation, their voices are very much heard and for the most part very agreed upon. Discourses about food in America have two conflicting view points where food is either viewed as a poison, or it is glorified as a medicine. People whose voices are heard in these discourses are physicians, doctors in general, the FDA(the government), and the media, these are basically people with high stature who have the say on what we should and should not eat. But what about the farmers who grow our crops and the people who prepare our food in restaurants? Why have their voices been washed out in this discourse when they have the most insight on the food they grow and make? Do we even care about what they have to say? These are all things we have to ask ourselves next time we are following the ideas of the elites opinions.

An example of dominant discourses demoting the health of food is found in the New York Times article, Fixing a World That Fosters Fat by Natasha Singer. This article explains why Americans a drawn to fast food which is mostly because of its various locations everywhere which makes it convenient to many citizens. Another reason why Fast food is so popular is because its price compared to the healthy and organic foods we should be eating.  this article goes on to say, "behavior changes won’t work on their own without seismic societal shifts, health experts say, because eating too much and exercising too little are merely symptoms of a much larger malady"(pg. 1 paragraph 3). I thought this was interesting because it was simply saying that society has to change for society to change, which is a little redundant. The point still holds true though, there will be no change in society unless someone who leads it( dominant members of this discourse) strictly make a change against fatty foods.

I tried looking up what farmers had to say about the food we eat everyday, but because they are apart of the marginal discourse, their ideas aren't out in the media. I found one link that directly had farmers opinions about food in general, but there was an error and the page was sadly not able to open. I did find another interesting article named Corn Farmers Say Food Inc. Shouldn't Win Oscar, by Mary Claire Jalonick. This atricle explains how corn farmers were against the documentary "Food Inc." being nominated for an Oscar because it did not show the positive side of food engineering, but only the the ghastly images of slaughter housing and chicken farms that are used by most cooperate agriculture.  The corn farmers response to this  documentery was "If we don't shoot down their arguments with credible and truthful information, our reputation as America's farmers will suffer significantly." To me this sounded more like a plea to keep their jobs but I believe that it is important a documentary like this one came out to show Americans what they are really contributing to when they purchase fast food.