Food: Expressions and Impressions [1 ed.] 9781848882140, 9789004372184

Citation preview

Food

Probing the Boundaries Series Editors Dr Robert Fisher Lisa Howard Dr Ken Monteith Advisory Board James Arvanitakis Katarzyna Bronk Jo Chipperfield Ann-Marie Cook Peter Mario Kreuter S Ram Vemuri

Simon Bacon Stephen Morris John Parry Karl Spracklen Peter Twohig Kenneth Wilson

A Probing the Boundaries research and publications project. http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/ The Making Sense Of Hub ‘Food’

2013

Food: Expressions and Impressions Edited by

Don Sanderson and Mira Crouch

Inter-Disciplinary Press Oxford, United Kingdom

© Inter-Disciplinary Press 2013 http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/id-press/

The Inter-Disciplinary Press is part of Inter-Disciplinary.Net – a global network for research and publishing. The Inter-Disciplinary Press aims to promote and encourage the kind of work which is collaborative, innovative, imaginative, and which provides an exemplar for inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission of Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Inter-Disciplinary Press, Priory House, 149B Wroslyn Road, Freeland, Oxfordshire. OX29 8HR, United Kingdom. +44 (0)1993 882087

ISBN: 978-1-84888-214-0 First published in the United Kingdom in eBook format in 2013. First Edition.

Table of Contents Introduction Mira Crouch and Don Sanderson Part 1

Literary Approaches to Food Food as the Sharing of the World in Monique Trương’s The Book of Salt Shih-hung Chuang and Chia-hsin Liu The Last Victorian Dinner and Reviving Vesta Keiko Tanaka The Roving Gourmand/Detective: Authenticity, Globalisation, Identity and Food in Milenio Carvalho I Nina B. Namaste Food and Civilised Society in the Homeric Epics John Dayton

Part 2

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3 29

23 31

Food and Identity Ethnic Food: The Other in Ourselves Paula Arvela Food Places through the Visual Media: Building Gastronomic Cartographies between Italy and Australia Andrea Bosio Tell Me What You Eat, and I Will Tell You Who You Are Not: An Examination of Food, Culture, Ethnicity, and Identity in Italy Taylor Zaneri Of Kangaroo, Fish and Corn: The Role of Food in the Unbalanced Exchange in Australian Aboriginal, Explorer and Settler Relations Zane Ma Rhea

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Part 3

Food, Culture and Capitalism (Re-)Positioning Food in the Social Consciousness: The Business of the Corporate Food Industry Don Sanderson

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The Political Economy of School Breakfast Programmes: Cereal Offenders Don Sanderson

113

Selling the Farming ‘Way of Life’ at Melbourne’s Farmers’ Markets Kim Neylon

127

Eating for One’s Self Mira Crouch

139

Introduction Mira Crouch and Don Sanderson Nourishment is a basic need for all living things. For most, feeding is a matter of instinct and the happenstance of availability. Humans, however, grow, manufacture and prepare (including purchasing) their food in full consciousness of the fundamental necessity of these activities. Food enters into all aspects of human existence, both individual and social. The daily inevitability of eating (or of its obverse, hunger) has built the production and consumption of food into the very foundations of social life. Food is central to the economy of social systems at all levels. On the global scale food is deeply implicated in the overall economic and political circumstances of the contemporary world - and yet it also separates and distinguishes different social groups at both macro and micro levels. The absolute importance of eating is expressed in all cultures, both practically and through the symbolic order. The twelve chapters in this book explore three facets of the complex ways in which food and eating are woven into social life and culture. In the first section, ‘Literary Approaches to Food,’ the authors consider specific literary works in which food has played a significant part. Here Shih-hung Chuang and Chia-hsin Liu analyses Monique Truong’s novel The Book of Salt, arguing, with reference to Jean-Luc Nancy, that this work evokes food’s capacity to connect disparate persons from conflicting backgrounds - in this case, French and Vietnamese through the sharing of the sensual experience of eating. The theme of conflict and its elaborations in literature is taken up from a different angle in Keiko Tanaka’s analysis of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse. Woolf’s account of her own preparation of Boeuf en Daube against the background of a complex personal situation is investigated by Tanaka to reveal, among other matters, its significance for the changing role of women. Nina B. Namaste’s chapter takes the reader to Spain and the fictional character of detective Pepe Cavalho, a gourmet traveler, who focuses on food culture of each of the many countries he visits. Namaste contends that the text seeks to define and perhaps preserve authenticity of eating practices in the face of ever-encroaching globalisation. This conservationist attitude to eating is also the focus of John Dayton’s chapter on communal dining in the epics of ancient Greece - Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. For instance, Dayton contends that the Iliad’s scenes of ritualistic feasting represent harmony amongst both gods and men - and that the hospitable treatment of guests in the Odyssey is a quintessential example of civilised behaviour. In other words, our identity as humans - as distinct from beasts - is enhanced through the way in which we eat in company with one another. The question of identity runs like a more or less submerged thread through the discussion of many other issues in the four chapters in the first section of the book. The following section addresses identity more explicitly. Paula Arvela explores the

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__________________________________________________________________ place of ‘ethnic food’ in the collective consciousness through two case studies: Australia (a ‘multicultural’ society) and the Tuscan walled city of Lucca - a very traditional Italian city (as most of its inhabitants like to think). The contrast between these two groups demonstrates that representations of ethnic food are contextual and that the meaning of a national cuisine is ambiguous. Andrea Bosio, the author of the second chapter in this section, also makes a comparison between the Australian and Italian contexts, but he does so through the prism of the architecture of food spaces, both urban and domestic, and their mapping in visual media. The different approaches to gastronomy can be seen as a tool for transforming the built environment; what and how we like to eat leaves its imprint on our surroundings. Further interest in Italy’s approach to ethnic food is shown by Taylor Zaneri. Like Arvela, Zaneri is interested in the city of Lucca, but in this chapter the analysis shifts to the notion of ethnicity and its companion concept - the stranger. The tensions in Lucca over ‘ethnic food’ are seen to reflect not only the cuisine, but also the very presence - perhaps unwelcome - of the very (alien) people who produce and consume it. Zaneri and Namaste contributions both show an exploration of the globalisation of food practices and the concomitant erosion of ‘authentic’ food practices as indexing changes in identity and culture. Still in this section, Zane Ma Rhea investigates inter-group relations in the historical setting of the first contact between original inhabitants of Australia with newcomer explorers and colonists. Through the lens of three foods, kangaroo, fish, and corn, two of which are closely linked to the Indigenous sense of identity, the author analyses the changes that have taken place in the early conflicts over food between these two groups. While food scarcity was the most influential factor during the first contact period, food security and sovereignty have always shaped ongoing inter-group relationships. In the third and last section entitled ‘Food, Culture and Capitalism,’ the meaning of food and food production are linked to the way in which food is produced, purchased and consumed in capitalist society. The two chapters by Don Sanderson - on orange juice and breakfast cereals, respectively - illustrate the key role played by commercial interests in creating ‘images’ of particular foods so that these are seen as ‘health-giving’ for school children. In one chapter, the author examines the mythology of Vitamin C (in orange juice, for example) to highlight the way in which it has been used to reposition fruit juice vis-à-vis whole fruit in the social consciousness. In the second chapter, an analysis of messages about school breakfast programmes exposes a developing hegemony around the idea that school breakfast programmes fill an important need in the community - and that breakfast cereals, therefore, represent a valuable good in such programmes. Kim Neylon casts a skeptical look on the ‘stories’ that are told by farmers at farmers’ markets - stories about wholesome food and resistance to supermarkets. These narratives create a ‘feel good’ experience for the market shoppers and help sell the farmers’ products in a context which can be constructed as fundamentally

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__________________________________________________________________ different from the fully commercial outlets. A subtext to this analysis is the identity theme, as the farmers’ market shopping style contributes to a particular sense of self for the patrons of these alternative consumption spaces. In the final chapter, Mira Crouch links personal identity - an important aspect of life in contemporary society - to the ever-increasing food and eating options in capitalist economies. Uncoupled from traditional constraints, personal choices of eating styles can be used as aids in the construction of self-identity, increasingly regarded as an important life-long project. The twelve chapters in this book present a variety of ways in which we can think and write about food as the mainstay not only of life, but also of social and cultural life. While we as editors are proud of the insights provided by the contributors to this volume, it has to be said that their work is but a small sample of what can be done along similar lines. The possibilities are indeed endless. We look forward to efforts yet to come.

Part 1 Literary Approaches to Food

Food as the Sharing of the World in Monique Trương’s The Book of Salt Shih-hung Chuang and Chia-hsin Liu Abstract In this chapter I discuss the role of food enacted by the ‘senses’ in the thought of Jean-Luc Nancy along with Monique Trương’s novel, The Book of Salt. I argue that, while food can be traditionally conceptualised as a culinary and cultural signifier that symbolically represents a certain national identification in the diasporic discourse, food indeed offers a contact among people to share (‘partager’ in French) the senses that connect us with others. Hence food embodies a community - or specifically Nancy’s concept of an inoperative community - that allows for cultural or individual participation, rather than the political signifier of a community. Food - evoking the senses through the hands, lips, eyes, nose, and so forth - serves as a cultural différance. This indicates that any attempt to pin down what a fixed and authentic nationality food represents will finally be proven futile. I want to accentuate the argument that food is an invitation of senses that all people can make and remake, invent and reinvent. Food suspends the existing national identity, suggesting that it cannot fully be subsumed into the existing categories of national identity in the bio-political dimension. As the novel delineates the Vietnamese cook’s exilic and diasporic life experience with his same-sex friend, the pleasure of sensory and sentimental exchanges through the cherries and wine stages how food is capable of constructing a communicative community that brings together the two men, despite the national conflict between France and Vietnam. The two men effectively share their love through the exchange of food, which transcends the national and gender grids imposed by the bio-political and heterogeneous society. Food translates culture, transforms the fixed nationality, and more importantly, transcends the materiality of things. It calls forth an opening access to the world, and for the other. Key Words: Affect, Book of Salt, Partage, Deleuze, Nancy, community. ***** 1. Introduction Food in Monique Trương’s novel The Book of Salt serves as a medium that connects, affects, and touches in its creative and potential manner by illustrating how people (such as Bình and GertrudeStein) transcend what they are (the very substance of one’s form of being) in communicating with each other. The function of food in this novel, I would like to argue, resonates with the concept of clinamen elucidated by Jean-Luc Nancy, who contends that the immanent power of a thing (its differential, creative, and singular force) can go beyond the form that

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Food as the Sharing of the World in Monique Trương’s The Book of Salt

__________________________________________________________________ constrains the thing itself, or beyond the social structure that frames it. 1 In this paper, welding Deleuze’s concept of affect to Nancy’s notion of partage. 2 I propose to read the novel in the light of this concept. I will pursue my argument along three theoretical threads: (1) the radical one that represents how food helps evoke Bình’s memory in such a way that the spatio-temporal demarcations are blurred and ‘expose’ him to the others; (2) another thread that represent how the immanent power of the body can help build a relation of affect across national boundaries; and (3) the thread of food, which, enacted with its intimate relationship with the body, presents a theoretical framework that challenges the body-mind dichotomy, a Western epistemological edifice and foundation. 2. Food - Affect - Transformation In the chapter, I would like to propose the Deleuzian or Spinozian concept of affect in an attempt to dismantle the social and cultural identification and then, propose a singular life, which goes beyond the cultural and national identification underlying the ‘imagined community.’ 3 I would like to embark on a new departure in rethinking the existing diasporic or postcolonial discourse by employing Deleuze’s concept of affect in the hope that we can discuss the diasporic or postcolonial ‘experiences’ without the recourse to the concept of cultural identity. The cultural identity - be it different, heterogeneous, or multiple, as Stuart Hall idiosyncratically illuminates - may itself still fall within the identity, the cultural or even the national identity. This cultural identity, despite its heterogeneity and difference, may become subsumed into another system or structure of metacategory defined and confined within the regime of the State apparatus, which, with its teleological aim and end, attempts to search for the ‘oneness’ or the ‘sameness’ of a nationality. The affect is a relation which enables bodies to connect with each other to dismantle the social identification, and in search for a new, non-personal, impersonal, and even a singular life of one’s own, lead to an individualisation of an individual. 4 Thus, with Deleuze’s concept of affect, 5 we no longer have to ask what we are in the social or cultural identification, but, rather, ask what we are not in terms of a life of one’s own - une vie, une vie singulière (a life, a singular life). Affect, embodied in the food of the novel, plays an important role in reconstructing the relation between the races, genders as well as the order of things (especially the salt constantly mentioned in the novel). I want to accentuate the argument that food, in Bình’s date with Sunday Lover, functions as the aphrodisiac in their mutual bodily touch and lovemaking. Meanwhile, I do not intend to exaggerate that food has the power that will magically change the existing order of things. Food can have the capability of affect, transforming and translating the aura of the space. Food is the medium that produces affects to change the existing coordinates in terms of time and space.

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__________________________________________________________________ In Toklas’s part, her dish of apple pie is not only a delicious dish served for her lover, GertrudeStein, but also a dish that will arouse the feminine desire lurking in their bodies. Bình romantically and erotically describes the food serves as the aphrodisiac: ‘At the end of each week, Miss Toklas by necessity and by desire steps back into the kitchen, gets butter and flour underneath her fingernails, breathes in the smell of cinnamon, burns her tongue, and is comforted.’ 6 The fingernails, the smell of cinnamon, and the kitchen compose a rather sensual aura of the environment. The materiality of food exceeds its form of ‘food,’ and evokes its immanent power of affect, affecting those people in the kitchen and changing the ordinary aura of the kitchen. Also, there is another description of having a duck meal with Bình’s lover that erotically arouses the desire, a scene whose importance warrants a lengthy citation: Then, once the duck has been served, I will leave your garret for the night, for a café and a glass or two of something strong, very strong, and you and your someone else will be alone at last. My departure will signal that intimacy has joined the party. Civility has called it a night. You two can now dispense with the forks, knives, and spoons. Your hands will tear at an animal whose joints will know no resistance. The sight of flesh surrendering, so willing a participant in its own transgression, will intoxicate you. Tiny seeds from heat-pregnant figs will insinuate themselves underneath your nails. You will be sure to notice and try to suck them out. You will begin with each other’s fingers. You will end on your knees. 7 From the two explicit images of the duck torn down by the fingers and the heatpregnant figs, the food is more than the food itself. The food exceeds the forms of the material ‘food’ and the culinary ‘food.’ The duck, the figs, and the fingers compose, however, a somewhat erotic picture, connoting the two men’s kissing and caressing along with the food served. Food does maintain a potential to exert its immanent power (puissance) of enacting and being enacted with one another in its attempt to create a new form of relation. In the novel, for Bình, who stays in a place where he is unable to manipulate the dominant language, a place where he sees as ‘a temple’ of food rather ‘a home’ 8 of his, food uncovers a sphere wherein he can ‘speak’ fluently again with his unique way of articulation. For him, ‘[e]very kitchen is a homecoming.’ 9 In the fantastic kingdom of cooking, he imagines himself as the king welcome by his townspeople, the food. The kitchen becomes a place where he will gain respect from, a place he would be praised and embraced again, a ‘room’ of his own. The kitchen is the very place where he can re-establish his relation with the food he emotionally feels so familiar with. The sense of familiarity of his

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Food as the Sharing of the World in Monique Trương’s The Book of Salt

__________________________________________________________________ relation with food nourishes his heart, though somewhat discouraged by his former and present employers, to continue his dream of being the chef in the foreign city. Food here has its immanent power to nourish and further nurture his discouraged heart to go on. With his relation to the food in the familiar milieu (i.e., the kitchen), Bình is affectively allowed to have his memory, emotion, or sense of identity regained. Food thus has both nurturing and restoring power for individuals who relate to it. As for people who relish the food made by Bình, ‘[t]hey are, by the end, overwhelmed by an emotion that they have never felt, a nostalgia for places they have never been.’ 10 Food in this case seems to evoke such memories that flow effusively and effortlessly from a fortuitous, fleeting coincidence and correspondence of a part and present, a nurturing place for those who feel forlorn and nostalgic. 3. Sharing of the World/Partage du Monde Shameem Black argues that ‘cooking has become the universal language, an international tongue that allows us to communicate’, reinforcing explicitly the fact that food, as a common and cosmopolitan language, however silent or passive it might appear to be, is able to translate two diverse cultures into communication by generating a culinary discourse. 11 Such is the case, I want to argue, that deals theoretically with Monique Trương’s début novel The Book of Salt, in which salt, or food in general, serves to be one of the most pivotal role, if not the most, to invite the people - either American, French, or Vietnamese - to share the singularity of their love. Set mainly in Paris from the years between late 1920s and early 1930s, Trương fabricates an autobiography narrated in the first person by Bình, the Vietnamese exile cook whose life turns around food. What is at issue here is food, a medium that connects and communicates between two cultures, bears the immanent power to generate a new identity - the culinary identity that exemplifies Jean-Luc Nancy’s concepts of ‘sharing’ and ‘community.’ This concept is proposed by Nancy, whose theoretical inquiry resides in the emphasis on his genealogical inheritance of Heidegger’s concept of Mitsein (being-with). Also, the new identity of emphasising the sharing of the singularity with others calls forth a new ethics, an ethics for the other, or an ethics of Mitsein. The ethics of Mitsein addresses the concern that the people are allowed to share their singularity with one another without reducing their otherness at the same time. 12 Meanwhile, my emphasis will be laid on how food, as an ‘other’ and an ‘intruder’ to the subject body, is capable of transforming any identity discursively defined by the nation-state power into a context of an ethics that reinforces the togetherness. Such a move of blurring between cultures and nations, between gender and ethnic groups, is ethical - ethical enough to anticipate a new potentiality of constructing a communicative community, or, to employ Nancy’s words, an ‘inoperative community’ (la communauté desœuvrée). 13 In the inoperative community, the identities of self and the other are blurred, and embody

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__________________________________________________________________ an ethics of inviting the other to enrich the world by sharing their otherness of culture and cuisine. The ethics of Mitsein is conceptually reflected in the novel, in which Bình seems to play the mastery role of seducing the Frenchmen, Chef Blériot and Sweet Sunday Man, by means of food - and the cases of GertrudeStein and Miss Toklas seems to exemplify the same paradigm. The national or cultural gaps determined by the sovereignty power fail to function; Bình is allowed to share his love with the French counterparts through food. In this regard, food serves the ethics for the other and an ethics of Mitsein, in which the distinction between self and other becomes blurred, and the others would be invited into the (inoperative) community with their otherness. Their love can be exchanged and shared without excluding the issues of nationality, gender, and culture. With Trương’s vivid description of the figs and the duck torn, we are allowed to see that the food under Trương’s pen can evoke the desire lurking between the two men and challenge the hierarchical civility between the French chef and the Vietnamese asiaque cook. In the same-sex encounter, the Vietnamese cook initiates his invitation to the white French chef, along with the erotic aura that the food affectively evokes. Food can be used as a means of invitation to bring together the people around the globe. With the sharing of food, the people, despite the diversity and even hatred, are allowed to taste the cuisines offered by the different people. A cuisine collectively embodies a cultural group of people. Also, I want to reiterate that each cuisine is actually cooked in relation to food materials. The cuisine implies a collective relation of the food materials used and grown with the earth that nourishes. As well, food also uniquely exposes its singular presence in the heterogeneous mixture through the different food materials on a dish. Thus, food embodies the collective gathering of the relation of the people and the earth on the one hand, and it also exposes its singular presence to us, on the other. The pré-salé lambs seems best to account for the relations - both collective and singular - with the people who taste and the milieu (or simply the environment) of the plants growing or grown. Pré-salé lambs are named for the salt marshes along the northern coast of France where they graze. Saltwater overflows onto flat stretches of land and leaves behind a sweet mix of herbs and flora. Elemental and tender, pré-salé lambs are salted and seasoned from the raw beginning. Now that, Miss Toklas thinks, is forethought. The first bite is a revelation of flavors, infused and deep. The second bite is a reminder of why we kill and eat the young. The third allows the brain back into the fray to ask, But how is it possible? 14

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__________________________________________________________________ I want to reiterate that the dish of pré-salé lambs, or commonly called agneau de pré-salé (French: ‘Salt meadow lamb’), explicitly the very spatial milieu composed by ‘the salt marshes,’ ‘flat stretches of land,’ and ‘a sweet mix of herbs and flora.’ The food in the dish is not only its material parts; it embodies the relation of space where the lambs grew and grazed. The pré-salé lambs are actually composed of the multiplicity of herbs and flora and water and so forth. Meanwhile, the dish of pré-salé lambs is particularly served only in the coastal climate of France. 4. Conclusion In a manner that distinctively centres on food as the leitmotiv of the novel, the food in Monique Trương’s The Book of Salt serves as, I want to argue, a means of invitation to bring together the people around the world. With the sharing of food, the people, despite the diversity and even hatred, are involved into the access to the different people by tasting the cuisines offered from other corners of the world. On the one hand, one cuisine collectively embodies a cultural group of people. It is concerned with the relation of food materials. The cuisine implies a collective relation of the food materials used and grown with the earth that nourishes. On the other hand, food also uniquely exposes its singular presence as heterogeneously mixed by the different food materials on a dish. Food suspends and the borders constructed by culture, and it evokes a sense of togetherness that collectively combines the beings of the world. Food is like a bridge, bridging the gap caused by the cultural illusions constructed by the difference of people. To employ Jean-Luc Nancy’s term, food offers a medium for us to conceptualize partage - sharing the food in the reciprocal community on the one hand, and the dividing singularity (in the sense that food cannot simply be subsumed by, or reduced to, fixed identity of thinking) of food served, on the other hand. Food conjoins us together yet, sunders us because of the difference and singularity among us. Like the food served in the novel, it serves as a medium that connects GertrudeStein and Alice Toklas, as well as Bình and Lattimore.

Notes 1

Jean-Luc Nancy, The Inoperative Community (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 3-4. 2 Jean-Luc Nancy, Being Singular Plural (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press), 34-45. 3 Lucas Crawford, ‘Transgender without Organs? Mobilizing a Geo-Affective Theory of Gender Modification’, WSQ: Woman’s Studies Quarterly 36 (2008): 132.

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__________________________________________________________________ 4

Gilles Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy (San Francisco: City Lights), 3435. 5 Brian Massumi, Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation (Durham: Duke University Press), 55-64. 6 Monique Trương, The Book of Salt (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 2003), 26. 7 Ibid., 79-80. 8 Ibid., 22. 9 Ibid., 19. 10 Ibid. 11 Shameem Black, ‘Recipes for Cosmopolitanism: Cooking across Borders in the South Asian Diaspora’, Frontiers: A Journal of Woman Studies 31 (2010): 3. 12 Ian James, The Fragmentary Demand: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Jean-Luc Nancy (Stanford: Stanford University Press), 198-201. 13 Nancy, The Inoperative Community, 1-42. 14 Trương, The Book of Salt, 178.

Bibliography Black, Shameem. ‘Recipes for Cosmopolitanism: Cooking across Borders in the South Asian Diaspora’. Frontiers: A Journal of Woman Studies 31, No. 1 (2010): 1–30. Caygill, Howard. ‘The Shared World: Philosophy, Violence, Freedom’. In On Jean-Luc Nancy: The Sense of Philosophy, edited by Darren Sheppard, Simon Sparks, and Colin Thomas, 22–33. London: Routledge, 1997. Crawford, Lucas. ‘Transgender without Organs? Mobilizing a Geo-Affective Theory of Gender Modification’. WSQ: Woman’s Studies Quarterly 36 (Fall/Winter, 2008): 127–143. Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson, and Robert Galeta. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. —––. Spinoza: Practical Philosophy. Translated by Robert Hurley. San Francisco: City Lights, 1988. Deleuze, Gilles, and Claire Parnet. Dialogues. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson, and Barbara Habberjam. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987.

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__________________________________________________________________ Deleuze, Gilles, and Félix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated by Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1987. James, Ian. The Fragmentary Demand: An Introduction to the Philosophy of JeanLuc Nancy. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006. Massumi, Brian. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham: Duke University Press, 2002. Nancy, Jean-Luc. The Inoperative Community. Translated by Peter Connor. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991. —––. The Experience of Freedom. Translated by Bridget McDonald. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994. —––. The Sense of the World. Translated by Jeffrey S. Librett. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. —––. Being Singular Plural. Translated by Robert D. Richardson, and Anne E. O’Byrne. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000. Trương, Monique. 2003. The Book of Salt. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Wong Sau-ling Cynthia. Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993. Shih-hung Chuang is now a PhD student of Department of English Department, National Taiwan Normal University, specializing in contemporary French philosophy (particularly Deleuze, Foucault, and Jean-Luc Nancy) as well as the post-colonial novel. Chia-hsin Liu is currently an MA student of Department of English Department, National Taiwan Normal University, specialising in the Asian-American Diaspora novel.

The Last Victorian Dinner and Reviving Vesta Keiko Tanaka Abstract Virginia Woolf was a gourmet, though she had anorexia during her depression periods. She broke the (then) novelists convention by describing food at the dinner scene in To the Lighthouse. E. M. Forster praised the vivid description of the dish, something male writers could not do. But is it fair to connect the femaleness of the writer with the dishes when it was the cook that made the dish? Did Woolf cook the dish herself? Boeuf en Daube was not part of the Victorian genteel cuisine but a Provençal specialty Bloomsbury artists discovered. Vanessa Bell was a mother but she kept her energy away from cooking and household chore for the sake of her art creation. Woolf shared this Bohemian attitude. She managed to cook for herself in order to secure privacy from servants. It was also difficult to find cooks between the World Wars, which was a problem since Wolf loved good food. At the same time the gender role of women was changing. It is not until the end of Victorian era when the cooking became the duty of lower class women that femininity and cooking were firmly connected. Key Words: Cooking, femaleness, French cuisine, gourmet, maternity, mistress, servants, middle class, WWI. ***** 1. Introduction Virginia Woolf was a gourmet, although she had anorexia during her periods of depression. In A Room of One’s Own, she wrote it is a curious fact that novelists have a way of making us believe that luncheon parties are invariably memorable for something very witty that was said, or for something very wise that was done. But they seldom spare a word for what was eaten. It is part of the novelist’s convention not to mention soup and salmon and ducklings, as if soup and salmon and ducklings were of no importance whatsoever, as if nobody ever smoked a cigar or drank a glass of wine. 1 However, Wolf herself broke the convention at the dinner scene in To the Lighthouse. E. M. Forster praised her vivid description of the dish as something male writers were not capable of. 2 But is it fair to connect the femaleness of the writer with her dishes when most probably a cook made the dish? Or did Woolf cook the dish herself?

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__________________________________________________________________ Virginia Woolf’s family and many of her brilliant friends contributed to Recollections of Virginia Woolf, and by reading through this book we can see the development of Virginia Woolf as a cook. Her chronicles The Years and her letters and diaries also tell us about the historical background of the changing gender role of women and of the breakup of labour relations of servants working in the middle class family. 3 In this chapter I will discuss the meaning of cooking for the ladies of the Victorian middle class and the choice of Boeuf en Daube as the main dish in To the Lighthouse, focusing on the cultural significance of cooking, Woolf’s eating habits and her relationship with her servants. 2. Eating Out and Boarding In ‘1910’ of The Years Rose Pargiter pitied Maggie for having to do her own cooking because her household was poor. In the early part of the century cooking was a task for servants in middle class homes with moderate incomes. They were poor, Rose thought, glancing round her. That was why they had chosen this house to live in - because it was cheap. They cooked their own food - Sally had gone into the kitchen to make the coffee. 4 Born into a middle class family which had servants Woolf had no experience of household chores and no chance to attend the required education classes in household arts at school, unlike many contemporary girls. Leonard did not expect Virginia to show affection as a wife through cooking because he had to serve her and care for her when she was under mental health treatment. And then their relationship developed into one of partners with a dual career. As a result, the couple depended heavily on cooks and servants. The newly married couple found a place to rent near Fleet Street in London and dined at a tavern, The Cock, every night. Leonard Woolf wrote in his autobiography of the joy he felt when he was recognized as ‘regular’ by the head waiter. 5 A few years after their marriage, Virginia’s cousin Barbara Bagenal was helping with typesetting at Hogarth Press. An anecdote from that time tells us how bad a cook Virginia was. She was amazed at the fact that Barbara could make scrambled eggs. One weekend, when Virginia and Leonard were staying at Asheham, I walked over from Charleston to stay the night with them. When I arrived, Virginia said that she did not know what we could have for supper because the woman who came in to cook for them was ill. I suggested that I made some scrambled

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__________________________________________________________________ eggs. Virginia was amazed and said, “Can you really cook scrambled eggs?” 6 Leonard, after considering his wife’s mental condition, decided to move from the bustle of central London to the suburbs. They found lodgings in Richmond and the Belgian landlady, Mrs le Grys, boarded the couple. When Virginia’s condition became more settled she began to attend a cookery school in order to help the household economy as a poor man’s wife. However, she disgraced herself by clumsily cooking her wedding ring into a suet pudding. 7 After her marriage Woolf had a mental breakdown and was often ill with anorexia as well as headaches, insomnia, depression and guilt. Yet she had a strong desire for good food when she was in her best condition. For instance, she complained about a bad dinner at Furnham College opposite Oxbridge Colleges. ‘One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.’ 8 In Britain home cooking made great progress in the first half of the 20th century because of the influence of restaurants, and the publication of magazines and cook books. It was Marcel Boulestin who, in the media, had a considerable influence on British cooking during the interwar period. 9 He was a Frenchman and served as a secretary for Colette’s first husband but left him in 1906 and came to London penniless. He succeeded in journalism and his cookbook Simple French Cooking for English Homes made him the most fashionable food writer in London. He contributed cooking columns to major newspapers and famous magazines like Vogue and Spectator. In 1925 he opened the Restaurant Françoise in Piccadilly and Duncan Grant decorated the interior. He also opened a cooking school in Fortnum and Mason’s which was patronised by fashionable ladies. (Later Woolf had her cook Nelly Boxall and her successor Mabel Haskins take this cooking course.) He was also the first television chef, appearing on BBC as early as in 1937. In her Recollections Madge Garland, the fashion editor of Vogue, wrote that it was Virginia Woolf who led Boulestin to open a restaurant in London. 10 However, later Woolf declined an invitation from Boulestin by making a feeble excuse. 11 3. Dinner in To the Lighthouse The highlight scene of To the Lighthouse is the dinner party in Part One where Mrs. Ramsay acts as a hostess of the table. Dinner at home was still in fashion among middle class from toward the end of the Victorian through the Edwardian period. Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management which had been revised many times since the latter half of the Victorian period was a guidebook basic to middleclass ladies. In Mrs. Ramsay‘s attitude before and during the dinner party we see the ideal mistress of Mrs. Beeton’s book. The book contains the dream recipes of aristocrats and sends out the message that the mistress herself need not do the dirty chores. 12

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__________________________________________________________________ Woolf described a typical middle class dinner party at home at the turn of the century and the art of Mrs. Ramsay as the lady of the house. Roland Barthes holds that the first hour of the table is marked by ‘the appearance of new dishes, the discovery of their originality, and the élan conversation.’ 13 However, guests could not talk about food at the table in the Victorian era. Food was taboo as a topic at a respectable table as were politics and religion. But it was Boulestin who changed this custom between the Wars. He wrote ‘Do not be afraid to talk about food. Food which is worth eating is worth discussing. And there is the occult power of words which somehow will develop its qualities.’ 14 So what brings together the diners is not the Victorian table manners but the lively discussion of Mrs. Ramsay’s food and the main dish. According to Roland Barthes the inner pleasure induced by eating, beyond taste itself, can be obtained by observing the influence of the cooking on others. ‘A vague scopic drive hovers about the table; one sees (spies?) the food’s effects on the other, one grasps the body is worked from within.’ 15 A table is a theatre stage. To dine is the mythical role of men and to cook or serve is that of women. Mrs. Ramsay takes special care for Mr. Bankes at this dinner after he has finally accepted an invitation. The success of the main dish is recognised by Mrs. Ramsay because of Mr. Bankes’ remarks. “It is a triumph,” said Mr. Bankes, laying his knife down for a moment. He had eaten attentively. It was rich; it was tender. It was perfectly cooked. How did she manage these things in the depths of the country? he asked her. She was a wonderful woman. All his love, all his reverence, had returned; and she knew it. “It is a French recipe of my grandmother’s,” said Mrs. Ramsay, speaking with a ring of great pleasure in her voice. 16 Though the author has noted that Boeuf en Daube is Mildred’s masterpiece, Mr. Bankes’ praise is not of the cook but of Mrs. Ramsay. The mistress never cooks herself but decides the menu and just gives direction to servants. Ever since Jane Austin’s heroine days middle class housewives had not been valued for their cooking skills but rather for their ability in managing servants. Woolf wrote out the recipe of Boeuf en Daube in the draft of her novel but deleted it in the final script. 17 Did the author think it was not good to reveal the magic of cooking? Or was it because cooking was the task of the cook as Others, beyond the mistress’s knowledge? In a letter to her sister, Vanessa asked about how to cook Boeuf en Daube. 18 The Boeuf en Daube might represent Woolf’s own cooking. Why did the author decide on the main dish as Boeuf en Daube? Because the menu at the Ramsay’s had to be differentiated from the common English or French cooking and also have aristocratic innovations. A typical English roast of beef was not appropriate for the

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__________________________________________________________________ main dish. The main dish had to be ‘tender, feminine, and magically transfigured’ in the words of Erich Neumann. Using Neumann’s image of Great Mother I can establish this supposition. 19 This Daube can be thought of as the symbol of femaleness, as a vessel is the symbol of the womb. Clay, the vessel of the Daube, belongs to earth and the earth is a feminine being which bears all creation. Watching the fire is the heart of the female mystique. In prehistoric ages guarding and tending the fire and cooking meat was the role of males, but after fires were lit in rooms and the oven was invented, women became identified with an oven and cooking became the female magic of transfiguration. 20 In ancient Rome Vesta is the goddess of the oven. On the dinner table there was a cornucopia of decoration which is another symbol of nourishment, luxuriance and maternity. 21 The mother’s role as a soup provider is as old as soup itself. Afterwards Mrs. McNab recalled the late Mrs. Ramsay in connection with milk soup. This image has an association with the portrait of Milk Soup and Madonna by Gerald David, sixteenth century Dutch artist. 22 Milk soup is the representation of Mrs. Ramsay’s maternity. She could well remember her in her grey cloak. “Good-evening, Mrs McNab,” she said, and told cook to keep a plate of milk soup for her - quite thought she wanted it, carrying that heavy basket all the way up from town. 23 The dinner party was over successfully and it resulted in being the last dinner as Mrs. Ramsay thought that it would remain as an everlasting memory for the guests. The dinner was the end of the Edwardian age which ‘glowed like an autumn sunset,’ to borrow the words of Molly Harrison. 24 4. Bohemian Taste Mrs Beeton’s Book of House Management has recipes for foreign food, but there is no description on Boeuf en Daube in any of the editions. When and where did Woolf learn about Boeuf en Daube? A daube is a Provençal narrow necked earthen ware container. According to Miranda Carter, Boeuf en Daube is a kind of French peasant stew and there are innumerable variations but the process of simmering slowly for long time is common to all. Carter remarked that it was unusual that such a French local dish to appear in an English novel in 1927. 25 Nicola Humble said that Boeuf en Daube was the representation of Woolf’s Bohemianism. 26 At that time Bohemian meant writers and artists and at the turn of the century London drew ambitious young writers and artists together, as did Paris. They pursued their ideals and established a unique lifestyle. The ‘Bohemia’ of London was located in the Chelsea district where American intellectuals gathered, and the Bloomsbury district was the haunt of

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__________________________________________________________________ University of London and Slade Art school students. For this reason Vanessa decided to live in the Bloomsbury area after her father’s death. Female artists of the Bloomsbury set brought back new tastes from their travels to France and Italy, and these characterised Bohemian kitchen tables. Vanessa Bell loved simple French country dishes using olive oil, herbs and garlic rather than authentic French dishes. That was appropriate for Bohemians, who were liberal, voluptuous, and experimental. 27 Bohemians wanted to concentrate on creating art more than doing household chores but still felt it was important to foster the spirit as the source of creativity by eating good food. So in wartime Vanessa baked bread herself. Boeuf en Daube was a Provençal dish which Vanessa Bell enjoyed with her family in Cassis. Since Roger Fry’s first visit to the South of France in 1923, Cassis had been the second stronghold for the Bloomsbury group. The Woolfs visited there in 1925. The ocean view of the Midi recalled the summer at St. Ives to Woolf and bore fruit in To the Lighthouse. 5. Servant Problems In ‘Mr Bennett and Mrs Brown’ Woolf railed against a woman’s obligation to do household chores as ‘the convention,’ mentioning Mrs. Carlyle who had to cover the task of scullery maids. 28 Vanessa Bell was a mother but she saved her energy that would be spent on cooking and household chores for the sake of her art. She often drew servants at work - cooking, cleaning or caring for children in the nursery. Woolf shared this Bohemian attitude. In A Rooms of One’s Own Woolf as a writer would like to have five hundred pounds a year income, which is partly to pay for domestic services. So even when they could hardly find servants because of the changing times, the Woolfs depended on cooks and eating out. After Leslie Stephen’s death the Stephen family’s cook, Sophie Farrell, followed the Stephens and then was hired by the Bell family. In ‘1913’ of The Years, the scene in which Eleanor leaves the Abercorn Terrace household and says goodbye to Crosby, the cook, reminds us of Sophie’s devotion to the family. The Stephen family could not do without a cook. Before 1914 most families could afford at least one servant, but when the war broke out, women were able to get jobs at factories, and it was difficult to find employees for household service. In ‘1917’ of The Years Eleanor was invited to a dinner in the middle of an air raid attack in London. The servant did nothing but the dish washing and the task was done carelessly, because the live-in servant had gone. In ‘the Modern Age’ Norse had just returned from Africa and was given board service with Sara. But the maid served underdone mutton and the vegetable dish was not appetising at all. This dinner scene tells of the decline in the quality of servants between the wars. By the time of the First World War Woolf was able to make a potluck meal of macaroni and competed in bread baking with her sister. Woolf also started preserve

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__________________________________________________________________ making. According to Angelica Garnet her aunt was poor at sewing but did the cooking and made preserved fruits. Woolf was proud of her cupboard at Monks House which was lined with bottled gooseberries and raspberries. 29 Since Woolf treasured privacy as a writer, she could not stand up to life with servants on a different level. In her diary she referred to servants as Others, a different race. 30 Her class consciousness was Victorian, so she was not able to keep company with servants as friends nor command them with dignity. 31 Alison Light pointed out that the relationships between female servants and Woolf were a very complicated ones of mutual dependence like that between a mother and daughter, or sometimes lovers. 32 Like most of Victorian middle class children, for Woolf domestic servants were substitute mothers. Louie Mayer, the last cook at Monk’s House, understood that her mistress wanted to save time for writing, rather than to cook, though she sometimes wanted to do the cooking. 33 Woolf managed to cook herself in order to secure privacy from servants, because of the difficulty in finding cooks during the interwar years, and because of her desire to eat good food, which coincided with the changing gender role of women. Her cooking was just a hobby. She could get a sense of fulfilment through writing rather than making preserves as she declared in her modernist manifesto. 6. Conclusion Boeuf en Daube is not genteel Victorian cuisine but a Provençal specialty that Bloomsbury artists discovered. It is not Mrs. Ramsay’s creation though it represents her maternity. Behind this contradiction lies the fact that the time was one of transition for middle class wives when they had to learn to manage without servants. Technology also released women from the toil of household chores and the lady of the house retrieved the act of cooking. It was not until the end of the Edwardian era, until which time cooking had been the duty of lower class women, that femininity and cooking became connected. In later years we can find Woolf acting as a housewife who carried out domestic duties and served meals as a matter of course. The haddock referred to in the last entry of her diary was a standard menu of Woolf’s. And now with some pleasure I find that its seven; & must cook dinner. Haddock & sausage meat. I think it is true that one gains a certain hold on sausage & haddock by writing them down. (8th March 1941) 34

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Notes 1

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (London: Hogarth Press, 1978 [1929]), 16. I think this observation does not apply to Charles Dickens. 2 Joan Russell Noble, ed., Recollections of Virginia Woolf (Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin. 1975), 236. 3 I was inspired by The Parlour and Suburb by Judy Giles, Parlour and the Suburb: Domestic Identities, Class, Femininity and Modernity (Oxford: Berg, 2004). She states it should be more significant to focus on domesticity in terms of modernity to visualise historical existence of women without limiting the definition of modernity as particular artistic way for representing the world emerged in turn of the century. 4 Virginia Woolf, The Years (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 [1937]), 162. 5 Leonard Woolf, Beginning Again: An Autobiography of the Years 1911-1918 (London: Hogarth Press, 1968), 87. 6 Noble, Recollections of Virginia Woolf, 185. 7 Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf (London: Hogarth Press, 1972), 21. 8 Woolf, A Room of One’s Own, 28. 9 Marcel X. Boulestin, Ease and Endurance: Being a Translation of X. Marcel Boulestin’s A Londres Naguère, trans. Robin Adair (London: Home & Van Thal, 1948). 10 Noble, Recollections of Virginia Woolf, 210-211. 11 Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, eds., The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Vol. 6 (New York and London: Harcout Brace Jovanovich 1980), Appendix B Letters 3007a. 531. 12 Nicola Humble, Culinary Pleasures (London: Faber & Faber, 2005), 16-17. 13 The preface to Brillat Savarin’s Physiology of Taste is collected in On Signs as ‘Roland Barthes Reading Brillat-Savarin.’ Marshall Blonsky, On Signs (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985), 71. 14 Marcel X. Boulestin, Simple French Cooking for English Home (London: William Heinemann, 1923), 1. 15 Blonsky, On Signs, 63. 16 Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006 [1927]), 82. 17 Susan Dick, To the Lighthouse: The Original Holograph Draft (London: Hogarth Press, 1983), 129. 18 Regina Marler, Selected Letters of Vanessa Bell (Wakefield: Moyer Bell, 1998), 318. 19 Erich Neumann, The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype, trans. Ralph Manheim (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), 42-44. 20 Ibid., 285.

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__________________________________________________________________ 21

Ibid., 45. Gerald David, Madonna and Child with the Milk Soup, ca. 1520 Museé s Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. 23 Woolf, To the Lighthouse, 112. 24 Harrison states ‘in many ways the 19th century did not end until 1914.’ Molly Harrison, Kitchen in History (Reading: Osprey, 1972), 129. 25 Miranda Carter, ‘A Boeuf en Daube for To the Lighthouse’, The Charleston Magazine 9 (Spring/Summer, 1994): 50. 26 Humble notes the association of bohemian taste and bourgeois. See Nicola Humble, The Feminine Middlebrow Novel 1920s to 1950s: Class, Domesticity, and Bohemianism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 140. 27 Virginia Nicholson, Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939 (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, William Morrow, 2004), 167. 28 Virginia Woolf, The Captain’s Death Bed: And Other Essays (London: Hogarth Press, 1981 [1950]), 91. 29 Noble, Recollections of Virginia Woolf, 104. 30 Anne Olivier Bell, ed., The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Vol. 5. (San Diego, New York and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984), 220. 31 Hermione Lee, Virginia Woolf (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), 350. 32 Alison Light, Mrs Woolf and the Servants: The Hidden Heart of Domestic Service (London: Penguin Fig Tree, 2007), 165. 33 Noble, Recollections of Virginia Woolf, 191. 34 Virginia Woolf, Diary, 358. 22

Bibliography Bell, Anne Olivier, ed. The Diary of Virginia Woolf. Vol. 5. San Diego, New York, and London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984. Bell, Quentin. Virginia Woolf. London: Hogarth Press, 1972. Blonsky, Marshall. On Signs. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985. Boulestin, X. Marcel. Simple French Cooking for English Homes. London: William Heinemann, 1923. —––. A Second Helping. London: Heinemann,1932. —––. Ease and Endurance: Being a Translation of X. Marcel Boulestin’s A Londres Naguère. Translated by Robin Adair. London: Home & Van Thal, 1948.

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__________________________________________________________________ Carter, Miranda. ‘A Boeuf en Daube for To the Lighthouse’. The Charleston Magazine 9 (Spring/Summer, 1994): 50–53. Caws, Mary Ann, and Sarah Bird Wright. Bloomsbury and France: Art and Friends. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Dick, Susan. To the Lighthouse: The Original Holograph Draft. London: Hogarth Press, 1983. Giles, Judy. Parlour and the Suburb: Domestic Identities, Class, Femininity and Modernity. Oxford: Berg, 2004. Harrison, Molly. Kitchen in History. Reading: Osprey, 1972. Hope, Annette. Londoner’s Larder: English Cuisine From Chaucer to the Present. Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, 1990. Humble, Nicola. Feminine Middlebrow Novel, 1920s to 1950s: Class, Domesticity, and Bohemianism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. —––. Culinary Pleasures. London: Faber & Faber, 2005. Lee, Hermione. Virginia Woolf. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1997. Light, Alison. Mrs Woolf and the Servants: The Hidden Heart of Domestic Service. London: Penguin Fig Tree, 2007. Neumann, Erich. The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963. Nicholson, Virginia. Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939. New York: HarperCollins publishers, William Morrow, 2004. Nicolson, Nigel, and Joanne Trautmann, eds. The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Vol. 6. New York and London: Harcout Brace Jovanovich, 1980. Noble, Joan Russell, ed. Recollections of Virginia Woolf. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1975.

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__________________________________________________________________ Woolf, Leonard. Beginning Again: An Autobiography of the Years 1911-1918. London: Hogarth Press, 1968. Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2006 [1927]. —––. A Room of One’s Own. London: Hogarth Press, 1978 [1929]. —––. The Years. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992 [1937]. —––. The Captain’s Death Bed: And Other Essays. London: Hogarth Press, 1981 [1950]. Keiko Tanaka is associate professor of cultural history at Shizuoka Sangyo University. She is interested in food culture and the lives of women writers and at work on food in anglophone literature.

The Roving Gourmand/Detective: Authenticity, Globalisation, Identity and Food in Milenio Carvalho I Nina B. Namaste Abstract Spanish writer, intellectual, and gourmand, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, transformed crime fiction with detective Pepe Carvalho’s insatiable appetite for food and knowledge. So noted were his culinary explorations and tastings that Vázquez Montalbán dedicated a book, Recetas de Carvalho (Carvalho’s Recipes), to his eating. In the second-to-last of the twenty-plus book series, the detective and his partner, Biscuter, move beyond the comfortable realm of Barcelona, Spain and crisscross the globe, facing innumerable challenges and adventures. Though first meant to be a vacation, they soon find themselves accused of murder and sought for arrest, yet what they most focus on is the food and food culture of each country they visit, not as mere tourists, but as travellers. Whether it is a special type of cow in Italy or a delectable dish in India, Carvalho and Biscuter search out the ‘authentic.’ The two detectives work hard to find authentic dishes and, more importantly, equally authentic representations of culture. Using a frame of George Ritzer’s McDonaldization of Culture I contend that the exploration of culturally embedded food practices becomes a mechanism by which the author questions and negotiates the idea and definition of authenticity. Globalisation, in the text, erodes local cultures and traditions, particularly domestic and culinary ones. The protagonists’ far-reaching travels portray cultural identity in the face of eroded boundaries, increased levels of violence, and isolation as a consequence of an everencroaching globalisation. Key Words: Globalisation, traveller vs tourist, culinary imagery, authenticity, memory, cultural identity. ***** Spanish writer, intellectual, and gourmand, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, transformed crime fiction in the 1970s with detective Pepe Carvalho’s insatiable appetite for food and knowledge. So noted where his culinary explorations and tastings that Vázquez Montalbán dedicated a book, Recetas de Carvalho, to the detective’s culinary adventures. In the second-to-last of the twenty-plus book series, the detective and his partner, Biscuter, move beyond the comfortable realm of Barcelona, Spain to crisscross the globe, facing innumerable challenges and adventures. Though first meant to be a vacation, they soon find themselves accused of murder and sought for arrest. As they escape and fumble in and out of each situation they concomitantly focus on the food and food culture of each country they visit. Whether it is a special cow in Italy or a delectable dish in India,

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__________________________________________________________________ Carvalho and Biscuter search out that which is ‘authentic.’ The two detectives work hard to find authentic dishes and, more importantly, equally authentic representations of culture. As ‘authentic’ travellers, which differ from tourists, they visit places Carvalho has been prior only to find that the myth, or memory, is better than the modern reality. Memory and the exploration of culturally embedded food practices becomes a mechanism by which the author questions and negotiates the idea of authenticity. Carvalho repeatedly comments that globalisation, or the ‘Walt Disney-ification’ of cities and cultures, erodes local cultures and traditions, particularly domestic and culinary ones. Thus, the protagonists’ far-reaching travels portray cultural identity in the face of eroded boundaries, decreased distinctiveness, increased levels of violence, and isolation as a consequence of an ever-encroaching globalisation. Finding, and relishing, a country’s culinary treasures reclaims food as a key to cultural authenticity and distinctiveness, at least within the confines of the text, yet such authenticity is both elusive and fraught with tension. The frame by which Carvalho and Biscuter seek authenticity starts with the mental mode in which they travel: as travellers, not tourists. Travellers have a starting date, but no ending date, while tourists have concrete starting and ending dates. 1 That said, the definition of traveller extends beyond starting and ending dates. Biscuter describes his mother as ‘mentally a traveller’ even though she never left the confines of her hometown. 2 At key moments when things arise, such as the request to take a man with them as they travel from Israel to Turkey, Carvalho and Biscuter look at each other and ask, ‘tourist or traveller?’ before always reaffirming their position as travellers. For them travellers are able to take advantage of the opportunities and adventures presented in their travels without being straight-jacketed by an itinerary. There is also a superiority in their reaffirmations; while Carvalho and Biscuter may visit the ‘touristy’ sites such as the Taj Mahal or the Pantheon, the two men consider themselves to be travelers because of their continual search for something deeper, richer, and more meaningful - cultural understanding. Carvalho and Biscuter posit that the traveller has the time, and disposition, to seek out the day-to-day, ‘ordinary’ culture, which in the text translates to be food culture. For instance, when they arrive in Greece they seek out a restaurant where Greek food would be ‘liberated from the corset of the tourist industry.’ 3 Biscuter and Carvalho distinguish the food sold to tourists from the food travellers eat; tourist food evokes a stereotypical and romanticised version of the culture, particularly a marketable one. In contrast traveller’s food is food the local inhabitants eat and that has a historical legacy behind it, for instance, a mixing of cultures that influenced the Middle East or Mediterranean. The detectives agree that ‘one can only know a country well if you drink its wine and eat its bread,’ 4 thus food becomes the mechanism by which cultural comprehension occurs. Tourists see and consume culture while travellers experience and understand it, at

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__________________________________________________________________ least from Carvalho and Biscuter’s perspective. Curiously, authentic food is not limited to one particular cultural context; while searching for the best taramá in Greece Carvalho recollects the best taramá dish he’d ever eaten - in a small restaurant in Paris. Excellent exemplars of dishes are a means to seek out and distinguish ‘cultures,’ but food culture, like Carvalho and Biscuter, is both a local and a world-traveller. While on this ever-lasting search for the ‘authentic’ culture of any given country, as they circumnavigate the world Carvalho repeatedly points out what is not authentic, with the blame falling squarely on economic globalisation and the commodification of all things. Those evocative historical cities, the ones on the Silk Road for instance, no longer evoke anything; they are just like any other town or city in the world devoid of uniqueness and splendour. 5 Carvalho presents a ‘Walt-Disney-ification’ theory of cities throughout the world; cities do not evoke their past distinctiveness, but rather have been transformed into a tourist-driven market. In Tamerlán, Carvalho notes that the city had stopped being a city and has become a place tourists clamour to visit, almost as if it had become a theme park for a particular historical memory and culture of the past. 6 Jerusalem is a Christian theme park designed by a Jewish North American agent. 7 Likewise in Delhi he compares the city to a Hindu theme park, à la Walt Disney - he repeatedly states he does not want to visit the imagined or folklorically constructed India with its gurus, snake handlers, misery for visual export, cows and philosophers. 8 The conversion or transformation of cities into theme parks for the commodification of the past is clearly not authentic in Carvalho’s opinion, in part because the ‘market has become a great dictator.’ 9 Economic globalisation, meant as the commodification of all goods, including ideas and cultures, is portrayed as decidedly negative in Milenio Carvalho. The present market-driven materialism is more dangerous than any other era in the past because it negates any type of transcendence, including the possibility of progress or the need for a better future. 10 It restricts and devalues ‘authentic’ cultures by only preserving and selling what is profitably authentic to tourists. Yet globalisation also allows for Carvalho to have the best taramá in Paris, not Greece, and Biscuter to jokingly state, ‘this is civilization, boss, Greek tabacco, Kalamata olives, magazines from around the world of varying quality, the Spanish newspaper El País, and captain’s shirts’ when they enter a local shop in beach-side Greece. 11 Globalisation, in the text, disperses goods and cultures across the globe, yet at the same time erodes local cultures because the tourist-driven market dictates which aspects of a culture are sellable, profitable, and therefore preserved. Memory, in the text, is intricately linked to the quest for authenticity because associations with the past allow Carvalho to connect and understand the culture he is experiencing in a more profound way. On the train on the way to Samarkanda, Carvalho notes the similarities between the third-class wagon, passengers and suitcases alike, and the post-Civil war Spain of his childhood. In fact, he notes

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__________________________________________________________________ often how similar people in underdeveloped nations are to those in his childhood. 12 Drinking the tea that an elderly woman made for him in Afghanistan reminds him of his long since dead aunts in Galica. 13 The straw-filled, lumpy, crinkly mattress also evokes memories of his childhood experience. 14 Post-Civil war Spain was filled with dire hunger and an intense sense of defeat due to a failed democracy, destroyed agriculture, and punishing tactics by the Spanish dictator. Underdeveloped countries fighting to participate in globalisation because of its touted economic benefits also hunger for escape and feel defeat, thus Carvalho’s associations help him understand the faces and sentiments he sees around him. In the light of an economic development that benefits the few while simultaneously eroding local cultures, Carvalho recognises the look of despair and defeat from the teacher on the train that asks he take her with him and help her flee from her life in Russia. Despite his positive associations with memory, Carvalho ultimately comes to the conclusion that the memory (or created myth) is always better than the reality. For example, Carvalho insists on visiting the Golden Triangle in order to find the child that once sang French lullabies on the streets to make money - a memory still vivid from his visit thirty years prior. After discovering that the grown man now worked in the fields as a harvester for the opium and cocaine trade, Carvalho accepts that the myth of memory is much better than the re-visited reality. 15 Thus, while as a self-proclaimed traveller the reality Carvalho seeks positions him as the one seeking the ‘real’ or ‘authentic’ culture, it remains unresolved which reality (the imagined, touristically sold one or Carvalho’s memory-laced one) is the truly authentic one. Underlying this quest and conflict with authenticity, food remains the constant access to at least a partial, if not total, cultural authenticity. Raj cooking in India, for example, allows them to experience one of the few positive legacies of imperialism and see how one culture uses the local spices and flavours to transform the taste and meat the colonisers longed for from their homeland (the ‘make-up’ used to flavour the memory of pork). 16 While in Israel Carvalho notes the unifying force in the Mediterranean region, the eggplant, and even goes so far as to state that the eggplant is the Mediterranean and what gives sense to the concept of Mediterranean-ness. 17 He envisions a flag for the region - a huge eggplant under a moonlit sky. Food allows Carvalho to cut across the imagined cultural constructs, the folkloric and tourist-driven market commodification of the past, and get to the core essence of a culture. After all, ‘a restaurant can become one’s homeland (patria).’ 18 Like the presentation of economic globalisation, Carvalho’s world-view is decidedly negative, possibly as a result of his observation of the commodification of all things. Cultural places and icons have lost their distinctiveness, memories and myths are erroneous in the face of current reality, hunger and defeat persist, and no improvement on the human condition has surfaced. In a pivotal

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__________________________________________________________________ conversation, Carvalho asks why they took the trip in the first place and Biscuter states, ‘I’m taking the trip to grow, boss, and you take it to say good-bye.’ 19 The question remains, to what is Carvalho saying good-bye? It can be a number of possibilities: saying good-bye to a remembered or imagined world that no longer matches up to the current reality; saying good-bye to historical memories created in fictional works and worlds; saying good-bye to his life as advancing age encroaches upon him; saying good-bye because ‘authentic’ culture and food no longer exists in sitio. Thus at the end of tome one of Milenio Carvalho: Rumbo a Kabul Biscuter goes off to ‘eat like a king and swim in the pool’ while Carvalho hopes sleep will help him avoid being ‘sodomized by melancholy and sadness.’ 20 Milenio Carvalho: En las Antípodas, tome two, answers whether or not there is a solution to such melancholy, sadness, and pessimism. Carvalho states, ‘either our palate has a memory or there is a memory of the palate;’ 21 memory accesses, provokes, and disenchants because it, like the modern, globalised reality, is also an imagined construct, but food memories and language allow Carvalho an escape and an outlet for the pessimism that engulfs him. Carvalho, as roving gourmand, posits that the authentic cuisine of a country is what locals eat, what is, in many cases, untranslatable, and what is delectable. In a restaurant in Jerusalem Carvalho enumerates the many dishes served - falafel, hommos, modammas, mettubal betinjan, kihhe, mjadarah, shakrieh - and comments that the names were ‘the owners of the secret to those dishes’ and were like mental poetry that had magical effects on the palate. 22 While he explains what is in a few such particular dishes, some special combinations of spices, such as fulful bhar cannot be translated into any other language but its own original language. This constant seeking out of the ‘authentic’ via food culture, which Carvalho clearly enjoys, creates an imaginary world for him while the vivid descriptions of food create an imaginary world for the reader - a way to bring culture to life, for him and for the reader. Carvalho creates such an imaginary world of culinary uniqueness and splendour, through food memories, experiences, and descriptors of flavours, ingredients, and preparation methods, as a means to escape from the harsh reality of eroding cultures. Yet, as research shows, who gets to decide what is authentic cuisine is contentious and, thus, even the search for ‘authentic’ cuisine and the attainment of such is at question. The epigraph that frames Milenio comes from Gustave Flaubert’s Bouvard y Pécuchet: when the protagonists decide to sell everything and go to the end of the world to be with ‘savages’ the results are clear - because they had ideas, and had more ideas, they suffered. 23 Carvalho experiences the same because the more of the world he sees and experiences as a supposed traveller the more he suffers at seeing the state of the world. Not even the obvious enjoyment of seeking out and finding local, non-tourist marketed food practices can improve his pessimistic perception of the world. The novel is peppered with untranslatable bits and pieces of songs, sayings, and, of course, specific ingredients and dishes. His

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__________________________________________________________________ imaginary world of finding authentic food, as a means to access and witness authentic culture, is filtered through memory and language. Yet language cannot fully capture the reality nor fend off the romanticising process that happens with memory. Thus, while the search for authenticity is valiant, what authenticity means and represents is a question that Carvalho cannot resolve. As he travels more, eats more, and knows more he becomes another good that moves across borders, commodified like any other globalised good.

Notes 1

Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Milenio Carvalho I (Barcelona: Planeta, 2004), 37. Ibid., 97. 3 Ibid., 56. 4 Ibid., 125. 5 Ibid., 42. 6 Ibid., 264. 7 Ibid., 125. 8 Ibid., 315. 9 Ibid., 31. 10 Ibid., 85. 11 Ibid., 164. 12 Ibid., 345. 13 Ibid., 313. 14 Ibid., 315. 15 Ibid., 417. 16 Ibid., 357-359. 17 Ibid., 121-122. 18 Ibid., 123. 19 Ibid., 176. 20 Ibid., 421. 21 Ibid., 136. 22 Ibid., 120. 23 Ibid., 7. 2

Bibliography Vázquez Montalbán, Manuel. Milenio Carvalho I. Barcelona: Planeta, 2004.

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__________________________________________________________________ Nina B. Namaste is Associate Professor of Spanish at Elon University in North Carolina, USA. Her areas of investigation include food, identity, and globalisation within contemporary Argentine, Chilean, Mexican, and Peninsular Spanish texts.

Food and Civilised Society in the Homeric Epics John Dayton Abstract This chapter will treat the role of communal dining in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in differentiating between civilised life and savagery. Both epics can usefully be interpreted by means of this theme; inasmuch as eating involves satiety of the basest of appetites, which humans share with beasts, while proper formalities and deportment must be observed to preserve the distinction between humanity and bestiality. We first note that the Iliad’s formulaic scenes of feasting represent harmony among gods and men, and often mark reconciliation after conflict; this motif is most notable when Achilles and Priam, afflicted by the loss of companion and son respectively, abstain from food and human company for the duration of their mourning. Public meals also ensure fairness of distribution, as emphasised in the formulaic line: ‘no man’s desire went without a fair portion.’ The theme is still more prominent in the Odyssey, where propriety in service and consumption of food and in treatment of guests (xenia) represents the boundary between the civilised and the sub-human worlds. The epic illustrates the contrast between civilised manhood and childish and savage folly through an extended parallel between the fate of Odysseus’ crew and that of the Suitors: both of these groups are destroyed through excess of appetite and loss of self-control. One message conveyed by the epic is that the taking of food, if it is to enhance our identity as humans, must be communal in order to encourage the virtues of cleanliness, moderation, and recognition of merit. Further, the bond of trust fomented by hospitable guest-friendship (xenia) between host and visitor is the essential value in expanding society above the mere familial unit and hence is a crucial element in civilisation itself. Key Words: Homer, epic hero, Iliad, Odyssey, Odysseus, feast, xenia, xenos, suitors. ***** Among the scenes of warfare and adventuring, the number of feasts and meals mentioned in the Homeric epics, particularly the Odyssey, is astonishing; one might well wonder how epic heroes had time for anything else. The frequency with which this action is depicted of course is an indicator of its thematic importance. Food and feasting is not done merely for pleasure’s sake; it has serious symbolic value, connoting human fellowship and community, and even life itself. In both the Iliad and Odyssey the feast scene is usually presented in a repetitive, formulaic manner, which lends to the event a ritual stateliness. A proper feast scene conveys the assurance that all is right in the world. Here is a characteristic

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__________________________________________________________________ example from the beginning of the Iliad. The story’s opening conflict results in Apollo’s anger at the Achaean army due to the abduction of his priest’s daughter Chryses. The plague which he inflicts on the army forces the return of the girl, who is delivered back to her father in this scene, and the sacrificial meal is held to propitiate the god. αὐτὰρ ἐπεί ῥ' εὔξαντο καὶ οὐλοχύτας προβάλοντο, αὐέρυσαν μὲν πρῶτα καὶ ἔσφαξαν καὶ ἔδειραν, μηρούς τ' ἐξέταμον κατά τε κνίσῃ ἐκάλυψαν δίπτυχα ποιήσαντες, ἐπ' αὐτῶν δ' ὠμοθέτησαν: καῖε δ' ἐπὶ σχίζῃς ὁ γέρων, ἐπὶ δ' αἴθοπα οἶνον λεῖβε: νέοι δὲ παρ' αὐτὸν ἔχον πεμπώβολα χερσίν. αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ κατὰ μῆρε κάη καὶ σπλάγχνα πάσαντο, μίστυλλόν τ' ἄρα τἆλλα καὶ ἀμφ' ὀβελοῖσιν ἔπειραν, ὤπτησάν τε περιφραδέως, ἐρύσαντό τε πάντα. αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ παύσαντο πόνου τετύκοντό τε δαῖτα δαίνυντ', οὐδέ τι θυμὸς ἐδεύετο δαιτὸς ἐί̈σης. αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ πόσιος καὶ ἐδητύος ἐξ ἔρον ἕντο, κοῦροι μὲν κρητῆρας ἐπεστέψαντο ποτοῖο, νώμησαν δ' ἄρα πᾶσιν ἐπαρξάμενοι δεπάεσσιν: οἳ δὲ πανημέριοι μολπῇ θεὸν ἱλάσκοντο καλὸν ἀείδοντες παιήονα κοῦροι Ἀχαιῶν 1 μέλποντες ἑκάεργον: ὃ δὲ φρένα τέρπετ' ἀκούων. Here as elsewhere, the feast seals a return to life’s proper order, in this case a reconciliation of humans and a god and humans with each other. Fasting in the Iliad, in contrast, indicates a disruption of that order, signifying that a man is an unnatural state which separates him from human company. After the death of Patroclus, Achilles refuses to eat as his grief and rage turn him nearly into a madman (Il. 19.199 ff., 345 ff.). Likewise after Hector’s death, Priam refuses to eat in his extremity of grief. Let me rehearse some of the characteristics of a typical dining scene. It is done as a communal practice, partly for efficiency’s sake but also for the good will and solidarity engendered by mutual pleasure and the sharing of sustenance. It is also the most primitive of human acts, one we share with all animals, and one which tempts to excess of appetite, lack of self-control. It is therefore all the more crucial that we not shame ourselves in company and that we feed ourselves in an appropriate manner. Accordingly the banquet cultivates moderation, good sense and good manners. Food is shared equally - ‘no one’s hunger went without an equal share’ is a common formulaic line in a feast scene (e.g., Il. 2.431); you do not gorge yourself here and leave too little for others. Only proven warriors and other men of unusual distinction receive special portions (Il. 12.310 ff.). Guests are

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__________________________________________________________________ welcomed; there is no selfishness. The only foods specifically mentioned are meat, bread and wine, and for some reason women almost always serve bread but men serve meat and wine - minding the grill and bartending always seem to have been considered a man’s jobs. There is sacrifice and libation to the gods since divine good will is essential if there is to be harmony with one’s fellows. That feature is accented in this scene, where Apollo’s delight in the music marks the end of his grudge. The banquet is often accompanied by song, as here, and music of the lyre, which is the very archetype of harmony. The welcoming of guests deserves special mention. The power of this obligation is strikingly displayed in the scene where Odysseus’ son Telemachus and company land near Nestor’s palace. οἱ δ' ὡς οὖν ξείνους ἴδον, ἁθρόοι ἦλθον ἅπαντες, χερσίν τ' ἠσπάζοντο καὶ ἑδριάασθαι ἄνωγον. πρῶτος Νεστορίδης Πεισίστρατος ἐγγύθεν ἐλθὼν ἀμφοτέρων ἕλε χεῖρα καὶ ἵδρυσεν παρὰ δαιτὶ κώεσιν ἐν μαλακοῖσιν ἐπὶ ψαμάθοις ἁλίῃσιν πάρ τε κασιγνήτῳ Θρασυμήδεϊ καὶ πατέρι ᾧ: δῶκε δ' ἄρα σπλάγχνων μοίρας, ἐν δ' οἶνον ἔχευεν χρυσείῳ δέπαϊ: δειδισκόμενος δὲ προσηύδα 2 Παλλάδ' Ἀθηναίην κούρην Διὸς αἰγιόχοιο . . . One does not even ask a guest’s name before feeding him, as all comers are entitled to the necessities of life regardless of their origins. Entertaining a visitor in this way creates a permanent bond, denoted by the well-known Greek word xenia (xeinia in the Epic dialect), which can be translated various ways, but essentially refers to the mutual guest-host friendship (xenos refers equally to guest and host, and is also a generic term for a foreigner) which both parties observe in perpetuum; whenever one visits the other he is assured of food, lodging and all other considerations. The host and guest typically exchange gifts, though it is understood that the host is usually in a position to give a costlier one. This exchange is mutually beneficial but open-ended, as either party trusts the other to reciprocate in the unspecified future. This institution which ensures trusted friends abroad thus makes travel, commerce and benign international relations possible and so is a foundation stone of civilisation. Xenia is hereditary, 3 and has some of the force of a religious law - Zeus Xenios 4 serves as the protector of strangers and the enforcer of xenia. I might add that, if we look at the invocation to the Odyssey, we see that travel fosters self-cultivation, which is connected to knowledge of other men and lands (see passage quoted below). That is perhaps the loftiest benefit facilitated by the institution of xenia. All this significance invested in the act of ingestion gives the poems great scope not only for expressing concord and joy through the dining scenes, but for

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__________________________________________________________________ modulating the theme to adumbrate disturbance and foreboding. A proper feast is harmony; impropriety in eating always implies danger at hand. The subject receives even more emphasis and more variegated treatment in the Odyssey than in the Iliad, and indeed the entire epic can practically be interpreted by means of this key concept. The Odyssey’s invocation brings it into focus at the outset with its contrast between the intelligence of Odysseus and the folly of his crew: ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν: πολλῶν δ' ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω, πολλὰ δ' ὅ γ' ἐν πόντῳ πάθεν ἄλγεα ὃν κατὰ θυμόν, ἀρνύμενος ἥν τε ψυχὴν καὶ νόστον ἑταίρων. ἀλλ' οὐδ' ὣς ἑτάρους ἐρρύσατο, ἱέμενός περ: αὐτῶν γὰρ σφετέρῃσιν ἀτασθαλίῃσιν ὄλοντο, νήπιοι, οἳ κατὰ βοῦς Ὑπερίονος Ἠελίοιο ἤσθιον: αὐτὰρ ὁ τοῖσιν ἀφείλετο νόστιμον ἦμαρ. 5 τῶν ἁμόθεν γε, θεά, θύγατερ Διός, εἰπὲ καὶ ἡμῖν. Through their own perversion they perished, and their trespass was a food crime: eating the wrong cattle. Improper eating condemns them and many others through the poem. Numerous episodes detail the missteps of the crew on this count, many fatal and the last one ruinously so. Already on the first episode after leaving Troy, their potential weakness becomes apparent. Odysseus and his men stop on the way to sack the city of the Ciconians, a sort of rest stop for the heroic age. After some rapine and slaughter they take away a great deal of booty, including foodstuffs. Odysseus warns his men to flee swiftly, but, as he says, ‘they in their folly did not heed,’ rather they begin drinking wine and feasting on the plunder on the beach. ἔνθ' ἦ τοι μὲν ἐγὼ διερῷ ποδὶ φευγέμεν ἡμέας ἠνώγεα, τοὶ δὲ μέγα νήπιοι οὐκ ἐπίθοντο. ἔνθα δὲ πολλὸν μὲν μέθυ πίνετο, πολλὰ δὲ μῆλα 6 ἔσφαζον παρὰ θῖνα καὶ εἰλίποδας ἕλικας βοῦς: The Greek word here is nepioi (line 44), which can mean ‘fool,’ but also can describe an infant still unable to speak. The worldscape of the Odyssey is a dangerous and unpredictable place, where you cannot let your guard down while in uncertain surroundings. The surviving Ciconians sound the alarm to their hardier inland kindred; these gather their forces and fall upon the intruders, who only escape with severe casualties. The fault of the crew here is of course loss of control

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__________________________________________________________________ over their appetite, failing to restrain themselves until the proper time and conditions - failure of what the Greeks called sophrosyne or enkrateia. Sometimes the lesson is plainer still. Wine is a prized entry the civilized diet, but obviously calls for special prudence in its consumption. When the crew prepare to leave Circe’s island in Book 10, we hear that one of the more feeble-minded of the men, Elpenor, has become drunk the night before and sought fresh air on the roof. Awakened by the clamor of departure in the morning, he bolts up and promptly falls off the roof, breaking his neck. 7 The moral here: do not get drunk; if you do, stay off of roofs. Their last indiscretion, which dooms them all, is the one alluded to in the invocation. The crew are beached on the island of Thrinacia, where graze the cattle herd of the Helios, the sun. There may not seem to be an obvious reason why the sun should need cattle herds, but divine cattle have deep roots in Indo-European myth. Now, the Odyssey is laden with foreshadowing, and the crew have been warned to avoid the island. Eurylochus the chief agitator at once complains of this behest. αὐτίκα δ' Εὐρύλοχος στυγερῷ μ' ἠμείβετο μύθῳ: "'σχέτλιός εἰς, Ὀδυσεῦ: περί τοι μένος, οὐδέ τι γυῖα κάμνεις: ἦ ῥά νυ σοί γε σιδήρεα πάντα τέτυκται, ὅς ῥ' ἑτάρους καμάτῳ ἁδηκότας ἠδὲ καὶ ὕπνῳ οὐκ ἐάᾳς γαίης ἐπιβήμεναι, ἔνθα κεν αὖτε νήσῳ ἐν ἀμφιρύτῃ λαρὸν τετυκοίμεθα δόρπον ... ἀλλ' ἦ τοι νῦν μὲν πειθώμεθα νυκτὶ μελαίνῃ δόρπον θ' ὁπλισόμεσθα θοῇ παρὰ νηὶ μένοντες, ἠῶθεν δ' ἀναβάντες ἐνήσομεν εὐρέι πόντῳ.' "ὣς ἔφατ' Εὐρύλοχος, ἐπὶ δ' ᾔνεον ἄλλοι ἑταῖροι. 8 καὶ τότε δὴ γίγνωσκον ὃ δὴ κακὰ μήδετο δαίμων... Appetite brings no end of trouble; they have to land on the island because they want dinner. Odysseus on several occasions refers to the ‘ruinous stomach, that compels a man ... .’ 9 No one controlled by his belly is a man in the real sense. Odysseus enjoins on them a strict oath that they will stay away from the cattle at all costs, and after landing they have their meal. Incidentally, whenever a ship reaches land in the Odyssey, the poem almost always mentions next that the crew prepares a meal onshore. This reflects the usual practice in ancient seafaring, but the fact that Homer chooses again and again to mention so routine a custom seems to me to reinforce the significance of food in the narrative. The sea represents danger and chaos in the Odyssey, and human life cannot transpire there; only on land do we

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__________________________________________________________________ return to the essential business of life and society, as embodied in a proper cooked meal. All is well for the moment, but fate turns on them and adverse winds lay them up on the island. This continues for a month, their supplies run out, they are compelled to forage for their sustenance, ‘and hunger wore their stomachs away.’ 10 They landed on the island to have a meal and so are suffering a condign retribution. While Odysseus sleeps, the troublemaker Eurylochus convinces them that risking transgression and taking the cattle would be better than starvation; they can attempt to make atonement later. They butcher cows, and feast for six days. Abundant foreshadowing, including an improper sacrifice and grotesque omens, 11 attests that all is not in harmony here; the gods will not be with them. Helios the Sun complains to Zeus, who must appease him. When the wind changes and they can sail, vengeance comes swiftly, a storm brews, the ship is smashed and Odysseus alone escapes alive with the tale. The crew have their defenders for their actions here - some take them at their word that they had no choice if they were to escape starvation. But since Homer in his narrative voice refers to them the way he does in the invocation (quoted above) I am inclined to think otherwise. Their solemn oath should have been unbreakable even unto death, and also I feel that they were exaggerating the actual danger of starvation - there is game and fish available, and the wind could not stay against them forever. It is hunger and their incapacity to control it, not danger of imminent death, which spurs their fatal transgression. The crewmen are characterised as children, not fully mature and thus unable to restrain their desires. Note the recurrence of nepioi (1.8), perhaps intended as direct contrast to the term for Odysseus, named in the very first word as andra, a grown man (1.1). There is a double narrative progressing through the first half of the Odyssey, one part concentrated on the wandering of Odysseus, the other on events at his home in Ithaca, where his son Telemachus has his troubles with the Suitors. Further, there is an extended parallel between the crew of Odysseus and the Suitors, both undone by appetite, by unlawful eating. In Book I, our first view of Odysseus’ home before he has returned establishes the scenario: it is gone to seed during the twenty year absence of its king and patriarch. The Suitors, the idle and arrogant noble youths of the island, have occupied Odysseus’ house and spend their days feasting, helping themselves to his livestock and other stores. The outrage of this behaviour, of claiming hospitality to which one has not been invited, is brought to our notice constantly as an abhorrent breach of civilised norms. Often, as though to reinforce their semblance to Odysseus’ crew, their heedless consumption of cattle is the subject of comment. 12 We also learn that the assembly or parliament has never convened during Odysseus’ absence; the Suitors have brought a halt to the institutions of civilized society. In Book I we first see Odysseus’ son Telemachus sitting glumly among the Suitors, a virtual hostage in the house where he should be lord. The goddess Athena visits in the guise of

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__________________________________________________________________ Mentes, a merchant from abroad who is a guest-friend not only of Odysseus but of his father Laertes, an example of what I mentioned where the bond of xenia forms international commercial networks and becomes hereditary. When Athena/Mentes appears at the palace, the Suitors ignore her/him, busy with games while lolling on hides of cattle they have killed for their feasts, a significant detail. All ignore the stranger and only Telemachus shows a natural grace - he is ashamed that a guest is kept waiting at the door, and greets him impeccably, offering refreshment without even asking his name. 13 The ensuing meal is described in unusually loving detail: αὐτὴν δ' ἐς θρόνον εἷσεν ἄγων, ὑπὸ λῖτα πετάσσας, καλὸν δαιδάλεον: ὑπὸ δὲ θρῆνυς ποσὶν ἦεν. πὰρ δ' αὐτὸς κλισμὸν θέτο ποικίλον, ἔκτοθεν ἄλλων μνηστήρων, μὴ ξεῖνος ἀνιηθεὶς ὀρυμαγδῷ δείπνῳ ἁδήσειεν, ὑπερφιάλοισι μετελθών, ἠδ' ἵνα μιν περὶ πατρὸς ἀποιχομένοιο ἔροιτο. χέρνιβα δ' ἀμφίπολος προχόῳ ἐπέχευε φέρουσα καλῇ χρυσείῃ, ὑπὲρ ἀργυρέοιο λέβητος, νίψασθαι: παρὰ δὲ ξεστὴν ἐτάνυσσε τράπεζαν. σῖτον δ' αἰδοίη ταμίη παρέθηκε φέρουσα, εἴδατα πόλλ' ἐπιθεῖσα, χαριζομένη παρεόντων: δαιτρὸς δὲ κρειῶν πίνακας παρέθηκεν ἀείρας παντοίων, παρὰ δέ σφι τίθει χρύσεια κύπελλα: 14 κῆρυξ δ' αὐτοῖσιν θάμ' ἐπῴχετο οἰνοχοεύων. Here is a guest dining with his host in harmonious compliance with the laws of humanity; here everything is right. The suitors file in and their meal is described more tersely, as they devour another man’s food to which they have not been invited. ἐς δ' ἦλθον μνηστῆρες ἀγήνορες. οἱ μὲν ἔπειτα ἑξείης ἕζοντο κατὰ κλισμούς τε θρόνους τε, τοῖσι δὲ κήρυκες μὲν ὕδωρ ἐπὶ χεῖρας ἔχευαν, σῖτον δὲ δμῳαὶ παρενήνεον ἐν κανέοισιν, κοῦροι δὲ κρητῆρας ἐπεστέψαντο ποτοῖο. οἱ δ' ἐπ' ὀνείαθ' ἑτοῖμα προκείμενα χεῖρας ἴαλλον. αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ πόσιος καὶ ἐδητύος ἐξ ἔρον ἕντο μνηστῆρες, τοῖσιν μὲν ἐνὶ φρεσὶν ἄλλα μεμήλει, μολπή τ' ὀρχηστύς τε: τὰ γὰρ τ' ἀναθήματα δαιτός: κῆρυξ δ' ἐν χερσὶν κίθαριν περικαλλέα θῆκεν Φημίῳ, ὅς ῥ' ἤειδε παρὰ μνηστῆρσιν ἀνάγκῃ. 15 ἦ τοι ὁ φορμίζων ἀνεβάλλετο καλὸν ἀείδειν.

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__________________________________________________________________ Note that the bard Phemius is singing under compulsion, providing joy by force; something here is plainly out of tune. Mentes remarks on their boorishness; 16 the grossness of their consumption is the subject of frequent disapprobation as we’ve seen (references above). Like the crew, their besetting sin is a fail to observe limits, either in their quantity of food or their disregard for decent behavior. And like the crew, they fail to heed persistent foreshadowing of their peril. The climactic scene, when Odysseus reveals himself and vengeance is at hand, takes place appropriately in the banquet hall, his first target is the ringleader Antinous: ἦ καὶ ἐπ' Ἀντινόῳ ἰθύνετο πικρὸν ὀϊστόν. ἦ τοι ὁ καλὸν ἄλεισον ἀναιρήσεσθαι ἔμελλε, χρύσεον ἄμφωτον, καὶ δὴ μετὰ χερσὶν ἐνώμα, ὄφρα πίοι οἴνοιο: φόνος δέ οἱ οὐκ ἐνὶ θυμῷ μέμβλετο: τίς κ' οἴοιτο μετ' ἀνδράσι δαιτυμόνεσσι μοῦνον ἐνὶ πλεόνεσσι, καὶ εἰ μάλα καρτερὸς εἴη, οἷ τεύξειν θάνατόν τε κακὸν καὶ κῆρα μέλαιναν; τὸν δ' Ὀδυσεὺς κατὰ λαιμὸν ἐπισχόμενος βάλεν ἰῷ, ἀντικρὺ δ' ἁπαλοῖο δι' αὐχένος ἤλυθ' ἀκωκή. ἐκλίνθη δ' ἑτέρωσε, δέπας δέ οἱ ἔκπεσε χειρὸς βλημένου, αὐτίκα δ' αὐλὸς ἀνὰ ῥῖνας παχὺς ἦλθεν αἵματος ἀνδρομέοιο: θοῶς δ' ἀπὸ εἷο τράπεζαν ὦσε ποδὶ πλήξας, ἀπὸ δ' εἴδατα χεῦεν ἔραζε: 17 σῖτός τε κρέα τ' ὀπτὰ φορύνετο. His death immediately follows a drink of wine to which he has no right; the arrow strikes him in the throat, blood pours from his nostrils. The association of wine and blood predates Christianity; he is literally paying back the wine with a compensating draught of his blood. His dying throes then upset the table and the food, so the message is plain: the party is over, and for the Suitors life is over. When the Suitors see that death is upon them, Eurymachus offers to negotiate a bargain, a favourite practice among the ancient Greeks: the suitors will pay compensation for all they have eaten and drunk, plus a fine. 18 But such compacts can only exist between civilised parties possessing a degree of mutual honor; that correspondence does not exist here, as the Suitors’ violation of xenia has removed them from any human consideration. Odysseus and Telemachus proceed to slaughter them in the hall much as they had slaughtered the cattle.

An online source provides this summation of the Suitors’ character: ... they aren’t really people at all; instead, they are an idea, a representation of or personification of “bad” behavior. They represent what would become of Greek civilization if the Greeks ever forgot or ignored their traditions and laws. A clue is the verb

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__________________________________________________________________ that Telemachus uses to describe what they are doing: “They grind down our home.” They are teeth, mouths, and stomachs, equivalent to the cannibals Odysseus encounters among the Cyclops and the Laestrygonians. 19 The value of traditions does in fact receive explicit support in the text; Penelope laments that in former days, suitors were wont to bring their own cattle as gifts to their chosen lady, not to devour hers. 20 There are many other relevant scenes in the Odyssey which I regret there is not time to treat here. In the matter of eating, right and wrong comportment acts as a unifying force between the interaction of Odysseus with his crew and that of Telemachus with the suitors, and it takes center stage in other famous scenes - the Lotus-eaters, the Cyclops, and the Laestrygonians, to mention only a few. In the contests of human with savage, or of good with foolish men, the former as a rule prevail through superior community, intelligence, and self-control. These are all chief virtues celebrated in Homer’s Odyssey, and they are all fostered and strengthened by the shared meal, which accordingly figures as one of the most often-repeated and most exemplary scenes in the epic.

Notes 1

Iliad, 1.457-474. ‘When they had offered their petition and scattered grains of barley, they drew back the victims’ heads, slit their throats and flayed them. Then they cut slices from the thighs, wrapped them in layers of fat, and laid raw meat on top. These the old man burnt on the fire, sprinkling over them a libation of red wine, while the young men stood by, five-pronged forks in their hands. When the thighs were burnt and they had tasted the inner meat, they carved the rest in small pieces, skewered and roasted them through, then drew them from the spits. Their work done and the meal prepared, they feasted and enjoyed the shared banquet, and when they had quenched their first hunger and thirst, the young men filled the mixing-bowls to the brim with wine and pouring a few drops first into each cup as a libation served the gathering. All that day the Achaeans made music to appease the god, singing the lovely paean, praising the god who strikes from afar; while he listened with delight.’ All subsequent translations are courtesy of Tony Kline. Homer, Iliad, trans. Tony Kline, accessed January 25, 2013, http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Odhome.htm. 2 Odyssey, 3.34-42 ‘But when they saw the strangers, they crowded round them, clasped their hands in welcome, begging them to be seated. Nestor’s son, Peisistratus, was first to approach and took them both by the hand, and made them sit on soft fleeces spread on the sand, beside his father, and brother, Thrasymedes,

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__________________________________________________________________ so they could feast. Having done so, he served them inner portions, poured wine in a golden cup, and drinking her health, spoke to Pallas Athene, the aegis-bearing daughter of Zeus ... .’ 3 See Il. 6.612-636 for a striking instance. 4 Odyssey, 14.389. 5 Ibid., 1.1-10. ‘Tell me, Muse, of that man of many resources, who wandered far and wide, after sacking the holy citadel of Troy. Many the men whose cities he saw, whose ways he learned. Many the sorrows he suffered at sea, while trying to bring himself and his friends back alive. Yet despite his wishes he failed to save them, because of their own un-wisdom, foolishly eating the cattle of Helios, the Sun, so the god denied them their return. Tell us of these things, beginning where you will, Goddess, Daughter of Zeus.’ 6 Odyssey, 9.43-46. ‘Then as you might imagine I ordered us to slip away quickly, but my foolish followers wouldn’t listen. They drank the wine, and slaughtered many sheep and shambling cattle with twisted horns.’ 7 Odyssey, 10.551-559 and 11.60-65. 8 Ibid., 12.278-283 and 291-265. ‘Eurylochus replied at once, with fateful words: “Odysseus, you are stronger than us all, with limbs that never weary. It seems you are made of iron and would prevent your friends, exhausted with their efforts and lack of sleep, from landing and making a decent meal on this sea-encircled isle ... No, let us give way to dark night, and take our supper on shore by the swift ship, then embark in the morning, and put out once more into the wide waters.” Eurylochus spoke, and the rest of my crew concurred. Then I knew some god was set on working harm ... .’ 9 Ibid., 15.344, 17.286, 17.473-474 and 18.53-54. 10 Ibid., 12.232. 11 Ibid., 12.356-363 and 394-396. 12 Ibid., 2.48-58, 4.318-321, 14.81-108 and 17.530-537. 13 Ibid., 1.123-124. 14 Ibid., 1.130-43. ‘He led Athene herself to a handsome, richly carved chair, spread a linen cloth over it, and seated her there with a footstool for her feet. He drew up on ornate stool for himself, as well, away from the Suitors, lest the stranger should shun the food, annoyed by the din, finding himself in a crowd of insolent men: and so he might ask news of his absent father. Next a maid brought water in a fine gold jug, and poured it over a silver basin, so they could rinse their hands: then drew up a polished table. The housekeeper silently brought them bread, and various delicacies, drawing liberally on her store. And a carver lifted plates of different meats, and set them down with gold cups beside them, while a steward, constantly walking by, poured the wine.’

John Dayton

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__________________________________________________________________ 15

Ibid., 1.144-153. ‘The insolent Suitors entered and sat in rows on stools and chairs. Squires poured water over their hands, while maids piled bread in baskets beside them, and pages filled bowls with wine: and they reached for the good things spread before them. Then when the Suitors had satisfied hunger and thirst, their thoughts turned elsewhere, to song and dance, since these things crown a feast. A herald placed a fine lyre in the hands of Phemius, whom the Suitors had forced to sing for them: and he struck the chords to begin his pleasant song.’ 16 Ibid., 1.125-129. 17 Ibid., 22.8-21. ‘So saying, he aimed a deadly shaft at Antinous, who was handling a fine golden two-handled cup, about to raise it to his lips and sip the wine, his thoughts far from death. How should he guess among the feasting crowd, that one man however powerful he might be could dare to bring a vile death and a dark doom on him? But Odysseus took aim and shot him through the neck. The point passed clean through the tender throat, and Antinous sank to one side, the cup falling at that moment from his hand, while a thick jet of blood gushed from his nostrils. His foot kicked the table away, dashing the food to the floor, and the bread and meat were fouled.’ 18 Ibid., 22.45-67. 19 Ithaka: The Suitors, accessed March 14, 2013, http://ithaka.wikispaces.com/The+Suitors. 20 Odyssey, 18.274-280.

Bibliography Homer. Iliad. Translated by Tony Kline. Accessed January 25, 2013. http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Odhome.htm. Ithaka: The Suitors. Accessed March 14, 2013. http://ithaka.wikispaces.com/The+Suitors. John Dayton has a doctorate in Classics from Brown University and is currently Associate Professor in English at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai. He is the author of ‘The Athletes of War’: An Evaluation of the Agonistic Elements in Greek Warfare (Toronto: Edgar Kent, 2006).

Part 2 Food and Identity

Ethnic Food: The Other in Ourselves Paula Arvela Abstract Food is a powerful cultural signifier. It can connote inclusiveness, belonging, attachment and be a symbolic expression of social binding. Similarly, food can signify exclusiveness, generate stereotypes and feelings of revulsion and disgust which demarcate boundaries between the us and the other. As Marcel Proust’s teasoaked sweet Madeleine illustrates, food can produce good memories as much as recall painful experiences. Food is as much a nutritional and physiological requirement as it is cultural, symbolic and meaningful. Multi-ethnic societies praise their food diversity and flag it as a marker of inclusiveness. Australian cuisine is supposed to be a representation of cultural and ethnic diversity underpinned by its culinary variety in foods and tastes. As the food writer Cherry Ripe claims, ‘… we have become some of the most eclectic eaters in the world.’ 1 Banning the ‘ethnicity factor’ from the Australian cuisine would be unthinkable. Yet this is not universally the case. For example, a 2009 article in the New York Times read, ‘A walled city in Tuscany clings to its ancient menu.’ 2 The article reflected on the Italian right-wing city council of Lucca and its controversial decision to ban ‘ethnic’ restaurants from its historical centre. Ethnic food was regarded as a malaise that destabilised the concept of Italian cuisine, its culinary roots and essential traditions. Ethnic food and the ‘other from within’ constituted a threat to Italian-ness. Based on these case studies, this chapter explores the concept of ethnic food as a site of struggle where the national is challenged, destabilised and re-invented. It examines how representations of ethnic food are contextual and evaluates the meanings of a national cuisine by asking: does what is on your plate change who you think you are? Key Words: Ethnic food, Italian cuisine, Australian cuisine, cultural identities, culinary diversity, national cuisines. ***** 1. Introduction Ethnic food is a site of struggle where the national is contested and destabilised as well as re-invented, re-made and re-mixed. I examine how representations of ethnic food are contextual, discursive and located in the competing fields where cultural identities are performed. By way of comparison, I explore distinct cultural enactments of ethnic foodways within two national milieus. In Australia, culinary multiculturalism is celebrated with gusto as a significant feature of national culture; by contrast, in Italy ethnic restaurants are jettisoned from inside the walls of the city of Lucca - Tuscany, as its right-wing city council promotes Italian-ness

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__________________________________________________________________ and discourages and segregates any culinary representation which is perceived as destabilising and threatening. Food is a powerful cultural marker. At home, food represents the taken-forgranted safety-net that provides ‘ontological security.’ 3 Abroad, food constitutes one of the imaginary bridges that can keep the individual grounded and connected with the memories of familiar faces, customs, practices, tastes and smells that were left behind. These features highlight the major role of foodways in displaced communities of diaspora. For example, a study by Fiss 4 in 2001 recognised that Portuguese immigrants in Brazil eat bacalhau 5 to remain emotionally attached to the motherland, its customs, traditions and the relevant others in the ‘imagined communities’ 6 they left behind. Likewise, Kay Richardson, 7 after exploring Australians’ predilection for vegemite and how much expatriates missed it whilst overseas, concludes that ‘most Aussies living abroad have discovered that they no longer have to hide a jar in their suitcase, as it is now available locally.’ 8 Exploring the connection between diasporic communities and their foodways is a significant aspect of my research for several reasons. Firstly, it underscores food’s role as a bonding agent in culturally and geographically displaced communities; secondly, it recognises commensality as a contributor to emotional well-being and a facilitator in the process of integration in the host community. Finally, it assists the understanding of how ethnic foods are discursively deployed. By examining and comparing the Australian and Italian cultural attitudes to ethnic foods, this study will contribute to a better understanding of their role in the production of hybrid cuisines which endorse innovative routes to social change and cultural syncretism. 2. Ethnic Foods in the Global Village Like ethnicity itself, ethnic cuisine only becomes a selfconscious, subjective reality when ethnic boundaries are crossed. 9 Ethnic foods are called into being in their encounter with the foodways of the other. They are defined by difference. They only become recognised as such, after being ‘disembedded’ 10 from their locality and re-imbedded into a new context where difference makes them visible. Under the current conditions of globalisation, the high permeability of national borders has facilitated and accelerated the dissemination of peoples, cultures and foods. As people move, they carry with them their ethnic background and the signifiers that qualify it. Ethnicity does not exist in, and of itself. Ethnicity does not exist outside culture - it is constructed by it and constituted in it. For example, The Pasta Channel reporting the results of a 2007 Harris Poll, asserted that ‘the most popular ethnic food in America is Italian

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__________________________________________________________________ food… .’ 11 Conversely in Europe, in 2010 the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) defined ethnic foods as those constituted by ‘all non-Europeans cuisines.’ 12 That is, whilst in the USA Italian food was recognised as ethnic food, in the UK, at least according to the BNF, only non-European foods are ethnic. Yet ironically, in 2001 the foreign secretary Robin Cook in a speech endorsing multicultural Britain, asserted that the Indian based-dish ‘Chicken Tikka Massala is now a true British national dish.’ 13 Thus, the naming of ethnic foods is purposeful, contextual, discursive and made to mark difference, however conceived at any given time. It is also a complex process that I seek to explore by examining and evaluating some of the possible causes underpinning the different cultural representations of ethnic foods in Australia and Italy. A. The Australian Case Chicken cacciatore on a Sunday, ravioli on a Monday, noodle fish cakes on a Tuesday, Mongolian stir fry on a Wednesday…What does this say about the Australian palate. 14 This is how the Australian food writer Cherry Ripe described the diverse nature of Australian eating habits and cuisine. Ripe concludes ‘… we have become some of the most eclectic eaters in the world.’ 15 Ethnic diversity in Australian foodways is perceived as a positive facet of its cuisine and a valuable cultural signifier against which Australians inscribe their cultural identities. But ethnic food has also become associated with a specific cohort of individuals inhabiting the urban and affluent spaces of cosmopolitanism. For them, ethnic food has become a signifier which they can freely appropriate as ‘cultural capital’ 16 and that they willingly integrate in their processes of cultural identification. Ethnic food in large cities has become a signifier of ‘culinary cultural capital.’ 17 Expanding on Bourdieu’s concept, David Bell used ‘culinary cultural capital’ to describe the acquisition of culinary expertise that confers distinction, taste and classifies their holders as gourmands. Furthermore, Bell asserted that the urban diversity in ethnic foods and restaurants provides these individuals with ample consumption choice which enhances their status and social-cultural distinction when dining out. Exploring the same area of research, Warde et al. 18 argue that this cohort of urban audiences have become proficient practitioners in ‘cultural omnivorousness,’ that is, they developed accurate skills at choosing, mixing-and-matching the ethnic diversity to suit their own purposes. As Warde et al. concluded ‘…the pursuit of variety of consumer experience is a feature of particular social group … (to) … express social distinction.’ 19 Thus, Ripe’s previous portrayal of Australian culinary diversity is a clear example of ‘cultural omnivorousness.’ 20

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__________________________________________________________________ Ethnic foods fulfil different purposes for different people. Whereas for the urban audiences, ethnic foods represent culinary cultural capital, for the ethnic-self, it is a way of life. Food only becomes ethnic when marked by difference of traversed boundaries. Yet, it is exactly this aspect that reinforces feelings of solidarity with the ethnic-same, perpetuating the familiarity and comforts of what is already known. For these reasons ethnic food acquires significant meaning in diasporic communities. It strengthens cultural ties and social bonds, asserting shared cultural origins, which is enacted in commensality. Ethnic food is a tool of cultural survival. 21 The following analysis of the Italian case study expands further on the topic. It examines Italian foodways, once a food of diaspora, and evaluates how this facet of Italian cuisine might have influenced the decisions made by the officials in Lucca which marginalized the foods of the ethnic-others. B. The Italian Case Lucca’s centre-right city council recently stirred much contention and accusations of racism by prohibiting new ethnic food restaurants from opening within its gorgeous historical centre. 22 According to Donadio’s article, ethnic food was regarded as a malaise that destabilised the concept of Italian cuisine, its culinary roots and essential traditions. Ethnic food constituted a threat to Italian-ness. Acting as cultural gatekeeper, Lucca’s city council perpetuated the cultural representation of unified long-held customary culinary practices rooted in continuity and permanency. Not surprisingly, any event destabilising these assumed certainties generated anxieties and ambiguity. Yet as the following analysis illustrates, Italian’s culinary traditions and alleged cultural purity are but a narrative aiming at describing imagined and nostalgic representations of integrated and unified foodways. Moreover, despite the city of Lucca’s animosity towards ethnic foods, a process of culinary integration is simultaneously taking place in Italy. The 2012 BBC series Two Greedy Italians 23 hosted by the celebrity chefs Antonio Carluccio and Gennaro Contaldo, are a case in point. In this TV series, Carluccio and Contaldo visited a vegetable farm owned by an Asian female farmer showcasing a range of ‘exotic’ vegetables - bok-choy and other Asian greens cultivated alongside familiar Italian vegetables - tomatoes and eggplants. On the same program, Carluccio and Contaldo interviewed a market tour-guide whose function was to take customers on tours to introduce them to the vast array of products available from the market stalls, most of them unknown or unfamiliar to Italian customers and Italian cooking. Finally, Carluccio and Contaldo visited a local restaurant that specialised in Fusion Food. The female chef cooked for the

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__________________________________________________________________ celebrity guests a ‘fusion risotto.’ The dish included ginger, shitake mushrooms, bok-choy and miso. Hesitantly, Carluccio and Contaldo ate it. Despite acknowledging that they had enjoyed its flavours, sarcastically they remarked: ‘it’s ok, but don’t call it risotto; call it fusotto’ (fusion+risotto). 24 These examples are informative. On the one hand, they illustrate the hostility in some sectors of the Italian public towards some of the effects of globalisation and Europeanisation, in particular the presence of ethnic others and their foods in Italian cities. On the other hand, these examples also demonstrate that the introduction and integration of new products and practices into contemporary Italian foodways is (and has always been) taking place. These cases also highlight the irony within narratives of culinary Italian-ness. Constructed as pristine, unified and rooted in time and practice, these narratives do not take into account that many of the products that are currently recognised as Italian (tomatoes and eggplant) are not native ingredients and were introduced into the Italian foodways by others. 25 Moreover, these narratives rarely acknowledge that Italian food in the Western world owes its popularity to the omnipresence of Italian diaspora in Europe, the USA and Australia. These examples further underscore the inevitability of cultural syncretism. Contrary to the essentialist/conservative discourse, diversity is inescapable and enriching. What would Italian cuisine be, without tomatoes or eggplants? The thought of pure cultural forms is but a chimera. 3. Narratives of Ethnic Foods and National Cuisines To understand the role of ethnic foods within the context of the nation-state one needs to first explore how the concepts of national cuisines are generated, by whom and for what purposes. Validating the significant cultural role of food as a signifier of nation, commentators have argued that currently nations are as expected to have a national cuisine as they are to have a national anthem or a national flag. 26 Concurrently, studies carried out by Arjun Appadurai, 27 Carol Helstosky 28 and Sally Howell 29 have also illustrated how cuisines, in particular national cuisines, are discursively produced by national elites as tools of nationbuilding and signifiers of national culture. In turn, and as I have addressed earlier, ethnic foods and ethnicity only come into being when set against the food of the non-ethnic other. 30 Thus, we need to explore how Italian and Australian national cuisines have been imagined and how they articulate with the cuisines and foods of the ethnic others with whom they share the same national territory. Italian cuisine and foodways are represented as strong signifiers of national culture and national identities. According to the Italian cultural gatekeepers, Italian cuisine is integral to the narrative of Italian-ness. Yet, Italy did not become a unified nation-state until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Finding common identity markers for nation-building proved a difficult task to accomplish

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__________________________________________________________________ in a geographic territory divided by strong local and regional identities. According to Helstosky the work of Pellegrino Artusi was decisive. In his popular and successful cookbook published in 1891 Artusi, a businessman and gourmand, meticulously codified and classified foods and recipes, producing what has been recognised as the ‘language’ for a national cuisine that unified Italians around the table. 31 In a country where strong local and regional allegiances to products and eating habits were more divisive than unifying, Artusi’s cookbook was pivotal in providing the newly formed nation-state with a signifier of national culture. In Italy, just as in post-independence India, 32 cookbooks and the language of cuisine proved to be significant tools of nation-building, albeit not the only one. In this process the contribution of Italian diaspora in promoting Italian foodways cannot be overemphasised. 33 The nineteenth century waves of Italian immigrants to the Americas, particularly to the USA, contributed to the staggering total of nine million Italians one quarter of the total Italian population - living outside Italy by the 1920s. 34 Again, during the fascist years of Mussolini and after WWII, the exodus increased as Italians searched for better and brighter futures elsewhere. In diaspora, commensality was pivotal in establishing social and cultural bonds amongst Italian immigrants at the same time as it promoted and disseminated the Italian-ethnic foodways in the countries of settlement. 35 Food became more of a unifier in diaspora than it had been in Italy. That is, the idea of Italian food was as much generated from the inside (Italy) as from the outside (diaspora). 36 Whereas within the borders of the nation-state, local and regional differences were vehemently upheld as robust identification markers of locality and regionalism, they became of secondary relevance in diaspora where the unity that migrants required to thrive in a foreign land was the priority. Abroad, differences were put aside to create strong links between diasporic Italians. Disembedded from its original environment and re-imbedded into a new context, Italian foodways connoted Italian-ness and asserted cultural identities. EthnicItalian food was empowered and became empowering. The impetus to eat the food that mamma cooked had a double effect. On the one hand, it unified immigrant communities around the table asserting national allegiances. 37 On the other hand, it created a market for Italian products, which assisted entrepreneurial immigrants to generate successful businesses and to promote Italian food abroad. The new diasporic markets gave a most-needed boost to a weak Italian economy by developing new industries such as Italian pastas, cheeses, olive oil, cured meat, and tinned tomatoes. 38 The role of food as a powerful signifier of national identity might start to clarify the city of Lucca’s dismissal of the foodways of the ethnic-other. Whereas inside Lucca’s territorial boundaries, ethnic food destabilised the town’s sense of self and threatened Italian-ness, in Australia ethnic food has different connotations.

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__________________________________________________________________ Australia has its own particularities and complexities that cannot be explored in this study. Nevertheless, Australia’s past as a British colony was stamped by a policy of cultural sameness and white supremacy. Early Australian food was English food, with Sunday roast and three vegetables. Australian Aboriginal native foods, eating habits and cooking methods are yet to be integrated in everyday food practices. Likewise, the Chinese foodways brought by Chinese immigrants during the gold-rush of the nineteenth century, only became slowly integrated after a process of ‘domestication’ and regulation in accordance to the norms and codes determined by the hegemonic establishment. Changes to food habits and cooking practices were slow to occur. The 1950s’ waves of government-sponsored southern European immigrants arriving to Australian shores, found their foodways belittled and frequently referred to as WOG food. 39 However, their visibility and presence contributed to slow shifts in cultural attitudes to ethnic foods, which were being partially introduced by the increasingly influential advertising industry, actively sponsoring new consumption signifiers against which identification processes were generated. Concurrently, the increasing number of Australians travelling overseas in the 1970s stimulated growing curiosity and tolerance for the culture and eating habits of ethnic others. Ethnic foods acquired new cultural signification for a growing and influential Australian middle-class. By the 1980s WOG food became fashionable. Stylised, Italian, Greek, Lebanese and Asian foods became acceptable and even desirable. This shift was a direct consequence of changes in Australian society conducive to new conceptualisations of Australian national identities. The societal ethnic make-up had changed and so had its constitutive intelligentsia responsible for challenging the terms in which national identities were being formulated. The new aspirational middle-class was partly, but importantly, constituted by second-generation Australian-born and raised individuals, with strong links to the ethnic cultures of their forebears. They were no longer outsiders; they now had the power to name. They were integrated and educated citizens, empowered by cultural capital. This new generation could practice cultural politics and name cultural signifiers that re-shaped Australian national culture and identities. Culturally sanctioned, these individuals could disseminate their hybrid culture, legitimise it, validate it and decisively reformulate the new Australian cuisine and foodways. Australian food was being re-defined into something new, inclusive of what had been previously recognised as the ethnic-other. This generation’s own experience as children of immigrants, and themselves ‘in-between’ two cultures, were holders of complex non-essentialised, fractured and dynamic processes of identification. They had the cultural competency to understand otherness.

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__________________________________________________________________ 4. Conclusion This comparative study highlights the way collective identities can be constructed. They can be thought of as essential, stable, exclusivist, hermetic, immutable and harnessed by tradition. Alternatively, cultural identities can be conceptualised as contextual, unstable but dynamic points of positioning always becoming something new that can be translated into new forms of cultural syncretism. 40 The institutional powers of the city of Lucca were vigorously holding on to the concept of a unified and homogeneous national culture. They forgot that no nationstate is represented by one ethnicity and that national culture is not unified and pure. 41 As Renan observed ‘the leading nations in Europe are nations of essentially mixed blood: Italy is the country where … Gauls, Etruscans, Pelagians and Greeks, not to mention many other elements, intersect in an indecipherable mixture.’ 42 Thus, thinking of Italian foodways as coherent, unified and pristine does not acknowledge the many stories, peoples, places, practices and recipes that have evolved over time to make Italian food what it is today.

Notes 1

Cherry Ripe, Goodbye Culinary Cringe (St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1993), 3. Rachel Donadio, ‘A Walled City in Tuscany Clings to Ancient Mneu’, New York Times, 12 March 2009, 13, accessed September 9, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/europe/13lucca.html?_r=1. 3 Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991), 35-69. 4 Regina L. Fiss, ‘A Imigração Portuguesa e as Associações como Forma de Manutenção da Identidade Lusitana-Sul do Brazil’, Scrita Nova 94, No. 27 (2001), accessed November 12, 2012, http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn-94-27/htm. 5 Bacalhau is recognised as the Portuguese national dish. 6 Benedict R. O’G. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983). 7 Kay Richardson, ‘Vegemite, Soldiers and Rosy Cheeks’, Gastronomica 3, No. 4 (2003): 60-62. 8 Ibid., 62. 9 Peter L. van den Bergh, ‘Ethnic Cuisine: Culture in Nature’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 7, No. 3 (1984): 387-397. 10 Giddens, Modernity Self-Identity, 17. 11 Dino Romano, ‘Italian Food #1 in America’, The Pasta Channel (blog) nd., accessed October 2, 2012, http://thepastachannel.com/italian-food/. 12 Georgine Leung, ‘Ethinc Food in the UK’, Nutrition Bulletin 35 (2010): 226234, accessed October 1, 2012, 2

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__________________________________________________________________ http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/attachments/f09d162f-9c7f-4cb70c3f6226.pdf. 13 ‘Robin Cook’s Chicken Tikka Massala Speech’, The Gardian, 19 April 2001, accessed October 2, 2012, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/apr/19/race.britishidentity. 14 Ripe, Goodbye Culinary Cringe, 3. 15 Ibid., 3. 16 Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986). 17 David Bell, ‘Fragments for a New Urban Culinary Geography’, Journal for the Study of Food and Society 6, No. 1 (2002): 10-21. 18 Allan Warde, Lydia Martens and Wendy Olsen, ‘Consumption and the Problem of Variety: Cultural Omnivorousness, Social Distinction and Dining Out’, Sociology 33, No. 1 (1999): 105-127. 19 Ibid., 105. 20 Ibid. 21 Van den Berg, ‘Ethnic Cuisine’. 22 Donadio, ‘A Walled City’. 23 Two Greedy Italians, dir. Caroline Ross Pirie (London: Quadrille, 2012). 24 Ibid. 25 Tomatoes are products originated in Central America and eggplants are originally from India and China. Both were introduced in Italy by Arab traders. 26 Ivan Cusack, ‘African Cuisines: Recipes for Nation-Building?’, Journal of African Cultural Studies 13, No. 2 (2000): 207-225. 27 Arjun Appadurai, ‘How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 30, No. 1 (1988): 3-24. 28 Carol Helstosky, ‘Recipe for the Nation: Reading Italian History through La Scienza in Cuccina and La Cuccina Futurista’, Food and Foodways 11 (2003): 113-140. 29 Sally Howell, ‘Modernizing Mansaf: The Consuming Contexts of Jordan’s National Dish’, Food & Foodways 11 (2003): 215-243. 30 Van den Bergh, ‘Ethnic Cuisine’. 31 Helstosky, ‘Recipe for the Nation’, 27. 32 Appadurai, ‘How to Make a National Cuisine’. 33 Carol Helstosky, Garlic and Oil: Politics of Food in Italy (Oxford: Berg, 2004). 34 Ibid., 28. 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid. 37 Erick Castellanos and Sara M. Bergstresser, ‘Food Fights at the EU Table: The Gastronomic Assertion of Italian Distinctiveness’, in European Studies: Food,

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__________________________________________________________________ Drink and Identity in Europe, ed. Thomas M. Wilson (Amesterdam: Rodopi, 2006), 182. 38 Helstosky, Garlic and Oil, 31. 39 WOG food was a derogatory term applied to the food of the southern european immigrants in Australia, specially Italian and Greek food. 40 Stuart Hall, ‘The Question of Culture Identity,’ in Modernity and its Futures, eds. Stuart Hall, David Held and Tony McGrew (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992), 275-325. 41 Ibid. 42 Ernest Renan, ‘What is a Nation?’, in Nation and Narration, ed. Homi K. Bhabha (London: Routledge, 1990), 8-22.

Bibliography Anderson, Benedict R. O’G. Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 1983. Appadurai, Arjun. ‘How to Make a National Cuisine: Cookbooks in Contemporary India’. Comparative Studies in Society and History 30, No. 1(1988): 3–24. Ashley, Bob, Joanne Hollows, Steve Jones, and Ben Taylor. Food and Cultural Studies. London and New York: Routledge, 2004. Bell, David. ‘Fragments for a New Urban Culinary Geography’. Journal for the Study of Food and Society 6, No. 1 (2002): 10–21. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice. London: Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1986. Castellanos, Erick, and Sara M. Bergstresser. ‘Food Fights at the EU Table: The Gastronomic Assertion of Italian Distinctiveness’. In European Studies: Food, Drink and Identity in Europe, edited by Thomas M. Wilson, 179–202. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006. Cusack, Igor. ‘African Cuisines: Recipes for Nation-Building?’. Journal for African Cultural Studies 13, No. 2 (2000): 207–225. Donadio, Rachel. ‘A Walled City in Tuscany Clings to its Ancient Menu’. New York Times, 12 March 2009. Accessed September 9, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/europe/13lucca.html?_r=1.

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__________________________________________________________________ Fiss, Regina L. ‘A Imigração Portuguesa e as Associações como Forma de Manutenção da Identidade Lusitana-Sul do Brazil’. Scrita Nova 94, No. 27 (2001). Accessed November 12, 2012. http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn-94-27/htm. Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Polity, 1991. Hall, Stuart. ‘The Question of Culture Identity’. Modernity and its Futures, edited by Stuart Hall, David Held, and Tony McGrew, 275–325. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992. Helstosky, Carol. ‘Recipe for the Nation: Reading Italian History through La Scienza in Cuccina and la Cuccina Futurista’. Food and Foodways 11 (2003): 113– 140. Helstosky, Carol. Garlic and Oil: Politics and Food in Italy. Oxford: Berg, 2004. Howell, Sally. ‘Modernizing Mansaf: The Consuming Contexts of Jordan’s National Dish’. Food and Foodways 11 (2003): 215–243. Leung, Georgine. ‘Ethinc Food in the UK’. Nutrition Bulletin 35 (2012): 226–234. Accessed October 1, 2012, http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/attachments/f09d162f-9c7f-4cb70c3f6226.pdf. Renan, Ernest. ‘What is a Nation?’. Nation and Narration, edited by Homi K. Bhabha, 8–22. London: Routledge, 1990. Richardson, Kay. ‘Vegemite, Soldiers, and Rosy Cheeks’. Gastronomica 3, No. 4 (2003): 60–62. Ripe, Cherry. Goodbye Culinary Cringe. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1993. ‘Robin Cook’s Chicken Tikka Massala Speech’. The Gardian, 19 April 2001. Accessed October 2, 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/apr/19/race.britishidentity. Romano, Dino. ‘Italian Food #1 in America’. The Pasta Channel (blog). Accessed October 2, 2012. http://thepastachannel.com/italian-food/. Two Greedy Italians. Directed by Caroline Ross Pirie. London, Quadrille, 2012.

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__________________________________________________________________ Van den Bergh, Pierre L. ‘Ethinc Cuisine: Culture in Nature’. Ethnic and Racial Studies 7, No. 3 (1984): 387–397. Warde, Alan, Lydia Martens, and Wendy Olsen. ‘Consumption and the Problem of Variety: Cultural Omnivorousness, Social Distinction and Dining Out’. Sociology 33, No. 1 (1999): 105–127. Paula Arvela is a PhD candidate at the University of Wollongong-Australia. Paula’s research explores her lifelong interest in culture and food. In her dissertation she examines the role of foodways in the production of identities. In her previous career Paula was a chef.

Food Places through the Visual Media: Building Gastronomic Cartographies between Italy and Australia Andrea Bosio Abstract Considering the urban environment of the city as a cultural generator connected to food production and consumption habits, this chapter investigates the everyday life practices relating to food as connected to the archetypical architectural food spaces of the domestic kitchen, the café, the market, and the street, through a comparison between Australian and Italian contexts. Assuming food and food culture to have theatrical and symbolic aspects connected to space, the paper argues the significance of such media as graphic advertising, cookbooks, television shows and movies as vehicles for the understanding of the social, economic and cultural transmission in relation to food space. The links between society, culture, rural and urban landscape, slowness and fastness of society, will be analysed through those media, advancing then the necessity to build a scheme capable of mapping the relationships between those factors, in order to visualise the present condition and predict future potential scenarios within a perspective of food equity and environmental sustainability. Drawing on recent methodological advances, the chapter will explore the insights offered through the representations of food production and consumption in the Australian and Italian contexts from the domestic to the urban scale. This discussion will suggest that gastronomy can be seen as a tool for transforming the built environment. Considering then the theoretical studies of mapping in the work of architects and graphic designers, on these premises the chapter will present hypothetical models for the mapping of food culture and its relationship to the transformation of the built environment. Key Words: Australian, Italian, food, space, architecture, gender, kitchen, city, movies, mapping. ***** 1. Introduction ‘Like a narrative, eating is an extended event.’ 1 The temporal dimension of eating allows the satisfaction of appetite to develop a narrative giving meaning to the action of consumption. Because this food narrative happens in specific physical spaces, we see a strong correlation between the cultural attributes proper to food and their related space of action, and the possibility of their mutual influence. Assuming the cultural historical perspective of Ernesto Nathan Rogers we then choose to look at the Italian and the Australian contexts in search of this correlation within an historical perspective. 2 Stressing the significance of popular culture and in particular of visual media such as television, cookbooks and graphic

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__________________________________________________________________ advertisements as a source of documentation to understand society in its various aspects, in this paper we focus in particular on cinema, in search of a correlation between specific spatial architectural typologies and food habits through an analysis of different Italian and Australian movies. 3 In the attempt to approach a critical cartography of food cultures within food related spaces, we refer to Jeremy W. Crampton in assuming an activist, practical, equalitarian and critical perspective, challenging then the traditional dichotomy of space, either gendered or divided according to ethnicity or culture. 4 We will therefore refer to multicultural, antiracist, feminist, disabled, post-modern, postcolonial and queer spaces associated to food production and consumption, looking for patterns of similarities and distinctions between the two analysed contexts. 5 2. The Domestic Realm of Food In many ways, kitchens are as political space as markets: the functions they perform and the issues they raise at least give them claim to such status. But, unlike markets, kitchens hide their politics behind closed doors. 6 In the Italian cinema we can see a particular practice of utilizing food and food scene as a symbol of either political or social power: in Io Sono l’Amore the kitchen and the food cooked in its space are used as a tools to represent the forces both constructive and disruptive - present in a family, and the economic fall of its capitalist business. 7 Ferzan Ozpetek instead always uses food in his movies in a metaphorical way, most of the times to unveil social and psychological issues related to homosexual characters, and to raise the dramatic tension in collective food scenes. In Mine Vaganti the kitchen is a symbol of class difference and cultural and sexual emancipation, and presents the opportunity to build a ‘queer space’ in opposition to a conservative bourgeois one. 8 In Australian comedies we see the tendency to manipulate spaces in a metaphorical and psychological way to create a dark humour or to make satire. While in Muriel’s Wedding the kitchen and the living room are portrayed as the spaces of domestic conflict and female frustration, where the woman is not able to emancipate herself, and her unemployed kids seek refuge, in The Castle the kitchen symbolises the heart of the house, and food is closely linked to linguistic jokes. 9 In He Died with a Felafel in His Hand the house and the domestic space are the recurrent theme of the movie, the place of aggregation, socialization and gender expression, and symbol of the Australian culture, lifestyle, as well as weather, seen through three Australian cities, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. 10 Being the theatrical version of a book that became a cult for the Australian young population, the movie plays with the cultural, social and environmental stereotypes associated

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__________________________________________________________________ with these cities, with a particular irony and a style that engages the spectator in self-identification. Set in Brisbane, in a house identifiable as a traditional Queenslander, the kitchen is located at the back of the building, with an open space comprehensive of a sink incorporated in the bench top, a free-standing stove, and a bench dividing the cooking space from the consumption area with a table at the centre. The scene is mostly shot either from the outside or from the inside looking out, giving a sense of connection between the domestic space and the outside natural world of the garden. In this respect, we have to point out that in the Queenslander house historically the kitchen and the bathroom were located outside and then gradually have been incorporated into the house, first as external additions, then incorporated into the house in the form of small rooms, then into the kitchen space, and we therefore suggest the connection between these architectural features and the artistic choices of the film directors.

Figure 1: Image of the Author, Gendered Food-Mapping of the First Scene Set in Brisbane of ‘He Died with a Felafel in His Hand’. The division of the space into a preparation and a consumption zone is reinforced in the movie by the directorial use of these spaces. Through the scene set in the Brisbane house we can observe that the male characters occupies only the dining zone by drinking beer while chatting over movies and women. The only girl involved in the scene occupies most of the times the kitchen bench and usually is seen drinking tea and reading. Pancakes, beer, fish fingers, seen in a close-up scene at the beginning, are here a symbol of the Australian lifestyle, while the cup of tea seems instead to be a ‘reconciliation’ medium. It is curious that the beef patty stuck onto the ceiling occupies a physically central position in the space, and has a symbolic role in the

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__________________________________________________________________ disintegration of the protagonist experience in the Brisbane house, as his departure coincides with the devastation of the house, and ultimately with the beef patty itself falling off the ceiling. Though the space includes both food preparation and consumption zones, we can see how furniture physically and culturally divides the space and influences the behaviour of the characters within. The transitional space in those zones, being traditionally the hallway traversing the Queensland house for internal room organisation and acting like a breezeway - is also the space where all social, gender and cultural dualities - male and female, vegetarian and carnivorous, alcoholic and non-alcoholic, friendship and love, physical and psychological - meet.

Figure 2: Image by the Author, Gendered Food-Mapping of the Second Scene Set in Brisbane of ‘He Died with a Felafel in His Hand’. The scene set in Sydney is located in a unit characterised by large windows and white walls: the space presents itself as brighter and cleaner, still with an open kitchen with a bench dividing the preparation space from the lounge room. If food is still seen as a sign of power and a symbol of the individual expression - at the beginning of the scene the two housemates argue over the position of a pineapple can on the shelf while the main character plays the guitar in the lounge room next to a magnet board rudely suggesting to keep the milk in the fridge and the butter out of the fridge - the use of the space is more diversely gender oriented, with one of the more masculine male characters cooking some reconciling scones next to the gay character sipping a cup of tea. ‘Le table est une machine sociale compliquée, efficace aussi.’ 11 The use of the body on the table requires a conduct that is specific to each culture, which leads us to state that ‘those who choose to eat together tacitly recognize their fellow as saliently equal,’ and therefore to consider the table as an opportunity of cultural

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__________________________________________________________________ confrontation. 12 The Italian cultural clash with immigration and internal social crisis are well portrayed in Cover Boy: L’ultima Rivoluzione, where the kitchen becomes the symbol of those issues dialoguing through the sharing of a meal. 13 Looking for Alibrandi offers us instead the opportunity to discuss the relationship between Australians and Italian immigrants through the lens of food. 14 The space of the kitchen is most of the time pictured as the space where food is the medium for people gathering, but also as the place for discussion and arguments between elders and youngsters, first and second generation of migrants. In La Meglio Gioventù, a movie depicting the major historical events that happened in Italy during the past sixty years through the perspective of a family, the kitchen appears as a space for family gathering, where arguments are started, romantic affairs are born, and the identity of the family in its singular components emerges. 15 It is also a place where furniture, domestic appliances, and the disposition of those, are a mirror of the changes of the Italian society through time. After the Second World War the Italian government initiated a programme of social housing called Ina-Casa to fulfil the housing demand that the Fascist regime was not able to satisfy, which aimed not only to give to the Italian population new amenities and technologies, but also the new psychological wellness of being included into civilised industrialised societies. 16 If spatially then the new Italian home was characterised by a separation of spaces dedicated to food preparation, consumption, personal hygiene and leisure, on a social and psychological level ‘the new homes of Ina-Casa thus enabled people from the working-class to be active participants and citizens in the new Italian republic.’ 17 If already in one of the first scene set in the 1960s in the characters’ parents house we observe the presence of ordinary appliances such as the electric fridge and the gas stove, later in the movie we see how the importance of the television has influenced also the domestic space of preparation and consumption, when the main character’s daughter watches the news while having dinner. ‘The redesign of the domestic sphere was also a redesign of Italian family life. The new home subsumed local customs and habits with new norms thereby fulfilling another function of invented traditions, the ability to socialize or inculcate values or beliefs.’ 18

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Figure 3: Image by the Author, Gendered Food-Mapping of the Kitchen of the Parents’ Place set in the 1960s in ‘La Meglio Gioventù’.

Figure 4: Image by the Author, Gendered Food-Mapping of the Kitchen in the Parents’ Place set in the 1980s in ‘La Meglio Gioventù’. It is also the space where the presence of food, disposition of furniture and the colours of those, symbolise the psychological and emotional feelings of the characters, and their attachment to the family, as well as their social status and political affiliations: while the kitchen in the family house is set in warm red colours, with a table in the centre and a large glass door, the main character’s kitchen is tinted blue, still with the table at the centre, but with smaller windows from which a colder light penetrates. This choice puts emphasis on the contrast between the cocooned life within the parents’ house and the turbulent personal and

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__________________________________________________________________ political story of the main character. Food in these two houses also symbolizes the different social importance and the different status of the two groups: while in the parents’ house the food present on the table is always simple, in the main character’s house, in occasion of his brother visit, we see a cake and wine, a symbol of his new bourgeois lifestyle. This is in opposition to his past student life, where we can see him living in a small house and eating peasant food, bread and ham. 3. Dining Out The space of self-indulgence of the café, the pub or the restaurant is also analysed differently according to different cultures through an approach which considers the cultural influences in both contexts, as well as the Aboriginal cultural perception relative to the Australian one. 19 While in approaching the Italian context described in movies we observe mostly the city and its urban environment, in Australian movies we stress the significance of the contrast between the natural environment of the outback and the highly urbanised environment of Australian cities. In Italian movies we see the preponderance of the bar, the café or the tea room, as spaces either of social acceptance, like in Reality, where the Neapolitan social habit to buy coffee in advance for future customers becomes the symbol of the desire of fame, or in Magnifica Presenza, where the bar is the place for social conformity and a croissant becomes the symbol of sexual frustration. 20 In Australian movies the pub is generally understood as the primary place for self-indulgence, relaxation and social interaction. Opal dream confirms Robinson and Arcodia’s historical argument, as the pub is portrayed in a conservative way as either the place for the family dinner or the place for the male business chat in front of a beer. 21 In The Adventure of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert the masculine space of the pub is disrupted by the arrival of the three characters in drag, who, by engaging in the communal cultural consumption of alcohol as a social ice-breaker, allow themselves to create their own space. 22 ‘Restaurants were dismantling the ancient laws of the table, replacing its companionship with theatrical individualism.’ 23 Both in Australian and Italian movies the restaurant is portrayed as a quirky and highly aesthetically characterised place allowing self expression, or as the place to resolve family arguments where the individuality is allowed to stand out from the family’s homogeneity. In Pane e Tulipani we see the main female character, just arrived in Venice after being forgotten by his family at a petrol station, entering a local restaurant to have dinner alone. 24 That evidences a first aspect of female empowerment, represented in the acceptance in many countries of women eating out without the company of men and the acceptance of people remaining single for longer periods of time. 25 A first grotesque element of the scene regards the contrast between the

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__________________________________________________________________ protagonist Rosalba having to eat a cold plate due to the chef being sick, and the aesthetic arrangement of this plate - consisting in a can of tuna and some beans. The second surreal moment involves the sharpness of the dialogue between the protagonist and the restaurant owner Fernando, arguing whether of not a can of tuna would be better than a Chinese meal. The Chinese restaurant becomes here a figurative allegory of displacement and cultural acceptance, as, while it is not shown in any scene of the movie, it appears with its stereotypical atmosphere and red colours in Fernando’s restaurant. Warde and Martens’ argument about eating out as being a field of distinction and status quo, and Ben Taylor’s historical analysis of the experiential aspect of food being a consequence of a shift from Fordism to post-Fordism, are evident in restaurant scenes included in Muriel’s Wedding. 26 In complete opposition to the domestic environment, they are all rigorously set in Chinese restaurants pictured as red and smoky places, portraying with a dark humour the only moments when the whole family gathers around a table, or when family businesses are resolved. In the first case the table sets both the family roles and gender divisions, as the father is completely in charge of the situation, bossing the children around, disrespecting the wife and engaging in power relationships with the restaurant staff. In the second case the father is still in charge of the situation, although the argument during the dinner is around legal and financial matters. The place of outdoor consumption leads us to consider the space of outdoor production, either natural or artificial. While Silvio Soldini in Pane e Tulipani plays with stereotypes and cultural contrasts to create a surreal comedy, Pier Paolo Pasolini in Mamma Roma has political intents in showing the neat contrast between the highly urbanised outskirts of Rome built during the Italian economic boom and the adjacent Roman countryside, with forage fields and ancient ruins. This contrast is also present at a social level in the clash between the residents of those dormitory-neighbourhoods and the characters populating the disappearing countryside, seen almost as mythological figures. 27 Finally, the typical Australian activity of the barbeque or the picnic symbolises a specific approach to the landscape: in Opal Dream the environmental setting represents the exploitation of the Australian natural environment, seen as exotic and alien, with the significant absence of the Aboriginal culture. 28 In The Adventure of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert the outback environment is instead pictured as a foreign space allowing, with its emptiness, for the creation of a more personal and paradoxically less alienating space than the urban one, with the bus in the desert being the element connecting the typical aboriginal bush camp with the more hedonistic activity of the barbeque. 4. Conclusion In the Italian cinema we can recall many movies explicitly related to food, but even when food is not explicit neither in the title nor in the script, we can find a

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__________________________________________________________________ particular attention to food production and consumption. By taking the medium of cinema to be an ambiguous mirror image of reality, we advance the argument that cultural and environmental stereotypes play multiple roles in movies and graphic advertisement, either consciously reinforcing those stereotypes or satirically destroying them, or sometimes even depicting them in a dreamy way through the physical space of the movie set. At the same time we note that the attachment to food in countries like Italy or France has, according to Steel, a cultural basis, as there ‘the question of whether or not people cook is not left to chance.’ 29 On the Australian side then we point to the cultural perception of space and food space, and its distortion through media as seen in some of the analysed movies. This is connected to a questionable tendency toward an economic globalisation utilising cultural diversity for financial profit, which is detrimental to a conscious and culturally beneficial understanding of the relationship between different populations and different cultures. 30 The visual medium then is a fascinating subject for cultural, sociological and architectural studies. While images tend to influence society with the subjectivity of those who manipulate them, they also mirrors society itself, and therefore can be used as an analytic tool. We therefore stress that we could unveil and understand the complexity of the visual media better through a critical cartographic approach. .

Notes 1

Carolyn Korsmeyer, Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999), 186. 2 Ernesto Nathan Rogers, Editoriali di Architettura (Rovereto: Zandonai, 2009), 122. 3 Richard N. S. Robinson and Charles Arcodia, ‘Reading Australian Colonial Hospitality: A Simple Recipe’, International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research 2 (2008): 375. 4 Jeremy W. Crampton, Mapping: A Critical Introduction to Cartography and GIS (Chichester, West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing, 2010), 17. 5 Manuel Lima, Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011), 44; Carlo Petrini, Buono, Pulito e Giusto: Principi di Nuova Gastronomia (Torino: Einaudi, 2011), 96. 6 Carolyn Steel, Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives (London: Vintage Books, 2008), 170. 7 Io Sono l’Amore, DVD, dir. Luca Guadagnino (Italy: Mikado Films, 2009). 8 Mine Vaganti, DVD, dir. Ferzan Ozpetek (Italy: 01 Distribution, 2010). 9 Muriel’s Wedding, DVD, dir. Paul John Hogan (Australia: Miramax Films, 1994); The Castle, DVD, dir. Rob Sitch (Australia: Village Roadshow, 1997).

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He Died with a Felafel in His Hand, DVD, dir. Richard Lowestein (Australia: Fandango, 2001). 11 Luce Giard, ‘Le Plat du Jour’, in, L’Invention du Quotidien: 2. Habiter, Cuisiner, Michel de Certeau et al. (France: Editions Gallimard, 1994), 257. 12 Korsmeyer, Making Sense of Taste, 200. 13 Cover Boy: l’Ultima Rivoluzione, DVD, dir. Carmine Amoroso (Italy: Istituto Luce, 2006). 14 Looking for Alibrandi, DVD, dir. Kate Woods (Australia: Roadshow Entertainment, 1999). 15 La Meglio Gioventù, DVD, dir. Marco Tullio Giordana (Italy: Rai Cinemafiction, 2003). 16 Stephanie Zeier Pilat, Reconstructing Italy: The INA-Casa Neighborhoods of the Post War Era (PhD diss: The University of Michigan, 2009), 8. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 19 Katrina Schlunke, 2001, in Richard N. S. Robinson and Charles Arcodia, ‘Reading Australian Colonial Hospitality: a Simple Recipe’, 374. 20 Reality, DVD, dir. Matteo Garrone (Italy: 01 Distribution, 2012); Magnifica Presenza, DVD, dir. Ferzan Ozpetek (Italy: 01 Distribution, 2012). 21 Opal Dream, DVD, dir. Peter Cattaneo (Australia: RenaissanceFilms, 2006); Richard N. S. Robinson and Charles Arcodia, ‘Reading Australian Colonial Hospitality: a Simple Recipe’, 376. 22 The Adventure of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, DVD, dir. Stephen Elliott (Australia: Gramercy Pictures, 1994). 23 Steel, Hungry City, 231. 24 Pane e Tulipani, DVD, dir. Silvio Soldini (Italy: Istituto Luce, 2000). 25 Karen A. Franck, ‘The City as Dining Room, Market and Farm’, Food + the City, AD Architectural Design 75, No. 3, (May/June 2005): 6. 26 Alan Warde and Lydia Martens, Eating Out: Social Differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000); Ben Taylor, 2001, in Bob Ashley et al., Food and Cultural Studies (London: Routledge, 2004), Kindle Edition. 27 Mamma Roma, DVD, dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini (Italy: Cineriz, 1962). 28 Jake Wilson, ‘Modest and Naturalistic, this Australian Children’s Film is a Moving Throwback to the ‘80s’, The Age, 13 September 2006. 29 Carolyn Steel, Hungry City, 216. 30 Bob Ashley et al., Food and Cultural Studies (London: Routledge, 2004), Kindle Edition.

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Bibliography Ashley, Bob, Joanne Hollows, Steve Jones, and Ben Taylor. Food and Cultural Studies. London: Routledge, 2004. Kindle Edition. Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1957. Colomina, Beatriz ‘The Split Wall: Domestic Voyeurism’. Sexuality and Space, edited by Beatriz Colomina, 73–130. New York: Princeton Papers on Architecture, 1992. Crampton, Jeremy W. Mapping: A Critical Introduction to Cartography and GIS. Chichester, West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing, 2010. De Certeau, Michel, Luce Giard, and Pierre Mayol. L’Invention du Quotidien: 2. Habiter, Cuisiner. France: Editions Gallimard, 1994. Fisher, Rod, and Brian Crozier. The Queensland House: A Roof over Our Heads. Brisbane: Queensland Museum Publication, 1994. Franck, Karen A. ‘The City as Dining Room, Market and Farm’. Food+the City. AD Architectural Design 75, No. 3 (2005): 5–10. Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Cambridge: Cambridge Polity, 1991. Humphery, Kim. Shelf Life: Supermarkets and the Changing Cultures of Consumption. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Korsmeyer, Carolyn. Making Sense of Taste: Food and Philosophy. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999. Lima, Manuel, Visual Complexity: Mapping Patterns of Information. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2011. Marte, Lidia. ‘Afro-Diasporic Seasonings: Food Routes and Dominican Place Making in New York City’. Food, Culture and Society 14, No. 2 (2011): 181–204. Miller, Richard E. ‘A Moment of Profound Danger: British Cultural Studies away from the Centre’. Cultural Studies 8, No. 3 (2004): 419–439.

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__________________________________________________________________ Pilat, Stephanie Zeier, Reconstructing Italy: The Ina-Casa Neighbourhoods of the Post War Era. PhD diss. The University of Michigan, 2009. Petrini, Carlo, Buono, Pulito e Giusto: Principi di Nuova Gastronomia. Torino: Einaudi, 2011. Robinson, Richard N. S., and Charles Arcodia. ‘Reading Australian Colonial Hospitality: A Simple Recipe’. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research 2 (2008): 374–388. Roger, Ernesto Nathan. Editoriali di Architettura. Rovereto: Emanuela Zandonai Editore, 2009. Steel, Carolyn. Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives. London: Vintage Books, 2008. Warde, Alan, and Lydia Martens. Eating Out: Social Differentiation, Consumption and Pleasure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Wilson, Jake. ‘Modest and Naturalistic, This Australian Children’s Film is a Moving Throwback to the ‘80s’. The Age, 13 September 2006.

Filmography Amoroso, Carmine, dir. Cover Boy: l’Ultima Rivoluzione. Italy: Istituto Luce, 2006. DVD. Cattaneo, Peter, dir. Opal Dream. Australia: RenaissanceFilms, 2006. DVD. Elliott, Stephen, dir. The Adventure of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert. Australia: Gramercy Pictures, 1994. DVD. Garrone, Matteo, dir. Reality. Italy: 01 Distribution, 2012. DVD. Giordana, Tullio, dir. La Meglio Gioventù. Italy: Rai Cinemafiction, 2003. DVD. Guadagnino, Luca, dir. Io Sono l’Amore. Italy: Mikado Films, 2009. DVD. Hogan, Paul John, dir. Muriel’s Wedding. Australia: Miramax Films, 1994. DVD.

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__________________________________________________________________ Lowestein, Richard, dir. He Died with a Felafel in His Hand. Australia: Fandango, 2001. DVD. Ozpetek, Ferzan, dir. Mine Vaganti. Italy: 01 Distribution, 2010. DVD. —––. Magnifica Presenza. Italy: 01 Distribution, 2012. DVD. Paolino, Pier Paolo, dir. Mamma Roma. Italy: Cineriz, 1962. DVD. Sitch, Rob, dir. The Castle. Australia: Village Roadshow, 1997. DVD. Soldini, Silvio, dir. Pane e Tulipani. Italy: Istituto Luce, 2000. DVD. Woods, Kate, dir. Looking for Alibrandi. Australia: Roadshow Entertainment, 1999. DVD. Andrea Bosio is a PhD candidate of Architecture from Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. His research investigates on the cultural and physical relationship between gastronomy and the territory, through a comparison between the Australian and the Italian reality. He is also a teacher of Italian at Dante Alighieri Italian school in Brisbane, where he teaches Italian classes as well as cooking classes in Italian. Before coming to Australia he undertook his Bachelor and Master degree in Italy at Milano Politecnico and worked for different architectural firms.

Tell Me What You Eat, and I Will Tell You Who You Are Not: An Examination of Food, Culture, Ethnicity, and Identity in Italy Taylor Zaneri Abstract Because of the strong connection between food and culture, ethnic foods often serve as proxies for the groups that produce and consume them. In this way, cultural attitudes and stereotypes are transposed onto these foods, reflecting dispositions towards the ethnic group. This is significant in regard to the recent animosity towards minority foods in Italy, in other words, foods that are not the products of ethnic Italians. The proliferation of minority cuisine has raised the growing concerns of ethnic Italians regarding Italian identity and cultural purity. In one Tuscan town, Lucca, the local government has gone so far as to forbid new ‘ethnic food’ establishments from opening in the ancient part of the city, designated by the space inside its Renaissance walls. Lucca is a town that prides itself on its romantic peasant past, along with its authentic cuisine. To this end, the food legislation was ultimately put in place to exclude particular types of cuisine namely kebab shops and fast food chains. I argue that this is an attempt to construct and maintain Luccan identity in the face of globalisation and the industrialisation of food production. Therefore the tension over ‘ethnic food’ reflects not merely cuisine, but the presence of the ‘ethnic’ people who produce and consume it - nonethnic Italians. This has been expressed not only in Lucca, but by other regional movements such as the Northern League and the Slow Food Movement, which I will also explore. Therefore throughout Italy, food has become part of a larger discussion regarding culture, identity and authenticity - giving new meaning to the famous phrase ‘tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you are.’ In Lucca, perhaps the phrase should be reworked: ‘tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you who you aren’t.’ Key Words: Food, identity, Lucca, Tuscany, slow food, anxiety. ***** 1. Introduction Food is an integral part of human life, and an important part of social identity. Food based activities, such as eating and cooking, can be mechanisms to transmit collective knowledge, and also help establish social bonds. These activities are also sensorial acts that condition taste, smell, and touch, passing on information as to how food should be experienced and with whom. 1 Food can symbolise participation within in a group, or conversely can demarcate boundaries; cuisine

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__________________________________________________________________ can often index racial, ethnic, or class identity. 2 Thus ‘we are what we eat,’ not only literally, but figuratively as well. For Italians, food is critical in the interactions between family, friends, and the community, and is also used to recall events of the past. Cuisine differs widely throughout the country; rather than having a national food culture, there are regional and local specialties. 3 For example the North is famous for its risotto, polenta, and bean soup, while the South is famous for its dried pasta, eggplant, and seafood. Thus local food and identity are, to some extent privileged, over the national. 4 In the twentieth century Italian food production has become more commercialised, changing not only the way food is prepared, and but also its social uses. In addition, new foods have also been introduced to Italy by immigrants from Turkey, North Africa, China, and Albania, which have generally not been well received, and have provoked fear over the degradation of food and culture. One region active in expressing its dissatisfaction is Tuscany, whose residents feel a tremendous amount of anxiety over the displacement of their cuisine. 5 In one particular Tuscan town, Lucca, this tension has led to a town ban on the establishment of new ‘ethnic food’ enterprises inside the city’s Renaissance walls in 2009. 6 Although this ban was more symbolic than substantive, it showcases the level of concern and to a certain extent animosity regarding this issue. This chapter explores this anxiety looking at how identity is created and substantiated through food and food activities in Tuscany, using Lucca as a case study to explore the relationship between food, culture, and identity. 2. Regional Identity in Tuscany In order to understand the legislative actions in Lucca, it is necessary to analyze Tuscan regional identity as expressed through its food culture. There are two important components of Tuscan identity, as it relates to food culture: the history of the region and the modern lifestyle. Tuscans are particularly proud of two eras: the Etruscan period, which predated Roman colonisation of the area, and the Renaissance period, when Tuscany was comprised of several powerful city-states. 7 Both of these periods represent times when Tuscany thrived without the presence of Rome. Rome as a symbol of the Roman Empire, as well as the modern state, is considered to have corrupted the lifeway in Tuscany. In short, the Tuscan region has tended to look down on ‘foreign influence.’ Traditionally this influence was Rome, but recently, these ideas have begun to ‘resurface in new forms; the anti-outsider attitudes have a common claim with antiimmigrant racism.’ 8 These attitudes have come to be applied to immigrants who have begun to settle in the region. Globalisation has not only brought new people, but also new foods and pace of life. This modern, faster-paced lifestyle is in opposition to the slow and antiquated one that the region is famous for. For Tuscans this faster pace disrupts the enjoyment of life’s pleasures such as food.

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__________________________________________________________________ 3. Slow Food, Slow Life: Food, Identity and Time Slow living and regional pride, along with the appreciation of the past, are important to Tuscan identity and are salient in their food culture. For example, one Tuscan man Raffaele, speaking about a regional dish, minestra di pane, notes that it is prepared with local ingredients and is cooked for several hours. According to the speaker, it was invented hundreds of years ago, because Dante and Leonardo da Vinci ate it. 9 Raffaele emphasises that the dish has been handed down unaltered, and is therefore an artefact of the past stating, ‘I haven’t invented anything in cooking. I took everything my mother made when I was little and my mother must have taken it from her mother. We don’t invent anything, understand?’ 10 Minestra di pane is often described as a poor man’s dish but it was suitable as well for elite society; it is simple and rustic, but also elegant. These are terms that are used to describe not only Tuscan food, but also its people. Thus the dish is associated with the Tuscans and Tuscans associate themselves with the dish. Raffele considers this version of the dish to be far superior than that of other regions such as Emilia, because their they only have delicate white bread, in contrast to the thick dark bread of the Tuscans. 11 This is further evidence of how Tuscans not only identify themselves, but also draw lines between themselves and others. Raffaele’s description of the minestra di pane highlights the complex relationship of Tuscan food to both identity as well as time. First, he purports continuity with the food that was eaten hundreds of years ago in Tuscany. Second, he mentions Dante and da Vinci, alluding to celebrated Renaissance period. Third, he incorporates the dish into part of his own heritage and identity, stating that it was handed down for generations. And finally he references slow cooking methods, noting that the preparation of the dish takes hours. Thus in his description, the reader is introduced to food as historical artefact, as individual heritage, and as part of the slow life. The theme of slowness has been picked up by what is known as the Slow Food Movement, started by Carlo Petrini to halt the opening of McDonald’s on the Spanish Steps in Rome. 12 The Slow Food Movement maintains that ‘Fast Food’ is part of the larger Fast Life’ which is disruptive, unnatural, and robs humans not only of basic pleasures, but also of identity. 13 The term fast food is extended to foods beyond the traditional sense of the term and is more generally used to describe food without taste and culture. Consumption of fast food strips away the sensory experiences of eating and the commensality of sharing a meal. Eating fast food changes the structure and pace of life, social interactions, and fundamentally the creation of both collective and individual identity. 14 4. Banning ‘Ethnic Food’ in Lucca In 2009, the city council prohibited the opening of new ‘ethnic food’ establishments in the historic centre of Lucca, defined as the area within the four

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__________________________________________________________________ kilometers of the city walls. 15 Although the term ‘ethnic food’ is ambiguous, the ban was directed at specific establishments - namely Turkish kebab shops, McDonalds, and even pizza-by-the-slice shops. The council states that these businesses are welcome to open outside the centre, but not inside. Therefore the council has spatially demarcated what food is appropriate in which part of the city, and has regulated what is not appropriate to a different part of the landscape. In addition, the council has also passed several more regulations for those food establishments already in the centre; in particular, it states that the furniture used by these establishments should be historically appropriate and elegant, the personnel should be elegantly dressed and speak English, the business should follow traditional hours, and finally the menu should include at least one Luccan dish prepared with local ingredients. According to the council, this will help preserve the ‘culinary traditions, architecture, culture and history’ of the historic space. 16 Residents are divided over this issue; there are those that feel that ‘ethnic restaurants’ are being unfairly targeted. However, the opposition states that it is an issue of culinary patrimony, not racism. 17 It is clear that is significant concern over not only the food culture in Lucca, but the appearance of the city as a whole. Those in support of the ban argue that the kebab shops, McDonald’s, and fast pizzerias do not fit with the identity and heritage of the city. More directly these foods are in opposition to the image that Luccans have for themselves, and how they feel food should prepared, consumed, and experienced. 18 All of these foods qualify as ‘fast foods’ because they are prepared quickly, as opposed to ‘slow methods,’ and can be eaten on-the-go. In the social sphere this limits the interactions and commensality associated with eating that is extremely important to Tuscans. However, this ban goes much farther, the decor, dress, menu and linguistic requirements make it abundantly clear that Luccans are against not only ‘ethnic food’ but also non-Tuscan culture in general. The council not only wants the food to conform to its standards but also the architectural appearance of these places as well. The set up and style of these typically more modern ‘ethnic food’ class with the romantic and antiquated aura that Lucca is trying to preserve. Therefore the food ban is it is the manifestation of the anxiety over the loss of local identity in the face of modernisation, which has been transferred onto a socially salient symbol - food. To this end, fast food is considered not only gastronomically degrading, but also culturally and morally degrading as well. Slow Food Movement founder Carlo Petrini is extremely concerned about the proliferation of this food among youths, writing that ‘the mistake here is we are favouring an inclination that does not belong to our history, in hope that when they grow up, young people will recover their lost palates. But bad habits contracted in youth rapidly become ingrained and the upshot is loss of identity, of the heritage of individuals and societies.’ 19 In other words, eating local food ensures that culture will be passed on to future

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__________________________________________________________________ generations, and also prevents the development of bad habits and the loss of morals. Banning fast food is about outlawing the lifestyle that is thought to come with it. Where traditional fast food is concerned, this is an attempt to shun the culturally diffusive, fast-paced, global lifestyle that the America represents; McDonald’s is the symbol of commercialisation of cuisine and of taste. The animosity towards directed ‘ethnic foods’ such as the Turkish kebabs represents an anxiety of a similar vein. Like McDonald’s, the Turkish kebab shops are also though to contribute to the disintegration of culture, however I believe that in this case the food is a proxy for the people who produce it. 20 5. Anti-Immigration and the Northern League Italy has only recently become a country to immigrate to, and currently seven percent of inhabitants of Italy are non-ethnic Italians. Ethnic Italian population growth has slowed, while immigrant population in Italy has steadily increased. 21 Most immigrants have settled in the northern part of the country, including Tuscany, and the tensions over increasing numbers of immigrants are palpable. In some places the animosity has lead to violence and race riots, resulting in the destruction of property. In other towns, there are laws regarding the use of nonItalian signs and also the sale of property to non-ethnic Italians. 22 The Northern League, which is a regional separatist movement, has backed many of these exclusionary efforts including the Lucca food ban. Maintaining local foodways is one an important concern of this movement. For example, the Northern League laments the millions of tomatoes that are imported from China, and raises concerns about the quality and purity of these items. 23 The Northern League fully supports the Lucca food ban and also encourages Italians to eat foods only from their region in a show of gastronomic patriotism. 24 In other words, refusing to each anything but local and regional dishes is a means to shows loyalty to one’s culture and one’s heritage. 6. Conclusion Throughout this chapter I have demonstrated that food is a social object; it is both a marker and component of identity. Food and food activities are a mechanism to construct relationships and ties between families and communities, and also helping to demarcate who we are and how we belong. It is these informal acts that transmit knowledge, and structure how we perceive and interact with the world. For Tuscans food is not merely what they eat, it is who they are: it is their land, history, family, identity and life. Food is a tangible object that is heavily endowed with intangible cultural value, and the anxiety is over the destruction of this immaterially as the tradition (material) cuisine faces competition. The fear is that it will not be passed on because food is not prepared and consumed the same way anymore - new methods are being used and new foods are

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__________________________________________________________________ available. In Lucca, fundamentally, the anxiety is not merely about the loss of food, but what they loss symbolises - the changing pace of life, the spread of globalisation, and the increase in immigrant population. Traditional food is being pitted against McDonald’s in a clash between the local and the global, the Tuscan and the foreigner, the slow and the fast. In attempting to ban ‘ethnic food,’ the case could be made that Luccans are sending a clear message about how they feel about these people, transferring their attitudes to their food. The changes that are taken place are challenging not only to Luccan cuisine, but to their way of life. The younger generation is growing up in a world that does not mind indulging in faster cuisine and lifestyle, and is occurring throughout Tuscany. The Luccan legislation is the manifestation of not only the fear of change, but actual change. These changes have produced a sense of nostalgia that has become invested in the food. The sense is that something intangible is slipping away as past recipes give way to new traditions, it is as if life had more flavour back then, and so did the food.

Notes 1

David E. Sutton, Remembrance of Repasts (New York: Berg, 2006), 96-99. Jack Goody, Cooking Cuisine and Class (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 98-99. 3 Elena Kostioukovitch, Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2006), xxi. 4 John Agnew, ‘The Rhetoric of Regionalism: The Northern League in Italian Politics: 1983-84’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20 (1995): 156-158. 5 Carol Helstosky, Garlic and Oil: Politics and Food in Italy (Oxford: Berg, 2006), 157-158. 6 Chris Thangham, ‘Italy Bans Kebabs and McDonald’s Food’, Digital Journal, 10 December 2010, accessed January 11, 2013, http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/266321. 7 Gregory Hanlon, Human Nature in Rural Tuscany: An Early Modern History (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), 25-26. 8 Angela Zanotti, ‘Undercurrents of Racism in Italy’, International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 7 (1993): 174-176. 9 Carole Counihan, Around the Tuscan Table: Food, Family, and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence (New York: Routledge, 2004), 19-21. 10 Ibid. 11 Ibid. 12 Carlo Petrini, The Slow Food Manifesto (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 8. 2

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__________________________________________________________________ 13

Bid., 23. Alison Leitch, ‘Slow Food and the Politics of Pork Fat: Italian Food and European Identity’, in Food and Culture, eds. Carole Counihan and Penny Van Esterik (New York: Routledge, 1997), 382-383. 15 ‘Lucca, Stop ai Ristoranti Etnici “Salvaguardare la Tradizione”’, La Repubblica, January 26, 2009, accessed January, 13, 2013, http://www.repubblica.it/2009/01/sezioni/cronaca/lucca-etnico/lucca-etnico/luccaetnico.html?ref=search. 16 Ibid. 17 Rachel Donadio, ‘A Walled City in Tuscany Clings to Its Ancient Menu’, The New York Times, March 13, 2009, accessed January 11, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/europe/13lucca.html. 18 Ibid. 19 Petrini, The Slow Food Manifesto, 33-34. 20 Ilaria Maria Sala, ‘Taming Globalization? Kebabs, Mini-Skirts And Meth: Part II’, Yale Global Online Magazine, May 20, 2010, accessed January 11, 2013, http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/taming-globalization-kebabs-mini-skirts-andmeth-part-ii. 21 ‘Indicatori Demografici’, Istat.it, January 24, 2011, accessed January 12, 2013, http://www3.istat.it/salastampa/comunicati/in_calendario/inddemo/20110124_00/te stointegrale20110124.pdf. 22 Sala, ‘Taming Globalization?’. 23 ‘La Tutela Dell’Agroalimentare Nei Confronti Del Mercato Globale E Della Concorrenza Sleale’, Lega Nord, 2008, accessed January 11, 2013, http://www.leganordsassari.org/documenti/agroalimentare.pdf. 24 Elvira Serra, ‘No Pineapples, Please, We’re Italian’, Corriere Della Sera, December 28, 2008, accessed January 13, 2013, http://www.corriere.it/english/08_dicembre_17/no_pineapples_3b0f27ce-cc5011dd-bd86-00144f02aabc.shtml. 14

Bibliography Agnew, John. ‘The Rhetoric of Regionalism: The Northern League in Italian Politics’. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20 (1995): 156–172. Anderson, E. N. Everyone Eats. New York: New York University Press, 2005. Counihan, Carole. Around the Tuscan Table: Food, Family, and Gender in Twentieth Century Florence. New York: Routledge, 2004.

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__________________________________________________________________ Donadio, Rachel. ‘A Walled City in Tuscany Clings to Its Ancient Menu’. The New York Times, 13 March, 2009. Accessed January 11, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/world/europe/13lucca.html. Goody, Jack. Cooking, Cuisine, and Class. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Hanlon, Gregory. Human Nature in Rural Tuscany: An Early Modern History. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. Helstosky, Carol. Garlic and Oil: Politics and Food in Italy. Oxford: Berg, 2006. ‘Indicatori Demografici’. Istat.it, 24 January, 2011. Accessed January 12, 2013. http://www3.istat.it/salastampa/comunicati/in_calendario/inddemo/20110124_00/te stointegrale20110124.pdf. Kington, Tom. ‘Italy Wakes Up to the Realities of Immigration’. The Guardian, 21 February, 2010. Accessed January 11, 2013. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/21/italy-milan-race-riots. Kostioukovich, Elena. Why Italians Love to Talk about Food. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009. ‘La Tutela Dell’Agroalimentare Nei Confronti Del Mercato Globale E Della Concorrenza Sleale’. Lega Nord, 2008. Accessed January 1, 2013. http://www.leganordsassari.org/documenti/agroalimentare.pdf. Leitch, Alison. ‘Slow Food and the Politics of Pork Fat: Italian Food and European Identity’. In Food and Culture, edited by Carole Counihan, and Penny Van Esterik, 381–399. New York: Routledge, 1997. ‘Lucca, Stop ai Ristoranti Etnici “Salvaguardare la Tradizione”’. La Repubblica, 26 January, 2009. Accessed January 13, 2013. http://www.repubblica.it/2009/01/sezioni/cronaca/lucca-etnico/lucca-etnico/luccaetnico.html?ref=search. Petrini Carlo. The Slow Food Manifesto. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.

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__________________________________________________________________ Sala, Ilaria Maria. ‘Taming Globalization? Kebabs, Mini-Skirts and Meth: Part II’. Yale Global Online Magazine, 20 May 2010. Accessed January 11, 2013. http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/taming-globalization-kebabs-mini-skirts-andmeth-part-ii. Serra, Elvira ‘No Pineapples, Please, We’re Italian’. Corriere Della Sera, 28 December 2008. Accessed January 13, 2013. http://www.corriere.it/english/08_dicembre_17/no_pineapples_3b0f27ce-cc5011dd-bd86-00144f02aabc.shtml. Sutton, David E. Remembrance of Repasts. New York: Berg, 2006. Thangham, Chris. ‘Italy Bans Kebabs and McDonald’s Food’. Digital Journal, 10 December 2010. Accessed January 11, 2013. http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/266321. Zanotti, Angela. ‘Undercurrents of Racism in Italy’. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 7 (1993): 173–188. Taylor Zaneri is a PhD student at New York University.

Of Kangaroo, Fish and Corn: The Role of Food in the Unbalanced Exchange in Australian Aboriginal, Explorer and Settler Relations Zane Ma Rhea Abstract Australian Aboriginal society has, over millennia, established systems that optimised food security for its members. Moreover, people had food sovereignty. As Aboriginal people explain, the systems that optimised their food security had been worked out over years of negotiation and struggle between clans and families. This chapter examines the first contact period of approximately 35 years of the original inhabitants with the newcomer explorers and colonists and the impact of first contact on the food consciousness of Aboriginal people and newcomers alike. This chapter uses three foods, kangaroo, fish, and corn, as lenses by which to begin to theorise the often, but not always, contested relations that occurred between small family and clan groups of Aboriginal people and the early sealers, explorers and settlers of the frontier of Australia. The written records demonstrate that there were three periods of change in this fist contact period: initial avoidance, followed by expansion and contest, and finally a semblance of food security for settlers and Aboriginal Peoples’ food sovereignty. Both groups’ diets were fundamentally influenced by a scarcity of food during this first contact period. The findings indicate that issues of food scarcity, security and sovereignty have shaped ongoing relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Key Words: Australian Aboriginal food knowledge, settler-indigenous relations, early Australian diet, food sovereignty, food scarcity, food security. ***** 1. Introduction Australian Aboriginal society of the landmass now called Australia has, over millennia, established systems that have optimised food security for its members. Moreover, people had food sovereignty. As Aboriginal people explain, the knowledge of food and the systems that gave them food security had been worked out over years of careful observation, trial and error, negotiation, and struggle. This chapter examines the first contact period of approximately 35 years between Aboriginal Peoples and newcomer explorers and colonists and the impact of this first contact on the food consciousness of Aboriginal people and newcomers alike. 2. Methodology This short œuvre forms part of a larger study that examined the ways that Aboriginal knowledge of food was shared with, and understood by, newcomers

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__________________________________________________________________ and how it was used over 175 years (1788-1963). This chapter specifically examines the first contact period, of approximately 35 years, between the time when inhabitants and newcomers were involved in an intense period of competition for available food until the time where the settlers had established their sources of reliable food and Aboriginal peoples had lost their sovereignty over food resources and had precarious food security. Using a socio-historical method, 1 this work examined literature on food in ethno-botanical records and exploration and colonial journals and books. There is ample record of interactions about food between inhabitants and newcomers for about 35 years after the beginning of the establishment of a settlement in an area. Written evidence of interest in foods that were considered to be ‘Aboriginal’ or ‘Native’ rapidly diminishes as the explorers and entrepreneurial colonists make way for settlers. As the settlers clear the land and begin to establish their agricultural crops and livestock, their familiar foods become more reliably available and interest in using local foods fades. There is virtually no written record of Aboriginal interest in newcomers’ food except when it becomes evident that Aboriginal people were starving and unable to access their traditional sources of food. There is considerable data about Aboriginal peoples’ objections to the settlers taking their food and water. The analysis for this chapter was undertaken by using sociohistorical thematic analysis. 3. Food in the First 35 Years: An Overview In first contact situations, the newcomers were prepared to seek out and meet local people who knew about access to water and food. Food was used as a way of creating the opportunity for meeting. Ransonnet records: We shared coffee, biscuits and meat which they ate except for the fat which they left on the rock untouched. 2 There is ample evidence that explorers, sealers and later the colonists recognised the tacit knowledge held by Aboriginal people about the whereabouts of water and food and their skills at procuring it. The traces of record suggest that Aboriginal people considered the newcomers as temporary visitors and sometimes extended customary access to their food and water. Amongst the newcomer convicts and officers there seemed to have been hardly a person who knew anything about feeding themselves. Dunn and McCreadie suggest that in Sydney for example: From the start the settlement was beset with problems. Very few convicts knew how to farm and the soil around Sydney Cove was poor. Instead of Cook’s lush pastures, well watered and fertile ground, suitable for growing all types of foods and providing

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__________________________________________________________________ grazing for cattle, they found a hot, dry, unfertile country unsuitable for the small farming necessary to make the settlement self-sufficient. Everyone, from the convicts to Captain Phillip, was on rationed food. 3 As Calder 4 observes the Swan River colony was at starvation point because no arrangements had been made for regular food supplies until crops could be planted or harvested. They were in an unfamiliar climate with their provisions used up. This story was mirrored around Australia where colonies were being established. The second period evolved from the first as the numbers of newcomers swelled. It became clear to Aboriginal inhabitants that the newcomers were not intending to leave and they were being forced away from their country and from access to their food and water resources. Some chose to remain on the edges of settlements, to compete for food and resources by using their superior hunting skills and local knowledge, or to begin to eat the foods of the newcomers. The final period of the first 35 years of contact sees settlers beginning to achieve food security while Aboriginal people continue to starve. Forced off their lands and waters, many become dependent on mission and state rations of unfamiliar food. 4. Food at First Contact The historical records demonstrate that Aboriginal people had learnt to hunt for, cultivate, and eat an amazing array of foods that were mostly unrecognizable to outsiders as food. Foods were seasonal and families moved about their estates according to the availability of particular foods and fresh water. Generally the diet was high in protein and there was little storage or processing of food. When the first European explorers were confronted by these foods they recorded a range of responses from curiosity to repulsion. What were the newcomers to do? Were they to starve or try to find a way to feed themselves from the scant provisions sent to them from England? Of course they looked to local food but found little that resembled what they knew of as food. As Eyre says: It is evident that a European or even a stranger native would perish in a district capable of supplying the necessities of life simply because he had not the experience necessary to direct him where to search for food, a judgement to inform him what article might be in season at the particular time of his visit. 5 In the penal colonies of Sydney, Van Diemen’s Land and Norfolk Island, the English government had the expectation that they would be self-sufficient very rapidly. Food was brought in from ships via the Cape of Good Hope. The new

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__________________________________________________________________ arrivals were on strict rations of very poor quality flour and salted beef, often facing starvation and sometimes death as they eked out an existence. 5. Kangaroo It was clear from analysis of the records that Aboriginal people had a very high protein diet. Andrews 6 records kangaroo, kangaroo rat, flying fox, wombat, anteater, short legged bandicoot, dingo, opossum, emu and flying squirrel as being eaten. He also notes reptiles, crocodile, tortoise, snake and various lizards and birds of great variety as well as grubs, caterpillars and moths. Explorers and settlers record examples of groups of Aboriginal people hunting, cooking and eating kangaroo. Australia’s Aboriginal people had been hunting and cooking kangaroos for thousands of years. According to linguist, Haviland, the word kangaroo derives from the Guugu Yimidhirr word gangurru referring to a grey kangaroo. 7 The word ‘kangaroo’ is now used as a generic name for all large macropod marsupials. It is generally accepted that it was the Dutch explorer Francisco Pelsaert, in 1629, on the Abrolhos Islands off Geraldton, WA, who first records a description of kangaroo. 8 The first record of a European tasting kangaroo meat has been suggested to date back to 1793, when Spanish explorer Alejandro Malaspina pronounced it ‘very good for sustenance, inferior to veal, but better than many others.’ 9 The French explorer Raoul notes the eating of kangaroo. Hamelin (commander of Le Naturaliste with Baudin) saw people eating birds, broiled seaweed and ferns, and kangaroo meat. Cook records in his journal: Sat 23 June 1770: One of the Men saw an Animal something less than a greyhound; it was of a Mouse Colour, very slender made, and swift of Foot. Sun 24th June 1770: I saw myself this morning, a little way from the Ship, one of the Animals before spoke off; it was of a light mouse Colour and the full size of a Grey Hound, and shaped in every respect like one, with a long tail, which it carried like a Grey hound; in short, I should have taken it for a wild dog but for its walking or running, in which it jump'd like a Hare or Deer. Another of them was seen to-day by some of our people, who saw the first; they described them as having very small Legs, and the print of the Feet like that of a Goat; but this I could not see myself because the ground the one I saw was upon was too hard, and the length of the Grass hindered my seeing its legs.* (* These kangaroos were the first seen by Europeans. The name was obtained from the natives by Mr Banks.). 10

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__________________________________________________________________ As the settlement of Sydney develops, Mann records the development of a consciousness among the early colonists of the value of kangaroo as a food source. He records that: Animal food is to be procured at the following prices:-Beef 1s. 3d. per lb.; mutton 1s. 3d. per lb.; pork 1s. per lb.; lamb 1s. 3d. per lb.; kangaroo 8d. per lb. (the flesh of this animal is somewhat similar in taste to English beef, but rather inferior, owing to the want of fat). 11 Kangaroo, and other available birds and animals, eaten by Aboriginal people were considered to be ‘game’ in the mind of the newcomers. Many explorers give descriptions of their witness to highly skilled hunting techniques that were similar across Australia. Basedow 12 records that: It seems almost incredible that a native can approach a grazing kangaroo on a more or less open plain to within spear-throwing distance without being detected. Bassett records that it took a settler a day and a half just to get enough to eat from hunting for one dinner, time the men were reluctant to spend when they were also expected to be clearing land and building. 13 Meat is the first type of food that both inhabitants and newcomers wanted. In times of scarcity, when animals stocks that were brought by the colonists all but disappeared, kangaroo was eaten. By 1862, Andrews’ account of kangaroo eating shows that it is starting to be enjoyed by European settlers as steak and soup, ‘the delicious cookery displayed to the longing eye of the native epicure.’ 14 Wives were making kangaroo pie and kangaroo tail soup. The newcomers were developing a palate for kangaroo. There were two things happening simultaneously as the newcomers tried to introduce kangaroo into their diet: they were severely depleting the stocks of kangaroo owing to their lack of ecological knowledge and they were also clearing and fencing large tracts of land for their farms, gardens and for their cattle and sheep. Aboriginal people were faced with a catastrophic loss of access to protein, the mainstay of their diet, and restricted access to their estates that could provide other sources of food. 6. Fish Fish is the second most important food source and, because of its familiarity to both groups, was commonly the first source of conflict. There are traces of Aboriginal food knowledge in the French explorer records, for example in South Eastern Tasmania 15 show that the local people ate crustaceans not fish, birds, and

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__________________________________________________________________ ferns. In 1792, Huon de Kermadec found plentiful fish in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. In 1793 Labilladière, Raoul and La Motte du Portail, and Ventenat noted the eating of seafood (for example, lobster, mussels, pinnas, scallops, cockles, crayfish, and abalone). Similar records exist regarding the French exploration of the Western Australian coast. In both 1801, Baudin 16 , and 1809, Péron 17 at King George Sound noted the construction of stone dams across the river and used as fish pens; in 1826, D’Urville’s people note the same method; 18 in 1819, Arago says: ‘These poor people live wholly on fish, shell fish and a kind of pulse resembling our French beans.’ 19 There are extensive records about the procurement and preparation of fish, freshwater, salt water, ocean and shell. The centrality of food of the sea provides the first evidence of the almost immediate tensions and contests about food that developed between local people and the newcomers. As was noted with kangaroo, the newcomers held no ecological knowledge and seemed unwilling to restrain themselves from using up all the available food resources with little thought for the local inhabitants or for the long term security of the resource. Around Eora Sydney, in 1788, about five months after the establishment of the Port Jackson settlement Collins 20 observed that the fish supply had been depleted and the natives appeared to be in great want. In the July, natives attacked some fishermen and ‘took by force about half of what had been brought to shore.’ It offer insight into a profound change in respective understanding of what was happening beginning to emerge and the centrality of food to that change. Collins says: The natives, who had been accustomed to assist our people in hauling the seine, and were content to wait for such reward as the person who had the direction of the boat thought proper to give them, either driven by hunger, or moved by some other cause, came down to the cove where they were fishing, and, perceiving that they had been more successful than usual, took by force about half of what had been brought on shore. They were all armed with spears and other weapons, and made their attack with some show of method, having a party stationed in the rear with their spears poised, in readiness to throw, if any resistance had been made. To prevent this in future, it was ordered that a petty officer should go in the boats whenever they were sent down the harbour. 21 By this time, the newcomers had gained knowledge about local fish and seafood stocks, what sorts were edible, where they could be caught, and how they could be prepared for eating. Some of this knowledge had been gained by trial and error and some through communications with Aboriginal people.

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__________________________________________________________________ As their sources of food supply diminish, inhabitants begin to take interest in the food procurement practices of the newcomers and assert their customary right of shared access to the resources of their estates. 7. Corn The newcomers’ diet contained far more carbohydrate than that of the inhabitants. Dunn and McCreadie explain that: ...while the natives subsisted on local plants and fish, the settlers found few of the plants to be appetising. The newcomers appear to have been poor hunters, a little more successful as fishermen, most of their food had to come from the supplies brought with them on the ships … Rats, dogs, crows, an occasional kangaroo or emu were to be used to supplement the food. 22 In this early period, starvation was an ever-present fear. The settlers needed quickly to establish crops to feed themselves and their animals. Corn was high on the list with every landholder trying to establish crops and gardens. As early as November 1790, Watkin Tench described the impact of drying conditions on the colony’s food supplies. He writes that: Cultivation, on a public scale, has for some time past been given up here (Sydney), the crop of last year being so miserable, as to deter from further experiment; in consequence of which, the government farm is abandoned…Vegetables are scarce…owing to want of rain. …Wheat returned so poorly last harvest, that very little, besides Indian corn, has been grown this year. 23 It took some time for the local cultivation of corn and other grains to become reliable. 24 All the while, the local Aboriginal inhabitants were undoubtedly trying both to make sense of the behaviour of the newcomers and to develop a response to the diminishment and then theft of their resources. By the late 1790s, Hunter observed that Aboriginal people increasingly came to rely on access to food that came from eating flour based products. He says: Whenever they were pressed for hunger, they had immediate recourse to our quarters where they generally got their bellies filled. They were now become exceedingly fond of bread, which when we came here first they could not bear to put into their mouths; and if ever they did, it was out of civility to those who offered it; but now the little children had all learnt the words,

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__________________________________________________________________ hungry, bread; and would to shew that they were hungry, draw in their belly, so as to make it appear quite empty. 25 8. Conclusion Madley argues that conflict between Indigenous Peoples and settlers often revolves around access to, and use of, natural resources and land to achieve their definition of economic success. As the British and other European explorers, colonists, convicts, and entrepreneurs, predominantly male, stayed in ever increasing numbers, women arrived and they expanded their settlements, and increased their land and stock holdings, they thereby threatened the foundations and sustainability of each local economy. 26 So how may we begin to understand Aboriginal and newcomer food sovereignty, food security and food entitlement in the context of the ‘first contact’ period of Australian settlement history? The immediate issue was that the newcomers did not recognise that foods such as kangaroo and fish did not freely exist for them to take, but formed part of a complex system of food resource ownership and entitlement. The newcomers failed to recognise the food sovereignty of the inhabitants, asserting their right to be there under the British Crown. Aboriginal people had no need to know the food knowledge of the newcomers in the initial period but became reliant on the carbohydrate foods such as corn and bread as their access to high quality protein became restricted. Both groups faced starvation. In the contestations between Aboriginal Australians and the early explorers, convict and settler colonists, the newcomers were able to secure land and waterways in order to develop the colony at the expense of the food sovereignty and security of Indigenous people. Using the lens of three foods, kangaroo, fish and corn, some of the fundamental elements of this history can be revealed and examined. Arguably, these foundational aspects to modern postcolonial Australia continue to be deeply imbricated in contemporary relations.

Notes 1

James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, ‘Comparative Historical Analysis: Achievements and Agendas’, in Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, Series: Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics, eds. James Mahoney and Dietrich Rueschemeyer (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 3-40. 2 Jacques J. Ransonnet, Report Written on Board the Geographe in 1803 to Captain Baudin from Midshipman Ransonnet about Ransonnet’s Exploration of the King George Sound Area, Mr Gardner to Bald Island and His Meeting with Aborigines (1803), 9.

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Cathy Dunn and Marion McCreadie, The Founders of a Nation: Australia’s First Fleet 1788 (2010), accessed March 15, 2013, http://www.ulladulla.info/historian/ffstory.html. 4 Mary E. Calder, Early Swan River Colony (Adelaide: Rigby, 1977). 5 Edward J. Eyre, Discoveries in Central Australia (London: T. W. Boone, 1845), 245. 6 Alexander Andrews, ‘The Diet and Dainties of Australian Aborigines’, Bentley’s Miscellany 51 (1862): 544-549. 7 John B. Haviland, ‘A Last Look at Cook’s Guugu-Yimidhirr Wordlist’, Oceania 44 (1974): 216-232. 8 Francisco Pelsaert, Disastrous Voyage of the Ship Batavia (1628). 9 Tim Flannery, Birth of Sydney (Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2000), 123. 10 James Cook, Captain Cook’s Journal During the First Voyage Round the World (1893), accessed March 15, 2013, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8106/8106h/8106-h.htm#ch8. 11 David D. Mann, The Present Picture of New South Wales (1811), accessed March 15, 2013, http://setis.library.usyd.edu.au/pubotbin/toccernew?id=manpres.sgml&images=&d ata=/usr/ot&tag=explorers&part=1&division=div1. 12 Herbert Basedow, The Australian Aboriginal (Adelaide: F.W. Preece and Sons, 1925), 141. 13 Marnie L. Bassett, Hentys: An Australian Colonial Tapestry (London: Oxford University Press, 1954), 95. 14 Andrews, ‘The Diet and Dainties of Australian Aborigines’, 544. 15 Colin Dyer, French Explorers and the Aboriginal Australians 1772-1839 (Queensland, Australia: QUP, 2007), 64-71. 16 Nicolas Baudin, Journal of Nicolas Baudin (Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1801, 1974). 17 François Peron, A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere Performed by Order of the Emperor Napoleon, during the Years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804 (London: B. McMillan, 1809). 18 Dumont d’Urville, Voyage de Découvertes de l’Astrolabe Exécuté par Ordre du Roi, Pendant les Années 1826-1827-1828-1829, sous le Com-Mandement de M. J. Dumont d’Urville: Botanique (Paris: J. Tastu, 1831). 19 Jacques Arago, Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, in the Uranie and Physicienne Corvettes, Commanded by Captain Freycinet, during the Years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820 (Treuttel & Wurtz, Treuttal, jun. & Richter, 1823). 20 David Collins, Account of the Colony Vols. 1 and 2 (London, 1798), accessed March 15, 2013, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12565 (Volume 1) and http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12668 (Volume 2).

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__________________________________________________________________ 21

Collins, Account of the Colony, chap 3. Dunn and McCreadie, The Founders of a Nation: Australia’s First Fleet 1788. 23 Watkin Tench, A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson (17881791), accessed March 15, 2013, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3534. 24 Collins, Account of the Colony. 25 John Hunter, An Historical Journal of Events at Sydney and at Sea, by Captain John Hunter, Commander H.M.S Sirius; With Further Accounts by Governor Arthur Philip, Lieutenant P.G. King and Lieutenant H.L. Ball (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1793, 1968), 139. 26 Benjamin Madley, ‘Patterns of Frontier Genocide 1803–1910: The Aboriginal Tasmanians, the Yuki of California and the Herero of Namibia’, Journal of Genocide Research 6, No. 2 (2004): 167-192. 22

Bibliography Andrews, Alexander. ‘The Diet and Dainties of Australian Aborigines’. Bentley’s Miscellany 51 (1862): 544–549. Arago, Jacques. Narrative of a Voyage Round the World, in the Uranie and Physicienne Corvettes, Commanded by Captain Freycinet, during the Years 1817, 1818, 1819, and 1820. Treuttel & Wurtz, Treuttal, jun. & Richter, 1823. Basedow, Herbert. The Australian Aboriginal. Adelaide: F. W. Preece and Sons, 1925. Bassett, Marnie L. Hentys: An Australian Colonial Tapestry. London: Oxford University Press, 1954. Baudin, Nicolas. Journal of Nicolas Baudin. Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1974. Calder, Mary. E. Early Swan River Colony. Adelaide: Rigby, 1977. Collins, David. An Account of the Colony. Volumes 1 and 2. London (1798). Accessed March 15, 2013. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12565 (Volume 1) and http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12668 (Volume 2). Cook, James. Captain Cook’s Journal During the First Voyage Round the World. (1893). Accessed March 15, 2013. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8106/8106h/8106-h.htm#ch8.

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__________________________________________________________________ D’Urville, Dumont. Voyage de Découvertes de l’Astrolabe Exécuté par Ordre du Roi, Pendant les Années 1826-1827-1828-1829, sous le Com-Mandement de M. J. Dumont d’Urville. Botanique, Paris: J. Tastu, 1831. Dunn, Cathy, and Marion McCreadie. The Founders of a Nation: Australia’s First Fleet 1788 (2010). Accessed March 15, 2013. http://www.ulladulla.info/historian/ffstory.html. Dyer, Colin. The French Explorers and the Aboriginal Australians 1772-1839. Queensland, Australia: QUP, 2007. Eyre, Edward J. Discoveries in Central Australia Vols I and II. London: T. W. Boone, 1845. Flannery, Tim. The Birth of Sydney. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2000. Haviland, John B. ‘A Last Look at Cook’s Guugu-Yimidhirr Wordlist’. Oceania 44, No. 3 (1974): 216–232. Hunter, John. An Historical Journal of Events at Sydney and at Sea, by Captain John Hunter, Commander H.M.S Sirius; with Further Accounts by Governor Arthur Philip, Lieutenant P.G. King and Lieutenant H.L. Ball. Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1968. Madley, Benjamin. ‘Patterns of Frontier Genocide 1803–1910: The Aboriginal Tasmanians, the Yuki of California and the Herero of Namibia’. Journal of Genocide Research 6, No. 2 (2004): 167–192. Mahoney, James, and Dietrich Rueschemeyer. ‘Comparative Historical Analysis: Achievements and Agendas’. In Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences edited by James Mahoney, and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, 3–40. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Mann, David D. The Present Picture of New South Wales. London: John Booth, 1811. Pelsaert, Francisco. The Disastrous Voyage of the Ship Batavia. 1647.

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__________________________________________________________________ Peron, François. A Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Hemisphere Performed by Order of the Emperor Napoleon, during the Years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804. London: B. McMillan, 1809. Ransonnet, Jacques J. Report Written on Board the Geographe in 1803 to Captain Baudin from Midshipman Ransonnet about Ransonnet's Exploration of the King George Sound Area, Mr Gardner to Bald Island and His Meeting with Aborigines. 1803. Tench, Watkin. A Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson 1788-1791. Accessed March 15, 2013. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3534. Zane Ma Rhea has worked with Indigenous communities over the last 30 years in various capacities. She is recognised nationally and internationally for expertise in improving the quality of education services to Indigenous people, using a rightsbased framework, focussing on teacher professional development in Indigenous Education and in the preservation and maintenance of Indigenous knowledge in schools and universities.

Acknowledgements This research was funded through an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant titled Food, Traditional Aboriginal Knowledge and the Expansion of the Settler Economy (2008-2010). The author wishes to acknowledge her research colleagues, Professor Lynette Russell and Professor Marcia Langton, research assistants Aoife Cooke and Jeane Freer, and a number of people who have given generously of their time to guide and inform this work, in particular, Carol Garlett, Norm Nannup, Henry Atkinson, Stuart Trainor, and the traditional owners at SETAC. She would also like to thank Melissa Jackson at Mitchell Library, Sydney, Graeme Shaunessy at Strehlow Research Centre, Carolyn Newman at NT Archives, the staff at the National Library Australia, SLWA, VSL, Bibliotheque Nacional de France, the Cambridge University Library, the Public Records Office, Kew and the Herbarium, Kew for their helpful and enthusiastic professionalism.

Part 3 Food, Culture and Capitalism

(Re-)Positioning Food in the Social Consciousness: The Business of the Corporate Food Industry Don Sanderson Abstract If commercial growth is to be attained and/or sustained, then a commercial entity needs to develop ways of creating growth. Diminishing the value of a competitor is one way to create space. Creating market space, taking advantage of, and manipulating hegemonic conditions and mythologies, and responding to and influencing consumer choice, are all ways the corporate food industry positions and repositions competitors. This chapter critically examines the contradictions found in a study of food in an Australian primary school curriculum and links these contradictions with the wider social consciousness. Using the study’s data as a catalyst, the chapter focuses on fruit and fruit juice consumption and the mythology of vitamin C. The chapter argues that the corporate food industry in trying to create market space, is repositioning wholefood such as fruit in the social consciousness. The examination focuses on oranges and orange juice: two food groups found in the day-to-day practices of participants in the study. Key Words: Food, corporate food industry, orange juice, political economy, hegemony, schools. ***** 1. The Corporate Hegemony (Re)Positioning Fruit This chapter shows how a corporate hegemony around fruit and fruit juice is repositioning fruit as something ‘bad’ and positioning processed fruit juice as something ‘good.’ This hegemony is being driven by a political economy of food which is global and complex. It is predicated on corporate imperatives of profit and market share. Using findings from a recent critical sociology study of food in the primary school curriculum, this chapter examines how comments from participants are reflections, if not reproductions, of this hegemony. It shows the discursive nature of hegemony at work - hegemony in the process of being created - and demonstrates how information becomes commonsense in the social consciousness. There are differences in the health benefits between raw juice and processed fruit juice and whole fruit. One medium size orange for example, contains 1.23 grams of protein, 62 calories, 3.1 grams of dietary fibre, 18 prominent minerals and vitamins. The uptake of these nutrients is thought to mitigate against diseases such as heart disease and cancers and improve general health and wellbeing. 1 The dynamics of the biology-health relationship has developed over millions of years. It has been suggested that when natural food components are isolated or replicated in synthetic form they do not have the same health benefits as their naturally

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__________________________________________________________________ occurring, non-isolated forms because they cannot adequately replicate the complex dynamics involved in the human-wholefood interaction. When the fruit is processed into a reconstituted form it is largely sterile and devoid of the active nutrients of the original fruit. This is done because the nutrients attract microbes which cause rancidity so they are removed during the manufacturing process. Further, vitamin C is lost by contact with oxygen. Most of the nutrients and minerals found in processed juices are the result of rehydration, leaching from packaging, equipment cleaning during manufacturing and additives. 2. The Study Using a critical sociology lens the exploratory qualitative study looked at food messages in a Year 5 metropolitan primary school class’ curriculum. Data from the official, enacted and hidden curricula was analysed and then linked to the wider cultural and social milieu, particularly the political economy, hegemonic and ideologic conditions. Over the period of the fieldwork (a school term), there were nine episodes where oranges or orange juice were referenced. Of the nine episodes six were during classroom interactions and three during interviews. Six of the nine were initiated by teachers or the principal, and three by the Year 5 students themselves. Three points are highlighted here: the principal’s notions of sugar in fruit juice; the teacher’s belief that she was modelling appropriate behaviour to her students by consuming processed fruit juice; and, a student’s comment that ‘oranges are bad for your teeth.’ 3. ‘Oranges are bad for your teeth’ During his interview one of the Year 5 students mentioned oranges were ‘bad’ for teeth. Further questioning revealed: Researcher: Who told you that oranges were bad for your teeth? Student: My mum and it was on the news. Researcher: Do you remember when that was? Student: Last year. Researcher: OK... Student: But on the weekends when I play soccer we have it [oranges]...in half time. Researcher: And has that changed what you have at half-time?

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__________________________________________________________________ Student: Sometimes...we have all sorts of fruit but sometimes we haven’t. (Interview, March 2010) Various media reports on tooth enamel erosion and orange juice were in the public arena in 2009. 2 The reports can be traced to one source, an article by Ren, Amin and Malmstrom. 3 Following the article’s publication, the principal author was interviewed by ScienceDaily (an online science news service). ScienceDaily quoted him as saying: Our studies demonstrated that the orange juice, as an example, can potentially cause significant erosion of teeth...The acid is so strong that the tooth is literally washed away...This study allowed us to understand the effect of whitening on enamel relative to the effect of a daily dietary activity, such as drinking juices. It’s potentially a very serious problem for people who drink sodas and fruit juices daily...Dental researchers nationwide are increasingly studying tooth erosion, and are investing significant resources into possible preventions and treatments. We do not yet have an effective tool to avert the erosive effects. 4 The media focused on orange juice ‘significantly’ eroding teeth. What was overlooked was Ren’s emphasis on ‘the effect of whitening’ as a prevention and/or treatment to enamel erosion. Here both a problem and potential solution are created. This is a standard marketing strategy called the ‘problem-solution information structure.’ It is used extensively in advertising where a problem is created that may or may not exist, and the product is put forward as a solution. Ren’s research was funded by BEYOND® Dental & Health, an international corporation that specialises in ‘tooth whitening systems and related consumables.’ 5 The whitening compound used in Ren’s study was ‘eBright Tooth Whitening Accelerator,’ a BEYOND® Dental & Health product. The immersion cycles used in the study were meant to replicate daily treatment regimes using the product over a five day period. Processed juice, not raw orange juice, was used. The connection between BEYOND® Dental & Health and the research raises questions of bias. This sequence of events is an example of ‘re-contextualisation.’ 6 At various points along the knowledge/information chain, crucial details are lost as actors recontextualise discourses to suit needs. In this case: the company that sponsored the research specialised in dentine protection products, cast doubts on the bias of the research. This was not declared in the media reports; the research and popular media did not make a distinction between raw orange juice and processed orange juice; and the parent did not make a distinction between juice, processed or raw, and whole fruit. At no juncture did anyone mention the benefits of oranges or the benefits of raw juice or the potential ill-effects of processed forms. The loss of

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__________________________________________________________________ important information allowed a student in an Australian Year 5 class to make conclusions that his current practices were problematic. 4. ‘Fruit Makes You Fat’ During his interview the principal indicated he was concerned about the amount of ‘sugar’ in his raw fruit juice. Principal: My daily habit is, for just about every day of my life, is to squeeze myself an orange juice.... I get a big glass and I squeeze it. I fill the glass up. I’m probably having way too much sugar... (Interview, March 2010) Although he did not add any (table) sugar, the principal thought his raw juice had sugar in it. Further questioning revealed that he had been told by a friend, ‘fruit juice makes you fat.’ In a similar pattern of re-contextualisation to the Year 5 student’s notion that oranges were ‘bad’ for his teeth, the principal’s notion that fruit makes you ‘fat’ can be traced to media reports. In 2008 an article in the UK’s Associated Newspapers contained the headline: ‘Can fruit make you fat? Natural sugar in fruit is “fuelling the nation’s obesity epidemic.’” 7 Other reports emerged around the same time: ‘Fruit “gives you a pot belly”’ (Sky News, June 2008), and ‘Fruit can hit health’ (Sun, June 2008). 8 Derbyshire’s article, accompanied by a picture of a woman eating a strawberry presumably to emphasise the ‘fruit’ element, concluded: ‘Experts point out that this does not mean we should stop eating fruit. Fresh fruit contains relatively low levels of fructose - and the risks are outweighed by health benefits.’ 9 If readers did not make it to the last sentence they might have got the impression from the image and headline that fruit contributes to weight gain. The research from which the 2008 article was sourced came from the work of Havel and associates. 10 Havel presented a paper at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 67th Scientific Sessions in June 2007 in which he recommended limited consumption of fructose-sweetened beverages. 11 Within a fortnight of Havel’s presentation a report by an online health professional network emerged. 12 Havel and associates then presented another paper on the same topic the following year at the ADA’s annual conference. 13 It was this presentation that made the mainstream press, presumably because Havel’s work received funding from PepsiCo, a major user of fructose. The media followed two lines: Havel’s work was counterintuitive to the interests of PepsiCo; and, fructose consumption was implicated in weight gain. Although, the thrust of Havel’s research concerns the difference between the uptake of fructose and glucose by the body and the over-consumption of fructose in relation to various diseases and adiposity, particularly those associated with fatty-liver syndrome, this was not the focus of the mainstream media.

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__________________________________________________________________ A PepsiCo spokesperson was reported as saying Havel’s work was: Very interesting....But it does not reflect a real-world situation nor is it applicable to PepsiCo since pure fructose is not an ingredient in any of our food and beverage products. 14 The key word in the comment is ‘pure.’ There is a difference between ‘pure’ fructose and the fructose PepsiCo use as a sweetener. Pure fructose is a sugar found in fruit. It is present in relatively small amounts in this natural state. In the U.S. fructose is listed as a ‘generally recognized as safe’ or GRAS ingredient and can be listed as ‘natural’ on a product’s label. However, PepsiCo uses a compound called High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) which is a manufactured sugar compounded from fructose and sucrose molecules and derived from corn. Its attractiveness to manufacturers is its high level of sweetening power, its sensory properties (taste, smell), its ability to confer a long shelf-life and maintain a longlasting moisterisation in industrial bakeries, and its low cost. 15 The amount of HFCS in a 12 fluid ounce can of Pepsi Cola equals 41 grams or nearly ten teaspoons. This was an example of a corporate food company’s attempt at changing social consciousness. The corporation funds a reputable scientific investigation into a problem the corporation has an interest in. Although the research is published in reputable peer-reviewed publications, the findings are reported in the popular media in a way that suggests a competitor, in this case fruit, have some deleterious effect on health and wellbeing. The facts are omitted, ‘buried’ or obscured in some way. The popular media offer just enough ‘fact’ for the uncritical reader to assume a problem exists and the manufacturer is either part of the solution or is not part of the problem. 5. Will the Real Vitamin C, Please Stand Up The classroom teacher mentioned in her interview that she liked to role-model appropriate food behaviours in front of her class. To this end she would, on occasion, drink a 250mL brick-style fruit juice. The packaging declared the product contained no preservatives and vitamin C. The idea that the consumption of vitamin C has health benefits has moved beyond commonsense and is almost mythological. The origins of the Vitamin C myth can be, in part, traced to two primary sources: 1) Vitamin C cures scurvy; and 2) the books written by Pauling in the 1970s. 16 These two historical moments combined to create a mythology about vitamin C which the corporate food industry has exploited. The first moment, that vitamin C cures or prevents scurvy, is now well understood as fact in the scientific community. The second moment is an example of pseudo-science becoming ‘fact’ or commonsensical in the social consciousness.

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__________________________________________________________________ Pauling claimed vitamin C ‘cured’ cancers and killed bacteria and viruses, especially the common cold. His ideas became influential and today are considered controversial. 17 However, the more likely benefits are not from the isolated essential nutrient, vitamin C, but from its interaction with other food nutrients and the constituent parts of the fruit it belongs to when taken in wholefood form and in conjunction with a balanced diet. 18 Nonetheless, corporate food industrialists such as fruit juice manufacturers promote their product as though vitamin C has some benefit for the consumer. Perhaps ‘promote’ is too strong a word here, because the link in the public’s mind between vitamin C as possessing some sort of benefit is so strong that it is enough just to have the wording ‘with added vitamin C’ or similar on the packaging. Vitamin C in products such as the teacher’s drink is allowed to be called ‘vitamin C’ even though it is a synthetic form and represents at a molecular level, only part of the naturally occurring complex vitamin. This synthetic form of vitamin C is from sorbitol, a compound derived from corn. 19 Its main use in fruit juice is as an antioxidant to preserve product colour and stop rancidity. The preservative allows processed orange juice to have longer storage and shelf-life capacities. 20 The official chemical designation for vitamin C is L-Ascorbic acid, usually identified as ascorbic acid in the nutritional science literature, and interchangeably as vitamin C or ascorbic acid on food labelling. When a product declares ‘added vitamin C’ this usually means the synthetic form of ascorbic acid as the natural form cannot be maintained in the product. Ascorbic acid is chemically synthesised from sorbitol also known as glucitol. Sorbitol is made by adding hydrogen to the cornstarch dextrose. Because the product is derived from a natural source, corn, it can be listed as ‘natural’ and because it has the same chemical composition as its natural equivalent it can be given the same title as the equivalent. 21 Molecularly, l-ascorbic acid is only the outer ring that serves as a protective shell for the entire vitamin C complex. 22 Natural vitamin C is technically differentiated as ‘vitamin C complex’ and it is this form that is found in whole foods like fruits and vegetables. To gain health benefits from the synthetic form the human body must gather the remaining components that make up the vitamin C complex, from body tissue. When the body does not have adequate reserves of the other components, l-ascorbic acid itself does not provide any of the health benefits of the full vitamin C complex, and is excreted from the body through the urine. 23 L-ascorbic acid’s main use in processed food production is as an antioxidant to prevent the oxidation of foods which would otherwise become rancid or discoloured, that is, as a preservative. 24 In its synthetic form it only partially replicates natural or complex Vitamin C. Nonetheless, it is permitted to be called ‘vitamin C’ by food standard regulators. China is one of the main manufacturers of dextrose, sorbitol, and synthetic vitamin C. Currently, China, India, and Russia are challenging the vitamin

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__________________________________________________________________ production market share of the established multinational European producers (like BASF), and in some instances have pushed the Europeans out of the market because of its low manufacturing costs. 25 In 2011 the world’s largest producer and exporter of corn, the US, started shipping corn to China, a country that had, up to that time, been self-sufficient in corn production. 26 The perception that a single nutrient, such as vitamin C, when added to a food source or is taken in isolation (as a tablet, powder, or liquid), has some health benefit may mask health risks associated with that food source or isolated compound. For example, excessive juice drink consumption and the resultant increase in energy intake may contribute to obesity. Studies have found excess fruit juice drink consumption of 12 US fluid ounce (354.88 ml) per day by preschoolaged children is associated with obesity. Dennison and associates also found a relationship with a failure to thrive leading to growth problems in children. However, more research is needed to better define this relationship as other studies have refuted these findings. 27 Although it is likely that those children who consume fruit juice drinks may either be choosing juice drinks over more beneficial beverages like milk and water, or may be choosing fruit juice drinks as a substitute for wholefruits and/or a variety of wholefruits and vegetables. The teacher’s juice drink was manufactured from reconstituted fruit juice. Reconstituted juice is liquid from fruit concentrate. The process of reconstitution is to remove those elements that interfere with taste and shelf-life, and to allow for more economical transportation. Australian juice companies use concentrated juice for its transportation, year-round availability, and storage capabilities. The concentrate is often blended with other citrus concentrates from around the country and around the world. Orange concentrate may have up to ten per cent mandarin or tangelo juice without having to declare a variation on the packaging. Kept in cold storage the concentrate can reach a storage life of three years. Once it has arrived where it is to be packaged and distributed, the concentrate is hydrated with about 80 per cent water. Labelling does not require the percentage of water to be identified, although the Australia New Zealand Food Standards code stipulates the reconstituted form should replicate its original water content percentage. Reconstituted fruit juices do not offer the nutritional qualities of their freshly squeezed counterparts. Enzymes required for adequate food metabolism and the human immune system are often destroyed through the process of heating and reconstitution. Analysis conducted by FSANZ found the product consumed by the teacher contained. ‘Sugars, moisture, tocopherols, folates, I [iodine], starch and pyridoxine’ as well as ‘Vitamin C, Tryptophan, B6, fatty acids, and 11 trace minerals (Ca, Cl, Cr, Fe, K, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Se).’ 28 In sum, this means that the orange juice the classroom teacher role-modelled as good practice contained:

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__________________________________________________________________ 1.

2. 3. 4. 5.

A reconstituted juice potentially blended from various orange varieties potentially combined with mandarin and tangelo juices grown potentially anywhere in the world and processed sometime within the previous three years; A synthetic component called ‘Vitamin C’ possibly manufactured in China, from corn imported from America; A component marketed as ‘Vitamin C’ yet whose only benefits are to extend product shelf-life. Possible health benefits which are only from the added tap water; and, Potential for ill-health due to the sugar content, and the displacement of more beneficial foods in the diet.

5. Conclusion The principal’s, student’s and teacher’s juice practices were all influenced by a corporate hegemony. The principal’s and student’s existing knowledges, values and beliefs were challenged by the hegemony, and the student’s practices were changed as a result. Practices, beliefs, and values at a micro level of a school play their part in maintaining the corporate hegemonic conditions and narratives floated at the macro level. Commonsense knowledges and practices have arisen around the health benefits of vitamin C which have, over time, become embedded in the social consciousness. Not unlike the oxidation process of the vitamin itself, the benefits of natural vitamin C and consuming whole foods such as fruit are being lost in translation, replaced by artificially constructed corporate discourses: such as ‘fruit makes you fat’ and ‘oranges are bad for teeth.’ Corporate practices are shaped by economic imperatives of which profit and market space are crucial elements. Complicit are governance structures such as state food regulators. The corporate food industry works through and around governance structures and devices and attempts to use public perceptions (myths) about food in ways that maintain marketplace viability. Of significance here is the notion of embedding hegemonic discourses in the social consciousness that potentially become ‘commonsense.’ I am not suggesting that these episodes constitute change so profound as to create a paradigmatic shift. Critical mass would need to be achieved before profound systemic, cultural or social change could take place. However, what episodes like this one can indicate is the nature of the processes involved.

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Notes 1

David Applin, Medical Physiology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). 2 Fact Buster: Is Fruit Juice Worse for Your Teeth Than Soft Drink?, ABC Health & Wellbeing, July 15, 2009, accessed March 14, 2011, http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2009/07/15/2627735. htm; ‘Orange Juice Acid “Can Wash Away Enamel on Your Teeth’”, Daily Mail, July 2, 2009, accessed March 14, 2011, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article1196944/Orange-juice-acid-wash-away-enamel-teeth.html#ixzz1GWR6HsSn; ‘Orange Juice Worse for Teeth Than Whitening Agents, Study Finds’, ScienceDaily, July 1, 2009, accessed March 14, 2011, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090630132007.htm. 3 Y.-F. Ren, A. Amin, and H. Malmstrom, ‘Effects of Tooth Whitening and Orange Juice on Surface Properties of Dental Enamel’, Journal of Dentistry 37 (2009): 424-431. 4 ‘Orange Juice Worse for Teeth Than Whitening Agents, Study Finds’, ScienceDaily, July 1, 2009, paras 3-7. 5 BEYOND Dental & Health Inc., About Us, accessed March 14, 2011, http://www.beyonddent.com/main_en_au/channels/1382.html. 6 Michael W. Apple, Ideology and Curriculum, 3rd Edition (New York: Routledge Falmer, 2004). 7 D. Derbyshire, ‘Can Fruit Make You Fat? Natural Sugar in Fruit is “Fuelling the Nation’s Obesity Epidemic”’, Daily Mail: Mail Online, July 4, 2008, accessed December 9, 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1029501/Can-fruitmake-fat-Natural-sugar-fruit-fuelling-nations-obesity-epidemic.html. 8 E. Weichselbaum, ‘Fruit Makes You Fat?’, Nutrition Bulletin 33 (2008): 343, doi: 10.1111/j.1467-3010.2008.00725.x. 9 Derbyshire, ‘Can Fruit Make You Fat?’. 10 B. Cummings, et al., ‘Consumption of Fructose-, But Not Glucose-Sweetened Beverages for 10 Weeks Induces Glucose Intolerance and Insulin Resistance, and Increases Visceral Adiposity in Overweight/Obese Men and Women’, Paper presented at the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, San Francisco, California, 2008; N. Keim, et al., ‘Consumption of Fructose-, But Not Glucose-Sweetened Beverages, for 10 Weeks Decreases Energy Expenditure and Fatty Acid Oxidation in Overweight/Obese Men and Women’, Paper presented at the American Diabetes Association 67th Scientific Sessions: Abstract 0062-OR., Chicago, 2007. 11 Ibid.

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Emma Hitt, ‘Fructose But Not Glucose Consumption Linked to Atherogenic Lipid Profile’, Medscape News, July 5, 2007, accessed August 3, 2011, http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/559344. 13 Cummings, et al., ‘Consumption of Fructose-, But Not Glucose-Sweetened Beverages for 10 Weeks’. 14 Derbyshire, ‘Can Fruit Make You Fat?’. 15 L. Tappy and K.-A. Lê, ‘Metabolic Effects of Fructose and the Worldwide Increase in Obesity’, Physiological Reviews 90 (2010): 23-46, doi: 10.1152/physrev.00019.2009. 16 Linus Pauling, Vitamin C and the Common Cold (San Francisco: Freeman, 1970). 17 Thomas E. Levy, Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins, 3rd Edition (Henderson, NV: Livon Books, 2009). 18 Applin, Medical Physiology. 19 Center for Science in the Public Interest, Regulatory Comments and Petitions: Petition for Regulatory Action to Revise the Labeling Requirements for Foods Containing Sorbitol, accessed July 21, 2010, http://www.cspinet.org/foodsafety/labeling_sorbitol.html. 20 K. S. Sandhu and K. S. Minhas, ‘Oranges and Citrus Juices’, in Handbook of Fruits and Fruit Processing, eds., Y. H. Hui and J. Barta (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006), 309-358. 21 Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Labelling and Information Standards, accessed March 22, 2011, http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/scienceandeducation/scienceinfsanz/expertise/in housescientificexpertise/labellingandinformat4170.cfm. 22 J. R. Harris, ed., Ascorbic Acid: Biochemistry and Biomedical Cell Biology (New York: Plenum, 1996). 23 J. Vinson and P. Bose, ‘Comparative Bioavailability to Humans of Ascorbic Acid Alone or in a Citrus Extract’, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 48 (1988): 601-604. 24 P. K. Wanasundaraand and F. Shahidi, ‘Antioxidants: Science, Technology, and Applications’, in Bailey’s Industrial Oil & Fats Products, eds. A. E. Bailey, F. Shahidi and Knovel (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005), 431-489. 25 Flex Pharma & Chemicals Sourcing, ‘Vitamin C Price Update’, accessed July 2, 2011, http://www.tradezz.com/buy_5303729_Vitamin-price-update.htm. 26 J. Blas, ‘Chinese Corn Imports Forecast to Soar’, Financial Times.com., February 4, 2011, accessed December 9, 2012, http://cachef.ft.com/cms/s/0/be204aa2-304f-11e0-8d8000144feabdc0.html#axzz1QulGOgWV.

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C. E. O’Neil and T. A. Nicklas, ‘A Review of the Relationship Between 100% Fruit Juice Consumption and Weight in Children and Adolescents’, American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2 (2008): 315-354, doi: 10.1177/1559827608317277. 28 Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Juice, Orange, Shelf Stable, Added Vitamin C.

Bibliography ABC Health & Wellbeing. ‘Fact Buster: Is Fruit Juice Worse for Your Teeth Than Soft Drink?’. July 15, 2009. Accessed March 14, 2011. http://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2009/07/15/2627735. htm. Apple, Michael W. Ideology and Curriculum, 3rd Edition. New York: Routledge Falmer, 2004. Applin, David. Medical Physiology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Bernstein, Basil. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control, and Identity: Theory, Research, Critique. London: Taylor & Francis, 2000. BEYOND Dental & Health Inc. ‘About Us’. Accessed March 14, 2011. http://www.beyonddent.com/main_en_au/channels/1382.html. Blas, Javier. ‘Chinese Corn Imports Forecast to Soar’. Financial Times.com., February 14, 2011. Accessed December 9, 2012, http://cachef.ft.com/cms/s/0/be204aa2-304f-11e0-8d8000144feabdc0.html#axzz1QulGOgWV. Brusick, D. J. ‘A Critical Review of the Genetic Toxicity of Steviol and Steviol Glycosides’. Food Chemical Toxicology 46 (2008): S83–91. Center for Science in the Public Interest. ‘Regulatory Comments and Petitions: Petition for Regulatory Action to Revise the Labeling Requirements for Foods Containing Sorbitol’. 1999. Accessed July 21, 2010. http://www.cspinet.org/foodsafety/labeling_sorbitol.html. Committee on Nutrition. ‘American Academy of Pediatrics: The Use and Misuse of Fruit Juice in Pediatrics’ [Policy Statement]. Pediatrics 107 (2001): 1210–1213.

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__________________________________________________________________ Competition Commission. BASF AG and Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd: A Report on the Acquisition by BASF AG of Certain Assets of Takeda Chemical Industries Ltd. London: Competition Commission, 2001. Cordain, Loren, S. Boyd Eaton, Anthony Sebastian, Neil Mann, Staffan Lindeberg, Bruce A. Watkins, James H. O’Keefe, and Janette Brand-Miller. ‘Origins and Evolution of the Western Diet: Health Implications for the 21st Century’. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 81 (2005): 341–354. Craig, W. J. ‘Phytochemicals: Guardians of Our Health’. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 97 (1997): S199–S204. Cummings, B., K. Stanhope, J. Graham, S. C. Griffen, and P. J. Havel. ‘Consumption of Fructose-, But Not Glucose-Sweetened Beverages for 10 Weeks Induces Glucose Intolerance and Insulin Resistance, and Increases Visceral Adiposity in Overweight/Obese Men and Women’. Paper presented at the 68th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, San Francisco, California, 2008. http://professional.diabetes.org/Abstracts_Display.aspx?TYP=1&CID=68595. Dennison, B. A., H. L. Rockwell, M. J. Nichols, and P. Jenkins. ‘Children’s Growth Parameters Vary by Type of Fruit Juice Consumed’. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 18 (1999), 346–352. Derbyshire, David. ‘Can Fruit Make You Fat? Natural Sugar in Fruit is “Fuelling the Nations’s Obesity Epidemic’”, Daily Mail: Mail Online, July 4, 2008. Accessed December 9, 2012. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1029501/Can-fruit-make-fat-Naturalsugar-fruit-fuelling-nations-obesity-epidemic.html. Flex Pharma & Chemicals Sourcing. ‘Vitamin C Price Update’. Accessed July 2, 2011. http://www.tradezz.com/buy_5303729_Vitamin-price-update.htm. Food Standards Australia New Zealand. ‘Homepage’. Accessed July 5, 2011. http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/. —––. ‘Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code’. Accessed December 9, 2012. http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/foodstandards/foodstandardscode.cfm.

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__________________________________________________________________ —––. ‘Labelling and Information Standards’. Accessed December 9, 2012. http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/scienceandeducation/scienceinfsanz/expertise/in housescientificexpertise/labellingandinformat4170.cfm. —––. ‘NUTTAB 2010 Online Searchable Database: Juice, Orange, Shelf Stable, Added Vitamin C’. Accessed December 9, 2012. http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumerinformation/nuttab2010/nuttab2010onli nesearchabledatabase/onlineversion.cfm?&action=getFood&foodID=01B30317. Fruit Juice Australia. ‘Frequently Asked Questions’. Accessed June 30, 2011. http://www.afja.com.au/faq/#01. Harris, J. R., ed. Ascorbic Acid: Biochemistry and Biomedical Cell Biology. New York: Plenum, 1996. Hasegawa, S., and M. Miyake. ‘Biochemistry and Biological Functions of Citrus Limonoids’. Food Reviews International 12 (1996): 413–435. Health Canada. ‘Nutraceuticals/Functional Foods and Health Claims on Foods’. Toronto: Health Canada, 1998. Hemilä, H. ‘Vitamins and Minerals’. In Common Cold, edited by R. Eccles, and O. Weber, 275–308. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2009. Hitt, Emma. ‘Fructose But Not Glucose Consumption Linked to Atherogenic Lipid Profile’. Medscape News, July 5, 2007. Accessed August 3, 2011. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/559344. Hooper, S. M., R. G. Newcombe, R. Faller, S. Eversole, M. Addy, and N. X. West. ‘The Protective Effects of Toothpaste Against Erosion by Orange Juice: Studies in Situ and in Vitro’. Journal of Dentistry 35 (2007): 476-481. Jefferson, A., and K. Cowbrough. ‘School Lunch Box Survey 2004’. London: Food Standards Agency, 2004. Keim, N., B. Gale, W. Horn, K. Stanhope, and P. J. Havel. ‘Consumption of Fructose-, But Not Glucose-Sweetened Beverages, for 10 Weeks Decreases Energy Expenditure and Fatty Acid Oxidation in Overweight/Obese Men and Women’. Paper presented at the American Diabetes Association 67th Scientific Sessions: Abstract 0062-OR., Chicago, 2007.

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__________________________________________________________________ Kritchevsky, David. ‘Dietary Fibre in Health and Disease’. In Advanced Dietary Fibre Technology, edited by Barry V. McCleary, and Leon Prosky, 149–161. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2001. Levy, Thomas E. Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins, 3rd Edition. Henderson, NV: Livon Books, 2009. Machlin, L. J. Handbook of Vitamins, 2nd Edition. New York: M. Dekker, 1991. Mann, J., J. H. Cummings, H. Englyst, T. Key, S. Liu, G. Riccardi, R. Uauy, R. M. van Dam, B. Venn, H. H. Vorster, and M. Wiseman. ‘FAO/WHO Scientific Update on Carbohydrates in Human Nutrition: Conclusions’. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 61 (2007): S132–137. McCance, R. A., and E. M. Widdowson. The Composition of Foods, 6th Edition. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2002. National Academy of Sciences. Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Selenium, and Carotenoids. Washington: Institute of Medicine, Food and Nutrition Board, 2000. National Center for Biotechnology Information. ‘Sorbitol: Compound Summary’. Accessed July 2, 2011. http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/summary/summary.cgi?cid=5780. National Health and Medical Research Council. (2006). ‘Nutrient Reference Values for Australia and New Zealand Including Recommended Dietary Intakes: Vitamin C’. Accessed July 14, 2011. http://www.nrv.gov.au/resources/_files/n35vitaminc.pdf. O’Neil, C. E., and T. A. Nicklas. ‘A Review of the Relationship between 100% Fruit Juice Consumption and Weight in Children and Adolescents’. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 2 (2008): 315–354. Doi: 10.1177/1559827608317277. ‘Orange Juice Acid “Can Wash Away Enamel on Your Teeth”’. Daily Mail, July 2, 2009. Accessed March 14, 2011. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article1196944/Orange-juice-acid-wash-away-enamel-teeth.html#ixzz1GWR6HsSn.

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__________________________________________________________________ P&N Beverages. ‘Our Products’. Accessed July 2, 2011. http://www.pnbeverages.com.au/our-products/about-our-products/. Patil, B. S., N. D. Turner, E. G. Miller, and J. S. Brodbelt, eds. Potential Health Benefits of Citrus. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, 2006. Pauling, Linus. Vitamin C and the Common Cold. San Francisco: Freeman, 1970. —––. Vitamin C, the Common Cold, and the Flu. San Francisco: Freeman, 1976. PepsiCo. ‘2009 Milestones’. Accessed July 30, 2011. http://www.pepsico.com/Company/Our-History/2009.html. —––. ‘Brands’. Accessed July 30, 2011. http://www.pepsico.com/Brands.html. Pollan, Michael. In Defence of Food. Camberwell, Victoria: Allen Lane, 2008. Queensland Government. ‘Smart Choices: Healthy Food and Drink Supply Strategy for Queensland Schools’. Accessed October 20, 2009. http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/healthy/docs/smart-choices-strategy.pdf. Ren, Y.-F., A. Amin, and H. Malmstrom. ‘Effects of Tooth Whitening and Orange Juice on Surface Properties of Dental Enamel’. Journal of Dentistry 37 (2009): 424–431. Sandhu, K. S., and K. S. Minhas. ‘Oranges and Citrus Juices’. In Handbook of Fruits and Fruit Processing, edited by Y. H. Hui, and J. Barta, 309–358. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006. Schultz, D. E., S. I. Tannenbaum, and A. Allison. Essentials of Advertising Strategy, 3rd Edition. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC Business Books, 1996. ScienceDaily. ‘Orange Juice Worse for Teeth Than Whitening Agents, Study Finds’. July 1, 2009. Accessed March 14, 2011. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090630132007.htm. Sizer, F. S., L. A. Piché, and E. N. Whitney. Nutrition: Concepts and Controversies, 2nd Edition. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2012. Skinner, J. D., B. R. Carruth, J. Moran, K. Houck, and F. Coletta. ‘Fruit Juice Intake is Not Related to Children’s Growth’. Pediatrics 103 (1999): 58–64.

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__________________________________________________________________ Spegele, B., and S. Kilman. ‘China’s Riddle: Corn Deals’. The Wall Street Journal, August 5, 2011. Accessed December 9, 2012. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657504575411290872015132 .html. Stanhope, K. L., and P. J. Havel. ‘Fructose Consumption: Recent Results and Their Potential Implications’. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1190 (2010): 15–24. Doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.05266.x. Starling, S. ‘Vitamins Propel DSM to Strongest Ever Quarter’. NUTRA, July 29, 2008. Accessed July 2, 2011. http://www.nutraingredients.com/content/view/print/213429. Tappy, L., and K.-A. Lê. ‘Metabolic Effects of Fructose and the Worldwide Increase in Obesity’. Physiological Reviews 90 (2010): 23–46. Doi: 10.1152/physrev.00019.2009. Tyrrell, D. A. J., and M. Fielder. Cold Wars: The Fight against the Common Cold. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. United States Department of Agriculture. ‘Nutrient Data Laboratory’. Accessed December 9, 2012. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/. United States Food and Drug Administration. ‘Food Ingredients and Packaging Terms’. Accessed August 2, 2011. http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodIngredientsPackaging/ucm064228.htm. Van Duyn, M. ‘Overview of the Health Benefits of Fruit and Vegetable Consumption for the Dietetics Professional Selected Literature’. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 100 (2000): 1511–1521. Vinson, J., and P. Bose. ‘Comparative Bioavailability to Humans of Ascorbic Acid Alone or in a Citrus Extract’. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 48 (1988): 601–604. Wanasundaraand, P. K., and F. Shahidi. ‘Antioxidants: Science, Technology, and Applications’. In Bailey’s Industrial Oil & Fats Products, edited by A. E. Bailey, F. Shahidi, and Knovel, 431–489. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2005.

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__________________________________________________________________ Watt, J. ‘The Influence of Nutrition upon Achievement in Maritime History’. In Food, Diet, and Economic Change Past and Present, edited by C. Geissler, and D. J. Oddy, 62–82. Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1993. Weichselbaum, E. ‘Fruit Makes You Fat?’. Nutrition Bulletin 33 (2008): 343–346. Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-3010.2008.00725.x. Wharton, Charles H. Metabolic Man: Ten Thousand Years from Eden. Orlando, FL: WinMark, 2000. White, J. S. ‘Straight Talk about High-Fructose Corn Syrup: What It Is and What It Ain’t’. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 88 (2008): S1716–1721. Doi: 10.3945/ajcn.2008.25825B. World Health Organization. Vitamin and Mineral Requirements in Human Nutrition, 2nd Edition. Geneva: WHO, 2004. —––. Nutrients in Drinking Water. Geneva: WHO, 2005. Don Sanderson recently completed his PhD from the Queensland University of Technology. He is interested in the cognitive and behavioural dimensions of food in education.

The Political Economy of School Breakfast Programmes: Cereal Offenders Don Sanderson Abstract This chapter explores one of the primary motives for school breakfast programmes; food insecurity. Food insecurity is part of a coalition of narratives which has created a moral panic around student breakfast consumption resulting in a proliferation of breakfast programs in Australian schools. Narratives such as that students perform better if they start the school day with something to eat, and that students are arriving at school with having to miss breakfast because there is no food in the house, have allowed corporate cereal manufacturers an opportunity to create a market space in a context they would not usually have access to: schools. Using data from a recent critical sociology study of food messages in the primary school curriculum, this chapter highlights how some of the foundational data has been used to support a commercially motivated practice to create a hegemony around the idea that breakfast programs fill an important social justice need in the community. Key Words: Breakfast cereal, breakfast skipping, political economy, schools. ***** 1. Origins of Breakfast Programs in Australia ‘One in five Australian children consume nothing at all for breakfast and one in four consume an inadequate breakfast that consists of only fluids such as cordial, water, tea, coffee or soft drink,’ 1 and ‘Recent findings from the University of Sydney National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Study found that one in four children go to school hungry,’ 2 and ‘More than one in four Australian primary students go to school without breakfast, according to a Sydney University study.’ 3 Headlines such as these, supported by ‘research,’ create a moral panic around what appears to be a serious social justice issue which reaches out past severely disadvantaged enclaves into the heart of middle Australia. They suggest a serious problem exists which needs urgent intervention and validates breakfast programme initiatives, not only in severely disadvantaged enclaves, but in the wider community. School breakfast programs were introduced in the late 1970s in Australia. On the surface, school breakfast programs were a reaction to public pressure to provide students from disadvantaged and low socio-economic backgrounds with food security. A free breakfast programme was eventually established through the Commonwealth Government’s Disadvantaged Schools’ Program. Federal governments outwardly claimed the breakfast programming as a national social

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__________________________________________________________________ justice issue, particularly for remote Indigenous communities and disadvantaged urban communities. The withdrawal of Commonwealth funding from the Disadvantaged Schools’ Program by a conservative government in 1996/7, resulted in the closure of many programmes across Australia soon after. Non-government organisations such as the Red Cross, Foodbank SA and various religious and welfare groups have stepped into the breach. 2. The Study Using a critical sociological lens, this chapter looks at the messages in the official, enacted and hidden curricula for a single Year 5 class (students aged 9 to 10 years) in a metropolitan Australian school, deferring to the data drawn from a previous study. The Year 5 class was in a low socio-economic school located in a medium socio-economic area. The study used data from classroom observations over a school term, interviews, and documentation. The school practices observed which inform this chapter are those around the ‘Chaplain’s Breakfast.’ A local church group organised and provided a breakfast for the students who might not have breakfast at the school. One primary school event was observed for the study. The menu consisted of two breakfast cereals: 1) a home brand wheat biscuit breakfast cereal, and 2) a brand name cereal (Kellogg’s ‘Sultana Bran’). Three points were identified from this data as significant: First, the suggestion students do not always come to school having eaten breakfast. Second, the quality of food provided and third, the involvement of the religious group. Smart Choices, the state government’s food and drink strategy for schools, states that schools, when considering providing breakfast cereals should: Choose wholegrain cereals, wholewheat flake and puffed cereals, porridge, and wholewheat breakfast biscuits. These fit into the GREEN category. Serve with reduced-fat milk .... Refined cereals with added sugars and/or saturated fat fit in the AMBER category. 4 Breakfast cereals have increasingly come under scrutiny for their contribution to the poor health and wellbeing outcomes of adolescents and children. According to recent surveys conducted by the Australian consumer organisation Choice, most cereals marketed to children in Australia contain high levels of sugar and/or sodium. In 2009 Choice examined 152 Australian breakfast cereals and rated them against its own nutrition criteria. 5 Choice found that just one of the top ten selling cereals could be considered a healthy choice and of the 42 cereals marketed to children, found they could only recommend two as healthy choices. There is no direct comparison with the consumer organisation’s nutritional criteria system and the Smart Choices’ system, even though both are based on biomedical research and

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__________________________________________________________________ government nutrition policy and literature and both use ‘traffic light’ graphics as guides for consumer information. In this way, the food offered at the Chaplain’s Breakfast was low cost, and poor quality which (mostly) did not meet government criteria for quality. The Chaplain’s Breakfast organisers showed an attempt to conform to Smart Choices criteria. Yet the majority of the food was poor quality and would not make Smart Choices’ Green category. The major criterion for provision of poor quality food seems to have been cost. 3. Social Justice, Food Insecurity and Universal Breakfast Programming What is missing from the breakfast skipping research is whether students miss breakfast because there is no food available to them or whether they simply choose not to eat a morning meal. As the classroom teacher from the study said in her interview, some children spend their pocket money on junk food on the way to school. This means that students were not eating home provisioned breakfast yet were still arriving at school having consumed some form of nourishment. Nonetheless, food insecurity is considered a primary cause of students skipping breakfast. There is a paucity of data on food insecurity in Australian households. 6 There is even less data on whether food scarcity extends to children missing breakfast as a result of this insecurity. Data from the ABS’ 1995 ‘National Nutrition Survey’ found five per cent of households reported living with food security issues (answering ‘yes’ to the question ‘In the last 12 months were there any times that you ran out of food and had no money to buy more?’). 7 A state level study reviewing health department data from 2002 to 2007 found: Seven per cent of subjects reported running out of food during the previous year and not having enough money to buy food (food insecurity) ... analysis found food insecurity to be highest in households with low levels of education, limited capacity to save money, Aboriginal households, and households with three or more children. 8 The figure of seven per cent is an average, which means highly disadvantaged enclaves will be ‘spread’ out across the entire population. This data suggests enclaves and/or particular communities suffer higher incidences of food insecurity than the rest of the population, which means the majority will suffer only intermittent or indeed, no food insecurity issues at all. A national average of five percent of households as having experienced food insecurity has been mooted, with 40 per cent of that five per cent considered ‘severely’ food insecure. 9 Severely food insecure means an individual ran out of money to purchase food, and as a result went without food. This means that about

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__________________________________________________________________ two percent of households did not have enough money to buy food and as a result went without food at least once in the preceding year of the survey. This data could represent diverse sectors of the population, from tertiary education students and severely disadvantaged pockets with genuine long-term food insecurity problems to high income earners who experience short-term liquidity problems or people who choose to fast. According to Booth and Smith: Groups known to suffer food insecurity include those in remote areas, indigenous people, homeless people, injecting drug users and those on low or insecure incomes. Young people, the elderly, single person households, unemployed people, disabled people and some immigrants and their families are therefore also likely to be at risk due to increased levels of relative poverty. 10 Not all of these groups will have school-aged children. ABS data for 2006 shows 67 per cent of the 7.6 million Australian households had children aged between 0 and 14. 11 This equates to 3.2 million households of families with school-aged children. If the average of two per cent is applied to this figure, then 63,788 Australian households with (potentially) school-aged children might have experienced severe food insecurity at least once in the preceding year. Yet, these figures would change considerably if the enclave and severely disadvantaged communities’ data could be disaggregated and factored out. Even so, without factoring out this data, and using the national average and regional data, my study estimated that four to six students at the study school, in 2010, may have experienced food insecurity so severe that they arrived at school without eating breakfast, at least once in that year. If the proposition is accepted that the proportion of the school population who, as a result of their household running out of food and money to buy food, turn up at school without having eaten breakfast is small, then the question can be asked: why are school breakfast programs in schools becoming so prevalent? 4. Marketeering and Muling The question is largely rhetorical, because there is no reliable data for the number of Australian schools where breakfast programming is currently being provisioned. It is up to the individual school to consider if breakfast programming is worthwhile for the school. The little data available comes from non-government sources. For example, in 2002, the Australian Red Cross in partnership with Sanitarium Health Foods initiated its ‘Good Start Breakfast Club.’ 12 In 2010, Red Cross provided over 200 mostly socially or economically disadvantaged schools with whole-of-school breakfasts as part of the Good Start Breakfast Club program. 13 The Red Cross says, there are currently around 253 Good Start Breakfast Clubs across Australia serving about 500,000 meals a year.

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__________________________________________________________________ In 2010 Red Cross provided a rationale for its initiative. 14 This statement not only drew together the discourses of obesity, cognition, and poverty but was supported by references to research. References include two key studies: one conducted by the University of Sydney in 2001 15 and the second by the Commonwealth through the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). 16 These are often cited studies in Australia justifying breakfast programming in schools and disadvantaged communities in the popular media, medical, lay and academic literature. Because student breakfast consumption patterns, and food insecurity data are not particularly prevalent, literature on school breakfast programmes tends to have an iterative quality with publications citing each other: and the two studies mentioned, used as the quantitative references. The publicly released data from the ABS’ 1995 ‘National Nutrition Survey’ (NNS) did not contain specific data on breakfast consumption patternmes. The main focus of the survey was looking at the nutritional levels of Australians, of which ‘cereals’ was just one component. However, breakfast-related data were collected and kept in an ABS ‘Confidential Unit Record File.’ What happened next was that Kellogg Australia ‘commissioned’ the ABS to analyse the NNS data which related to breakfast dietary patterns. 17 The person tasked for this commission was Peter Williams, the Director of Scientific and Consumer Affairs at Kellogg (Aust.) Pty. Ltd. 1996-1999, later Associate Professor, Nutrition and Dietetics, Smart Foods Centre, School of Health Sciences, University of Wollongong (and cited here). 18 Williams disseminated his research in peer-reviewed journals throughout the first decade of the new millennium. Amongst other questions, the NNS survey asked persons over the age of 12 years to self-report on how many days per week they ‘usually have something to eat at breakfast.’ 19 This and other data revealed seven per cent of children aged 211 years, 21 per cent aged 12-15 years, and 23 per cent aged 16-18 years have breakfast less than five times per week. These results support other research, which indicates that the older the cohort the more likely participants are to ‘skip’ breakfast. 20 Around the same time, Jenny O’Dea gained a Kellogg Australia Nutrition Research Grant to conduct research called the ‘National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Study.’ 21 Although this study is regularly cited to support the notion of school breakfast programs, it seems to have had a short-lived existence, as no trace of it could be found for inclusion in this chapter. The only publicly available evidence that the report existed is a small preliminary report in an education magazine and references to the study in university media releases. 22 In the magazine article, O’Dea 23 writes that data for the National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Study was collected between June and November 2000. In early 2003, a press release providing some of the study’s preliminary findings was publicly issued. From this release various media outlets disseminated findings. Within a few months a series of marketing exercises were undertaken

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__________________________________________________________________ involving Kellogg Australia (which cites the study) in which the cereal manufacturer associates itself with sport, health, and academia. Without access to O’Dea’s original report, the only verifiable data is that reported in the 2004 article. In which O’Dea states:

• 1 in 5 students in primary and high schools consumed nothing at all for breakfast - not even a drink of water • 1 in 4 students in primary and high schools consumed nothing at all or a non-nutritious drink such as water, cordial, coffee, tea or soft drink • 1 in 3 teenagers in high schools consumed nothing or water, cordial, coffee, tea or soft drink. 24 However, there are differences in research methodologies, definitions, semantics, contexts and other factors that need to be considered when considering causation for breakfast skipping. For example, participant/sample age groups (i.e., infancy, childhood, adolescence), participant population and sample sizes, definitions used for ‘breakfast’ (time of day, nutritional and dietary components), individual biology and psychology of participants/sample (food preferences, emotional state, illness), culture (country of origin of participants/sample and place where the research was conducted), geographic location (remote, rural, urban, randomised), socio-economic status, temporal variations (day of the week, holiday periods, weekends, time of the year), and whether or not school meals were also available. The prevalence of breakfast skipping in primary school aged children is likely to be much lower than their secondary school peers. For example, one small-scale U.K. study of primary school students found ‘few children missed breakfast.’ 25 Their survey of 136 Scottish students aged between seven and eight years of age found no students missed breakfast in the preceding week of the survey and only 1.5 per cent reported regularly missing breakfast. This research and others have noted that breakfast skipping episodes in younger children are likely to be on weekends and holidays rather than on school days. Significant factors in the incidence of breakfast skipping in older students are around body image and socialisation practices. 26 Thus ‘skipping breakfast’ could refer equally to students who choose not to eat breakfast and students who have no choice. The result is that possibly fewer than six students from the study school in a given year may have had no choice in whether or not they could eat a breakfast. Albeit, it is impossible to extrapolate from the available data exactly how many students at the study school at the beginning of 2010 might have missed breakfast as a result of their household running out of food and/or money to buy food. Nonetheless, what can be inferred is, the percentage of urban households that statistically might have experienced a state of food insecurity so severe that the

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__________________________________________________________________ student who wanted to eat breakfast and was forced to go to school without breakfast, is small. What is more likely is that the majority of students who do not eat breakfast do so for a range of reasons other than poverty or food insecurity. 5. Conclusion School breakfast programs offer a conduit for the corporate cereal manufacturers in a market space that would otherwise not be available to them. They offer a context where product sampling can take place - where the product and potential consumer can come together. Sampling is an important characteristic of food manufacturers’ market strategies. Using scientific data is another important strategy for the corporate food industry (as highlighted by my other chapter in this volume). Media attention embeds in the social consciousness the notion that a serious problem exists. Corporate cereal manufacturers come to the rescue by offering donations and assistance to philanthropic organisations like the Red Cross and local church groups. In effect they ‘mule’ their product on the back of religious, humanitarian and philanthropic organisations’ charity using a moral panic they themselves have contributed to as a justification, which has the added advantage of looking like ‘charity.’

Notes 1

‘Eat Well SA Schools and Preschools: Healthy Eating Guidelines’, Department of Education and Children’s Services, accessed December 9, 2012, 16, http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/eatwellsa/files/links/HealthyEatingGuidelines.pdf. 2 Emma Logan, ‘School Shows the Way with Healthy Eating Program’, June 11, 2006, accessed July 20, 2011, para. 8, http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleI D=1985&class=&subclass=. 3 ‘Good Start Breakfast Club: A Tale of Two Schools’, Red Cross, accessed July 20, 2011, para. 3. http://www.redcross.org.au/ourservices_acrossaustralia_goodstartbreakfastclub_fe ature.htm. 4 Queensland Government, Smart Choice: Healthy Food and Drink Strategy for Queensland Schools. Brisbane: Government Printer, 2005, 12, 19. Original emphasis. 5 ‘Breakfast Cereals Buying Guide’, Choice, May 29, 2009, accessed December 9, 2012, http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/food-and-health/food-anddrink/groceries/breakfast-cereals-buying-guide.aspx.

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__________________________________________________________________ 6

‘Proportion of Families Who are Food Insecure’, Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, last updated October 24, 2012, accessed June 11, 2012, http://www.education.vic.gov.au/about/research/Pages/foodinsec.aspx. 7 ‘National Nutrition Survey: Selected Highlights, Australia 1995 (Cat. No. 4802.0)’ Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1997, accessed December 9, 2012, 35, http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/0/236465EA4E9B3D2BCA25722 500049629/$File/48020_1995.pdf. 8 Wendy Foley, et al., ‘An Ecological Analysis of Factors Associated with Food Insecurity in South Australia, 2002-7’, Public Health Nutrition 13 (2010): 215, doi:10.1017/S1368980009990747. 9 Jeromey B. Temple, ‘Severe and Moderate Forms of Food Insecurity in Australia: Are They Distinguishable?’, Australian Journal of Social Issues 43 (2008): 649668. 10 Sue Booth and Alison Smith, ‘Food Security and Poverty in Australia: Challenges for Dietitians’, Australian Journal of Nutrition & Dietetics 58 (2001): 156. 11 ‘Year Book Australia, 2009-10: Households and Families (Cat. No. 1301.0.)’, Australian Bureau of Statistics, last updated December 3, 2012, accessed July 29, 2011, http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/916F96F929978825CA257 73700169C65. 12 ‘Fact Sheet: Good Start Breakfast Club’, Red Cross, accessed December 2, 2012, http://www.redcross.org.au/files/GSBC(3).pdf. 13 Ibid., para. 3. 14 Good Start Breakfast Club, no longer available online. 15 ‘Research Grants 2001’, The University of Sydney, accessed July 20, 2011, http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/about/research/2001.shtml. No longer available online. 16 Australian Bureau of Statistics. National Nutrition Survey. 17 Peter Williams, ‘What Australians Eat for Breakfast: An Analysis of Data from the 1995 National Nutrition Survey’, Nutrition & Dietetics 59 (2002): 103-112. 18 Peter Williams, ‘Breakfast and the Diets of Australian Children and Adolescents: An Analysis of Data from the 1995 National Nutrition Survey’, International Journal of Food Sciences & Nutrition 58 (2007): 201, doi: 10.1080/09637480701198075. 19 Ibid., 202. 20 Australian Bureau of Statistics. National Nutrition Survey. 21 Jenny O’Dea, National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Study (Sydney: University of Sydney, 2003).

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__________________________________________________________________ 22

Jenny O’Dea, ‘Children and Adolescent’s Eating Habits and Attitudes: Preliminary Findings from the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Study, Nutridate 15 (2004): 1-4. 23 Ibid. 24 Ibid., 3. 25 C. H. S. Ruxton, et al., ‘Breakfast Habits in Children’, Nutrition & Food Science 93 (1993): 17, doi: 10.1108/EUM0000000000995. 26 Majella McSharry, Schooled Bodies?: Negotiating Adolescent Validation Through Press, Peers and Parents (Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Trentham, 2009).

Bibliography Australian Bureau of Statistics. ‘Year Book Australia, 2009–10: Households and Families (Cat. No. 1301.0.)’. Accessed July 29, 2011. http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/[email protected]/Lookup/916F96F929978825CA257 73700169C65. —––. ‘National Nutrition Survey: Selected Highlights, Australia 1995, (Cat. No. 4802.0)’. Accessed December 9, 2012. http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/0/236465EA4E9B3D2BCA25722 500049629/$File/48020_1995.pdf. Baker, M. J., P. Graham, and D. Harker. Marketing: Managerial Foundations. South Melbourne: Macmillan Education Australia, 1998. Booth, Sue, and Alison Smith. ‘Food Security and Poverty in Australia: Challenges for Dietitians’. Australian Journal of Nutrition & Dietetics 58 (2001): 150–156. Choice. ‘Breakfast Cereals Buying Guide’. Accessed November 9, 2011. http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/food-and-health/food-anddrink/groceries/breakfast-cereals-buying-guide.aspx. —––. ‘Children’s Cereals: Not All Equal’. Accessed November 9, 2011. http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/babies-and-kids/food-for-kids/kidsfood/kids-cereal-review-and-compare.aspx. —––. ‘Breakfast Cereal Review’. Accessed November 9, http://www.choice.com.au/reviews-and-tests/food-and-health/food-anddrink/groceries/breakfast-cereal-review-and-compare.aspx.

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__________________________________________________________________ Department of Education and Children’s Services. ‘Eat Well SA Schools and Preschools: Healthy Eating Guidelines’. Accessed December 9, 2012. http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/eatwellsa/files/links/HealthyEatingGuidelines.pdf. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2010). ‘Proportion of Families Who are Food Insecure’. Accessed June 11, 2012. http://www.education.vic.gov.au/healthwellbeing/childyouth/catalogue/adolescent/ food-ind1.htm. Department of Education and Training. ‘SCM-PR-021: Religious Instruction in School Hours’. Accessed December 3, 2012. http://education.qld.gov.au/strategic/eppr/schools/scmpr021/index.html. —––. ‘SCM-PR-012: Chaplaincy Services in Queensland State Schools’. Accessed December 3, 2012. http://education.qld.gov.au/strategic/eppr/schools/scmpr012/. Engels, Benno, and Paul Boys. ‘Food Insecurity and Children: An Investigation of School Breakfast Clubs in Melbourne Victoria’. Just Policy 48 (2008): 4-15. Foley, Wendy, Paul Ward, Patricia Carter, John Coveney, George Tsourtos, and Anne Taylor. ‘An Ecological Analysis of Factors Associated with Food Insecurity in South Australia, 2002–7’. Public Health Nutrition 13 (2010): 215–221. Doi:10.1017/S1368980009990747. Foodbank. ‘Foodbank SA: The Board and Background’. Accessed November 3, 2012. http://www.foodbanksa.com.au/About_Us/Foodbank_SA.aspx. Foodbank South Australia. ‘Save the Children and Foodbank SA’. Accessed July 20, 2011. http://www.foodbank.com.au/default.asp?id=1,48,13,93. Fynes-Clinton, Jane. ‘Breakfast Gets Kids Off to Smart Start’. The Courier Mail, 4 September 2003, 15. Harris, J. L., M. B. Schwartz, K. D. Brownell, V. Sarda, M. E. Weinberg, et al. ‘Cereal FACTS: Evaluating the Nutrition Quality and Marketing of Children’s Cereals’. New Haven: Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, 2009. Harris, J. L., M. B. Schwartz, A. Ustjanauskas, P. Ohri-Vachaspati, and K. D. Brownell. ‘Effects of Serving High-Sugar Cereals on Children’s Breakfast-Eating Behavior’. Pediatrics 127 (2011): 71–76.

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__________________________________________________________________ Johnston, Kenneth. ‘Inequality and Educational Reform: Lessons From the Disadvantaged Schools Project’. In Schooling Reform in Hard Times, edited by Bob Lingard, John Knight, and Paige Porter, 106–119. London: Falmer, 1993. Kenny, Bernadette, Sue Booth, Anne Taylor and Eleonora Del Grande. ‘Food Insecurity in South Australia: A Population Snapshot’. Adelaide: South Australian Department of Human Services, 2004. Accessed October 11, 2010. www.health.sa.gov.au/pros/portals/0/pres-food-insecurity-SA04.pdf. Kilby, N. ‘Analysis: Cereal Makers Hoping to Sweeten Market with Healthy Options’. Marketing Week 29 (July 6, 2006): 8. Logan, Emma. ‘School Shows the Way with Healthy Eating Program’. June 11, 2006. Accessed July 20, 2011. http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/article.php?classID=1&subclassID=2&articleI D=1985&class=&subclass=. McSharry, Majella. Schooled Bodies?: Negotiating Adolescent Validation through Press, Peers and Parents. Stoke-on-Trent, UK: Trentham, 2009. Moreno, L. A., G. Rodríguez, J. Fleta, M. Bueno-Lozano, A. Lázaro, and G. Bueno. ‘Trends of Dietary Habits in Adolescents’. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 50 (2010): 106–112. Doi: 10.1080/10408390903467480. Nader, Carol, and Farrah Tomazin. ‘Waiting List Grows for School Breakfast Clubs’. The Age, October 21, 2008. http://www.theage.com.au/national/waitinglist-grows-for-school-breakfast-clubs-20081020-54t9.html. O’Dea, Jenny. National Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Study. Sydney: University of Sydney, 2003. —––. ‘Children and Adolescent’s Eating Habits and Attitudes: Preliminary Findings from the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Study’. Nutridate 15 (2004): 1–4. Office of Economic and Statistical Research. ‘Household Projections by Household Type by Region, 2006 to 2031’. http://www.oesr.qld.gov.au/regions/south-west/tables/household-proj-householdtype-region/index.php.

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__________________________________________________________________ Ortega, R. M., A. M. Requejo, A. M. Lopez-Sobaler, M. E. Quintas, P. Andres, et al. ‘Difference in the Breakfast Habits of Overweight/Obese and Normal Weight Schoolchildren’. International Journal of Vitamin Nutrition Research 68 (1998): 125–132. Queensland Association of School Tuckshops. ‘Breakfast Success’. Brisbane: QAST, 2004. Queensland Government. ‘Smart Choices: Healthy Food and Drink Supply Strategy for Queensland Schools’. Brisbane: Author, 2005. http://education.qld.gov.au/schools/healthy/docs/smart-choices-strategy.pdf. Radcliffe, B. C., C. Ogden, T. Coyne, and P. Craig. ‘Breakfast Consumption Patterns of Upper Primary School Students in 14 Queensland Schools’. Nutrition & Dietetics 61 (2004): 151–158. Rampersaud, G. C., M. A. Pereira, B. L. Girard, J. Adams, and J. D. Metzl. ‘Review: Breakfast Habits, Nutritional Status, Body Weight, and Academic Performance in Children and Adolescents’. Journal of the American Dietetic Association 105 (2005): 743–760. Red Cross. ‘Good Start Breakfast Club’. Accessed July 20, 2011. http://www.redcross.org.au/ourservices_acrossaustralia_goodstartbreakfastclub.ht m. —––. ‘Good Start Breakfast Club: A Tale of Two Schools’. Accessed July 20, 2011. http://www.redcross.org.au/ourservices_acrossaustralia_goodstartbreakfastclub_fe ature.htm. Robinson, Yvonne, and Adrienne Clarke. ‘Assessment of School Based Breakfast Programs in South Australia’. Adelaide: Health Development Foundation, 1993. Ruxton, C. H. S., T. R. Kirk, M. A. M. Holmes, and N. R. Belton. ‘Breakfast Habits in Children’. Nutrition & Food Science 93 (1993): 17–20. Doi: 10.1108/EUM0000000000995. Sandona, Nicoletta. ‘The Rise of Obesity and Diabetes among Children’. Accessed July 20, 2011. http://www.peninsulaliving.com.au/diet/diet-health-nutritionchildren-obesity-diabetes-cholesterol-lifestyle/.

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__________________________________________________________________ Sanitarium. ‘Good Start Breakfast Club’. Accessed July http://www.sanitarium.com.au/community/good-start-breakfast-club.

20,

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Shaw, M. E. ‘Adolescent Breakfast Skipping: An Australian Study’. Adolescence 33 (1998): 851–861, Siega-Riz, A. M., B. M. Popkin, and T. Carson. ‘Trends in Breakfast Consumption for Children in the United States from 1965-1991’. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 67 (1998): S748–756. Simeon, D., and S. Grantham-McGregor. ‘Effects of Missing Breakfast on the Cognitive Functions of School Children of Differing Nutritional Status’. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 49 (1989): 646–653. Smith, Alison M. ‘Promoting Healthy Eating for South Australian Families. The Eat Well SA Project 1997–2002’. Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, 2002. Temple, Jeromey. B. ‘Severe and Moderate Forms of Food Insecurity in Australia: Are They Distinguishable?’ Australian Journal of Social Issues 43 (2008): 649– 668. The University of Sydney. ‘Research Grants 2001’. Accessed July 20, 2011. http://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/about/research/2001.shtml. Vaisman, N., H. Voet, A. Akivis, and E. Vakil. ‘Effect of Breakfast Timing on the Cognitive Functions of Elementary School Students’. Archives of Pediatric & Adolescence Medicine 150 (1996): 1089–1092. White, V., and K. Johnston. ‘Inside the Disadvantaged Schools Program: The Politics of Practical Policy-Making’. In Education Inequality and Social Identity, edited by Lawrence Angus. London: Falmer, 1993. Williams, Peter. ‘What Australians Eat for Breakfast: An Analysis of Data from the 1995 National Nutrition Survey’. Nutrition & Dietetics 59 (2002): 103–112. —––. ‘Breakfast and the Diets of Australian Adults: An Analysis of Data from the 1995 National Nutrition Survey’. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition 56 (2005): 65–79.

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__________________________________________________________________ —––. ‘Breakfast and the Diets of Australian Children and Adolescents: An Analysis of Data from the 1995 National Nutrition Survey’. International Journal of Food Sciences & Nutrition 58 (2007): 201–216. Doi: 10.1080/09637480701198075. Wyld, Ben. ‘For Some Children, Breakfast is Just a Glass of Water’. Sydney Morning Herald, May 19, 2003. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/18/1053196474554.html. Young, R., and P. Weston. ‘Providing Breakfast at School: The NSW Experience’. Australian Journal of Nutrition & Dietetics 57 (2000): 84–89. Don Sanderson recently completed his PhD from the Queensland University of Technology. He is interested in the cognitive and behavioural dimensions of food in education.

Selling the Farming ‘Way of Life’ at Melbourne’s Farmers’ Markets Kim Neylon Abstract Farmers’ markets aim to reconnect customers with local produce through direct producer-to-consumer transactions. At Melbourne’s Farmers’ Markets, storytelling by farming stallholders to customers served to highlight both the idyllic nature of country life and the hardships and uncertainty faced by small-scale producers. Such stories emphasised the importance of the markets for the survival of the farms, and by extension, the farming way of life. These markets could then provide a ‘feel good’ shopping experience for customers, giving them an opportunity to support local producers and to ‘vote’ against the supermarkets through participating in an alternative system of food distribution. Based on participant-observation research at both Melbourne’s Farmers’ Markets and on the farms of stallholders throughout Victoria, this chapter examines how farmers utilised anti-conventional rhetoric and ‘feel-good’ shopping values to sell their wares in alternative consumption spaces in Australia. Key Words: Farmers’ markets, local food, production, consumption, ethnography, Australia, Victoria, farming, organic, authenticity. ***** 1. Introduction In recent years, a global agro-industrial system has come to dominate food production, with large-scale farming and global food chains separating consumers from the production of food. Farmers’ markets aim to reconnect customers with local produce through direct producer-to-consumer transactions; allowing them to ‘know where their food comes from’ by talking directly to those involved in its production. 1 These interactions also provide an opportunity for farming stallholders to educate their customers about ‘life on the land.’ Through ethnographic research conducted at both Melbourne’s Farmers’ Markets and on farms throughout Victoria from 2010 to 2012, I explored how farmers sold their wares, and how, through the presentation of stalls and the stories they told, they sold ‘the farming way of life’ to their city customers. 2. Background The Australian Farmers’ Market Association defines a farmers’ market as: ‘a predominantly fresh food market that operates regularly within a community, at a focal public location that provides a suitable environment for farmers and food producers to sell farm-origin and associated value-added processed food products

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__________________________________________________________________ directly to customers.’ 2 While farmers’ selling their produce directly to consumers is nothing new in itself, the particular branding of farmers’ markets is a relatively new phenomenon. Originating in the United States in the 1970s, this ‘brand’ of market is now popular in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Farmers’ markets have risen out of a food production system led by large-scale agriculture and productivist values, which prioritise quantity as a means to maximise profitability. 3 Primary production in Australia has been influenced by what Andrée et al described as a political-economic environment of ‘competitive productionism,’ 4 where an export-orientated economy and neoliberal political agenda strongly encouraged the expansion of farms to compete in a global marketplace. The consumption landscape in Australia is dominated by supermarkets, fast food outlets, and produce wholesalers. 5 Two supermarket chains, Coles and Woolworths, accounted for approximately 70% of grocery sales and 50% of fresh produce sales in 2008. 6 These supermarkets allow access to fresh, seasonal produce all year round, through local, national and international supply chains. 7 Since the first Australian Farmers’ Market was established in 1998, over 200 have been set up around the country, concentrated in urban and regional centres. 8 There are over 90 farmers’ markets in Victoria, at least 40 of them in Melbourne. 9 This number is approximate, because new markets open frequently, while others close. 10 Markets are typically held once a month, on a weekend, 11 and are run by local councils, community groups and commercial organisations. Stallholders sell at a variety of markets to maintain a steady weekly income, 12 and so interact with stallholders and customers from all around Victoria. Mobility is a key feature of Melbourne’s Farmers’ Markets. 3. Stallholders While individual markets differed, stallholders at Melbourne’s Farmers’ Markets included primary producers, food-based specialty producers, hot food and drink vendors, plant seedling sellers, pet food producers, and various other foodrelated stalls. This chapter is focussed exclusively on ‘farmers,’ that is, stallholders involved in primary food production, with three stalls as key examples. However, it is important to note that farmers were only one part of the Farmers’ Market community in Melbourne. The Market Gardeners The first stallholders were a couple with young children who ran an organic vegetable farm on the outskirts of Melbourne. They sold the majority of their produce via the wholesale market to supermarkets and produce stores across the country. While they were a recent addition to Melbourne’s Farmers’ Markets, the farm was one of the first in Australia to be awarded organic certification in the

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__________________________________________________________________ 1980s. The farmer and his wife, who ran the business side of the farm, argued that the health and environmental benefits of organic produce outweighed their extra time commitment and cost. Their stall at the market was simply presented, with hand-written signs and simple trestle tables covered with mounds of colourful produce continuously replenished from crates on the back of an old utility truck. Rather than selling by weight, produce was priced in bunches or lots. The farmer argued that customers appreciated the simple look of his stall. He claimed that they wanted to see ‘a real farmer,’ and so wore a broad brim hat, work boots and, as he claimed ‘basically what you’d wear in the field’, to complete the ‘farmer’ look. The Citrus Growers The second example was a citrus growing couple from a farm in the north-west of Victoria, near the Murray River. The farmers sold various citrus, pistachio and avocado crops all year round at both the Melbourne and Sydney wholesale markets, with some of their produce headed for export. They began selling at farmers’ markets 6 years ago, attending multiple Melbourne markets. While their stalls were often staffed by their adult children, the farmers maintained a presence at their markets 3 weekends of every month, despite an over 600 kilometre oneway drive to the city from their farm. Wearing colourful aprons covered in citrus motifs, the stallholders were a noticeable presence at every market. Both from farming families, the couple worked as a team to run their farm business. In addition to fresh produce, the stallholders value-added through selling freshly squeezed juices, homemade jams and dried fruit. A simple approach was also favoured by these stallholders, with all produce sold in 5 dollar lots, and they frequently offered samples and ‘freebees’ to market customers. The Free-Range Pork Producer My final example was a free range pork producer, who only sold her produce at farmers’ markets. Unlike my other examples, this young family only came to farming recently. Their plan was to live a self-sustaining lifestyle on their high country property, but found it ‘harder than anyone realises’ and so ‘fell’ into breeding and selling heritage breed Large Black pigs. Their stall was quite simple, with pictures of the pigs, and newspaper articles on the farm, on pin-boards surrounding the stall. When asked, the farmer would take the time to explain how ‘her girls,’ the breeding pigs, had wallows, shelters and fields to play in, and she would update regular customers on their well-being, saying ‘Piper had her piglets yesterday’ or ‘Penny’s been a bit grumpy this week.’ She occasionally brought photos of piglets to the stall, but claimed that ‘they put people off’ of buying her pork products.

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__________________________________________________________________ 4. Why Sell at Farmers’ Markets? So why do these farmers travel such long distances every weekend to sell their wares at farmers’ markets? These three farmers, as with the majority of farmers at the markets I interviewed, viewed this primarily as a necessary business decision. As The Organic Farmer joked, ‘Why am I here? I make more money! Why else?’ However, there was often more to this decision than just a better profit margin. The Organic Farmer spoke at length about the difficulties he experienced selling their produce through the wholesale market, which he described as an ‘unfair’ system, where wholesalers and supermarkets ‘profit’ from the farmer’s ‘hard work’ through deceit and underhanded tactics. As he explained: ‘They tell you [your produce] is not good enough … so they can bring down the price, get it for a steal … you never hear a good word there …’ The ‘unfair’ wholesale market was contrasted with the ‘control’ that farmers’ markets gave to farmers to ‘set our own price,’ essentially deciding the value of their own ‘hard work.’ However, rewards at the market were not only explained in terms of financial gain. As The Citrus Grower commented ‘customers are so grateful, they tell me how they love [the produce] … it’s a real buzz.’ Similarly, regular customers often reported to me that they felt ‘grateful’ that the stallholders brought their produce to the market. ‘How lucky are we’ commented one woman to her friend ‘they bring this all here for us!’ 5. Farming as Hardship These interactions with customers allowed farmers to present themselves, and their farming way of life, strategically to their city customers. Conversations between stallholders and customers often led to stories that told of the hard life of farming. Farmer’s spoke frequently about conditions that they had no control over, most frequently, the weather. Changes in the weather could determine the value of their goods from one day to the next. For example, in 2010 The Citrus Grower lost almost their entire annual pistachios crop when unprecedented summer flooding caused ‘black rot’ to set in before the harvester, stuck in a another small producer’s paddock, was able to be brought onto the farm for harvest. Regular customers, when told of this predicament, sympathised with the stallholder. I observed that this sympathy often led to increased sales, for example one middle-aged woman, a regular customer, responded by buying an additional bag of oranges. She later commented to me ‘well you’ve got to support them … they do it tough.’ However, if the weather was favourable, other elements out of the farmer’s control, mostly to do with conditions in the wholesale market, were discussed with customers. In 2011, the same grower had their best Valencia orange crops in years, with close to ideal growing conditions. He lamented to me that, because everyone had similar conditions, the wholesale value of his fruit was at an all-time low.

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__________________________________________________________________ Consequently, good fruit had been left on the trees to waste, as he claimed that it was not economically viable to pay workers to pick the fruit. This complaint, however, was not observably passed onto customers in full. Rather, comments revolved generally around the ‘unfair’ price they received from the wholesale market. ‘The price of produce hasn’t gone up in 20 years’ I heard the Citrus Grower explain to a customer ‘it’s getting tougher and tougher to stay on the land.’ Customers sympathised with such stories, and discussions at the markets frequently included remarks over cheap imports, and most commonly, complaints of the dominance of ‘the big two’ supermarket chains. Education Stories of the ‘farming way of life’ were frequently told by stallholders to customers at the markets. Many farmers saw it as their duty to educate customers on the ‘reality’ of ‘life on the land.’ As a dairy farmer stallholder commented, ‘well, that’s basically our role, to educate our customers … you need to tell them what it’s really like [farming] … they don’t really get how food gets to them … these days.’ Questions on the seasonality of produce, how to cook different products, how to spot ‘fresh’ produce and the differences between produce varieties, were frequent topics of conversation at the markets. This ‘education’ was seen as particularly important for children, for as the Free Range Farmer remarked, ‘they need to know what real food is.’ This educative role often went further, as customers were told of the ‘problems’ associated with goods purchased elsewhere, particularly at supermarkets. As The Organic Farmer informed a customer ‘you don’t know how old the carrots are [in supermarkets], ‘cause they take off all the green. You see these leaves? Picked those yesterday.’ Such stories, coupled with exaggerations and colourful language, were all part of the ‘selling’ of goods at the markets. Similar stories were told by stallholders who sold the majority of their produce to supermarkets, though rarely were these associations discussed with customers. Educative campaigns were also common at the markets. For example, a group of free range egg producers campaigned to prevent proposed changes to the official definition of ‘free range’ eggs in Australia. 13 Signage utilised in this campaign also suggested that eggs bought elsewhere, even from other stalls at other markets, were not ‘really free range’ as regulations were not strict enough to stop de-beaking and over-crowded living conditions, 14 and so farmers’ markets provided the customer’s only access to genuine free range eggs. As these examples show, the farmers at the market, through stories of hardship and frustration with the wholesale system, painted a picture of farming life as tough and unpredictable. Through this, they were able to frame the market as an essential alternative, but one that is only viable through the support of regular

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__________________________________________________________________ customers. Customers could then feel that they were ‘doing their bit’ to support their local farmers. 6. Farming as Idyllic Story-telling at the markets also served to construct images of sustainable, ethical and idyllic farming. This ‘painted a picture’ of rural life for customers, as Alkon describes: ‘Farmers’ Market produce becomes the vehicle through which customers can connect with beautiful places.’ 15 Such images were abundant at stalls such as The Free Range Farmer’s stall, where pictures of ‘happy’ pigs in green pastures, surrounded by trees, poultry birds, goats and horses, conjured up nostalgic images of farming far removed from mass-produced meats sold in supermarkets. As an elderly customer commented ‘that’s how it [farming] should be … the way it used to be.’ Throughout my fieldwork, I noticed that many customers would also tell stallholders their connections to the country, describing the markets as a reconnection with that past. For example, they may have grown up in a country area, or had a country relative they visited as a child. Sharing such experiences strengthened the portrayal of idyllic, and nostalgic, country life. Idyllic stories told by stallholders often went further, describing their way of life that as under threat. Stories of small farms closing in large numbers, prime farming land being swallowed by suburban development, and suggestions that foreign businesses were buying up ‘our land,’ were abundant at the markets. Such conversations sometimes went further, with farmers suggesting that their way of life should be supported and protected by all. As The Organic Farmer remarked ‘well where else are they gonna get [fresh produce] … China? Without us [farmers], no one’s got a chance …’ In response to these threats, I found that customers would proudly speak of the need to ‘buy Australian.’ A couple in their mid-twenties epitomised this sentiment in an interview, saying: ‘you feel really good shopping here. You know you’re doing your bit for the Aussie farmers... I can enjoy my delicious Farmers’ Market goodies knowing I’ve done the right thing buying them here instead of at Coles or Woolies.’ By presenting themselves as ‘true Aussie farmers,’ describing to customers the tough but idyllic farming way of life, stallholders were not only allowing their customers to connect or reconnect with the country, but were also selling them the ‘feel good’ experience of supporting Australian producers. This narrative was not embraced wholeheartedly by all customers, but was nonetheless pervasive at the markets. 7. Reciprocity The three stallholders had followings of loyal customers at their various markets. These relationships were strengthened over time not only through shared

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__________________________________________________________________ story-telling, but also through the giving and receiving of gifts. For example, The Citrus Growers were well known at the markets for their generosity. Children were often allowed behind the stall to juice their own oranges, and samples were offered to passers-by. They gave extra mandarins to children or placed ‘a few extra’ in customers’ bags. Their generosity with produce was matched with generosity of time, as they listened to customer’s stories, shared pictures of grandchildren, and laughed and chatted with customers, even at busy markets. This generosity was reciprocated by many customers with regular purchases. Some offered gifts at Christmas, others brought in produce from home for stallholders to sell on or use, or made home-made treats to share. Sharing recipes was also common at the markets, for example it was a customer who first suggested drying the sweetened tangelo rings The Citrus Growers sold at their stall. While this behaviour was not universal, fervent customer loyalty to particular stallholders was observed at every market I visited. For example, when another citrus producer entered one of The Citrus Growers’ regular markets, loyal customers quickly pledged their allegiance to the stallholder, many citing disapproval of market management ‘greed’ for allowing the other stall at the market. Authenticity During interviews, customers frequently mentioned that connecting with ‘real farmers’ was central to their market experience. In 2009, The Victorian Farmers Market Association, the peak body for farmers markets, introduced a Farmers’ Market Accreditation Program, to ensure that stallholders were primary producers, that they were local, and that the person behind the stall was directly involved in the production of all food sold. 16 Accreditation signs were awarded to compliant stalls, for customers to identify ‘real’ farmers. However, I found that these signs were largely ignored by customers. Rather, the relationships formed at the market, strengthened through story-telling, were taken more often as the basis of any claims to authenticity. Ambivalence was the most common reaction to questions of accreditation. As one customer, when asked about the VFMA Accreditation program, remarked with bemusement ‘of course they’re true farmers. I know them, they’re good people.’ 8. Conclusion Farmers’ markets are a recent addition to the consumption landscape in Australia, which can be viewed as a response by small-scale producers to global agribusiness. For many customers, the markets provided an opportunity to express their own dissatisfaction with modern society, allowed them to seek out ethical produce and to connect with the countryside from afar by purchasing local goods straight from a ‘real’ farmer.

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__________________________________________________________________ Story-telling by farmer stallholders served both to highlight the idyllic nature of country life and the hardships and uncertainty faced by small-scale producers. Such stories emphasised the importance of the markets for the survival of the farms, and by extension, the farming way of life. However, in practice, neither farmers nor customers were separated from supermarkets or the conventional food distribution system, nor did the ‘conventional’ system mean the same to all. While notions of ‘authentic’ farmers, authentic produce and an authentic Farmers’ Market were negotiated by all participants, relationships formed at the markets, through shared story-telling, were the basis for most claims of authenticity. These allowed regular customers to feel as though they were ‘doing their bit’ for farmers, and for an idyllic ‘way of life’ that was under threat, and so provided a ‘feel-good’ shopping experience.

Notes 1

Victorian Farmers Market Association, Our Charter, 2012, accessed January 20, 2013, http://www.vicfarmersmarkets.org.au/content/our-charter. 2 Australian Farmers Market Association, What is a Farmers’ Market?, 2010, accessed May 11, 2010, http://www.farmersmarkets.org.au/markets. 3 Lex Chalmers, Alun Joseph and John Smithers, ‘Seeing Farmers’ Markets: Theoretical and Media Perspectives on New Sites of Exchange in New Zealand’, Geographical Research 47 (2009): 320-330. 4 Peter Andrée, Jacqui Dibden, Vaughan Higgins and Chris Cocklin, ‘Competitive Productionism and Australia’s Emerging “Alternative” Agri-Food Networks: Producing for Farmers’ Markets in Victoria and Beyond’, Australian Geographer 41 (2010): 307-322. 5 Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Food: A History (London: Macmillan, 2001), 222. 6 Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Report of the ACCC Inquiry into the Competitiveness of Retail Prices for Standard Groceries (Canberra: Australian Government, 2008), xii-xxv. 7 Sharon Zukin, ‘Consuming Authenticity,’ Cultural Studies 22 (2008): 724-748. 8 Australian Farmers Market Association, Australian Farmers’ Market Directory, 2010, accessed May 11, 2010, http://www.farmersmarkets.org.au/markets. 9 Outer Suburban/Interface Services and Development Committee, Inquiry into Farmers’ Markets (East Melbourne: Government Printer for the State of Victoria, 2011). 10 For example, commercial farmers’ market operators In Seasons Markets Pty Ltd have opened nine new markets since 2010. Their North Melbourne and Fairfield markets closed late 2011. See http://www.inseasonmarkets.com.au/market. 11 See http://www.vicfarmersmarkets.org.au/list-markets/all-regions/all-markets.

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Andrew Campbell, Paddock to Plate: Food, Farming and Victoria’s Progress to Sustainability: The Future Food and Farm Project Background Paper (Melbourne: Australian Conservation Foundation, 2008), 122. 13 In 2010, The Australian Egg Corporation Limited (AECL) filed an application with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), requesting changes to the definition of ‘free range’ eggs. The proposed changes included increasing the acceptable stock density for free range egg-laying hens from 1,500 to 20,000 birds per hectare. Signage, pamphlets and petitions were utilised by stallholders to educate and recruit customers at the markets, The ACCC rejected the AECL application on the 2nd November 2012. See http://www.accc.gov.au/content/item.phtml?itemId=1087817andnodeId=7ccc42df 8caebc685cd305ba65151211andfn=Initial%20assesment%20of%20Certification% 20Trade%20Mark%20application%20%20Australian%20Egg%20Corporation%20Limited.pdf. 14 Campaign was run by stallholders who were members of the Free Range Farmers Association. For further details of their ongoing campaign, see http://www.freerangefarmers.com.au/. 15 Alison Alkon, ‘Paradise or Pavement: The Social Constructions of the Environment in Two Urban Farmers’ Markets and Their Implications for Environmental Justice and Sustainability’, Local Environment 13 (2008): 271-289. 16 Victorian Farmers’ Markets Association, Producers Accreditation Handbook (Abbotsford: VFMA, 2009).

Bibliography Alkon, Alison. ‘Paradise or Pavement: The Social Constructions of the Environment in Two Urban Farmers’ Markets and Their Implications for Environmental Justice and Sustainability’. Local Environment 13 (2008): 271–289. —––. ‘From Values to Values: Sustainable Consumption at Farmers Markets’. Agriculture and Human Values 25 (2008): 487–498. Andrée, Peter, Jacgui Dibden, Vaughan Higgins, and Chris Cocklin. ‘Competitive Productionism and Australia’s Emerging “Alternative” Agri-Food Networks: Producing for Farmers’ Markets in Victoria and Beyond’. Australian Geographer 41 (2010): 307–322. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Report of the ACCC Inquiry into the Competitiveness of Retail Prices for Standard Groceries. Canberra: Australian Government, 2008.

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__________________________________________________________________ Australian Farmers Market Association. ‘What is a Farmers’ Market? 2010’. Accessed May 11, 2010. http://www.farmersmarkets.org.au/markets. Campbell, Andrew. Paddock to Plate: Food. Farming and Victoria’s Progress to Sustainability: The Future Food and Farm Project Background Paper. Melbourne: Australian Conservation Foundation, 2008. Chalmers, Lex, Alun Joseph, and John Smithers. ‘Seeing Farmers’ Markets: Theoretical and Media Perspectives on New Sites of Exchange in New Zealand’. Geographical Research 47 (2009): 320–330. Connell, D., J. Smithers, and A. Joseph. ‘Farmers’ Markets and the “Good Food” Value Chain: A Preliminary Study’. Local Environment 13 (2008): 169–185. DuPuis, M., and D. Goodman. ‘Should We Go “Home” To Eat? Toward a Reflexive Politics of Localism’. Journal of Rural Studies 21 (2005): 359–371. Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. Food: A History. London: Macmillan, 2001. Guthrie, J., A. Guthrie, R. Lawson, and A. Cameron. ‘Farmers’ Markets: The Small Business Counter-Revolution in Food Production and Retailing’. British Food Journal 108 (2006): 560–573. Holloway, L., and M. Kneafsey. ‘Reading the Space of the Farmers’ Market: A Case Study from the United Kingdom’. Sociologia Ruralis 40 (2000): 285–299. Larsen, K., C. Ryan, and A. B. Abraham. Sustainable and Secure Food Systems for Victoria: What Do We Know? What Do We Need to Know? VEIL Research Report No. 1. Melbourne: Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society, University of Melbourne. 2008. Accessed March 5, 2011, www.ecoinnovationlab.com/pages/library.php. Lawrence, G., C. Richards, and K. Lyons. ‘Food Security in Australia in an Era of Neo-Liberalism, Productivism and Climate Change’. Journal of Rural Studies xxx (2012): 1–10. Lockie, S., K. Lyons, and G. Lawrence. ‘Constructing “Green” Foods: Corporate Capital, Risk, and Organic Farming in Australia and New Zealand’. Agriculture and Human Values 17 (2000): 315–322.

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__________________________________________________________________ Outer Suburban/Interface Services and Development Committee. Inquiry into Farmers’ Markets. East Melbourne: Government Printer for the State of Victoria, 2011. Pratt, J. ‘Food Values: The Local and the Authentic’. Critique of Anthropology 27 (2007): 285–300. Quiggin J. Drought: Climate Change and Food Prices in Australia. Australian Conservation Foundation. 2007. Accessed April 25, 2010. http://www.acfonline.org.au/uploads/res/Climate_change_and_food_prices_in_Au stralia.pdf. Shaw. D., T. Newholm, and R. Dickenson. ‘Consumption as Voting: An Exploration of Consumer Empowerment’. European Journal of Marketing 40 (2006): 1049–1067. Taylor, M. Victorian Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Industries: At a Glance 2007 (Version 3.3). Melbourne: Department of Primary Industries, State of Victoria, 2008. Victorian Farmers’ Market Association. Producers Accreditation Handbook. Abbotsford: VFMA, 2009. —––. Our Charter. Abbotsford: VFMA. 2012. Accessed January 20, 2013. http://www.vicfarmersmarkets.org.au/content/our-charter. Zukin, S. ‘Consuming Authenticity’. Cultural Studies 22 (2008): 724–748. Kim Neylon is a Social Anthropology PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne, Australia. This chapter is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Victoria, Australia, from June 2010 to March 2012.

Eating for One’s Self Mira Crouch Abstract As an essential yet also mundane everyday activity, eating in all cultures is expressive of both belief-systems and social distinctions that exist in them. While this has been recognised in the social sciences - and, particularly, anthropology many questions concerning the meanings of foodways within the overall patterns of contemporary (‘Western’) culture have yet to be tackled. Impressionistically, it appears that a relatively novel signification of food consumption has developed since the advent of modernity, in a social context where attrition of customary practices creates an extended range of options (which, notably, also represents a particular kind of social pressure). Some of the needs of self-conscious individuation that arise in such a situation are met through eating practices based on personal choice rather than on tradition or social habit. In this chapter, theoretical concepts relating to consumption and self-identity will be explored in order to formulate propositions regarding the uses of food that are significant for identity formation and maintenance in contemporary society. Key Words: Eating, modernity, consumption, identity, choice. ***** This chapter addresses the relationship between individual identity and food. That food and group identity are closely linked is by now a truism, well established in the literature - from sociology, anthropology and history, as well as in more general writing - over the last few decades. 1 On the other hand, however, there appears to be little understanding of what, and why contemporary persons (in ‘modern,’ affluent societies) eat - and how they eat. Theoretically informed studies of such uses of food have been largely absent in social science. 2 Of course, in those parts of the world where people are almost always hungry, the issue does not arise. Nor does it matter to those who live in poverty among people like us (authors and readers of research papers), those homeless ones we see begging in our streets as we go about our business of earning money, accessing our ATM accounts and shopping. I cannot pursue this theme here, but perhaps at another time in the life of the Making Sense of Food project it will be taken up and in a way that may be of some practical use, however small. I fully realise that in the pursuit of the question regarding the connection between eating and personal identity I am indulging myself, since the presentation of a largely speculative theoretical, if you like - discussion as occurs here is a privilege of the middle class in advanced Western societies.

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__________________________________________________________________ Perhaps one reason why the ‘eating for one’s self” matter has generated little explicit interest is that we tend to take the connection for granted, nowadays. It was not always so in the sense that the personal was a relatively insignificant factor in past eating practices. As recently as the second half of the last century, people ate in largely predictable ways, consuming mostly predictable stuff at predictable times. But now the course of both collective and individual lives is more fluid and the range of foodstuffs that is available is literally enormous. Even given the practical pressures of money and time economies, we still seem to think - judging by informal observation - that the options we take regarding what, when and how to eat are governed by our wishes, predispositions and desires which are linked to our inners selves. So what is there to say? Quite a lot, actually, if we look at the issue in context. There are two major circumstances which will be discussed below. First, there is the so-called ‘omnivore’s paradox.’ 3 The human species is omnivorous and our food can thus come from all over the place. Not only can we eat just about everything, but we need to do so in order to meet our nutritional requirements. Evolution has predisposed us toward a necessary adventurousness which, contrarily, as it were, must be tempered by anxiety and vigilance concerning food. Is this safe for me? we wondered, once upon a time. And presently, will it make me fat? Will I be thought to be a slob if I eat these chips in public? And so on (including, still, ‘is it safe;’ increasingly so, perhaps). In sum, gustatory gratification is potentially always embedded in danger. The capitalist mode of production with its drive toward innovation and product differentiation provides us with a wealth of offerings, not only in foodstuffs for us to purchase and prepare, but also in the supply of ready-made meals, pre-prepared foods, take-away food, as well as in the great variety of eating-out venues. There is much temptation in this: not only to sample something genuinely new (though that, too, is the case), but also to try out something more convenient, because, of course, we are all ‘time-poor’ now. Yet dangers may lurk in what is laid out before us; the wealth of information thrown at us in the media tells us that this can frequently be the case. Many people cannot handle this rich scenario of food options and the overload of information about it, so they restrict their choices by becoming committed, for one ostensible reason or another, to particular ways of eating. They become vegetarians, vegans, dairy avoidant, organic eaters, believe that they have food intolerances or sensitivities, follow a traditional Avedic diet, and so forth. Personal investment in such choices can be quite powerful and may become associated with a sense of being special for the self that has so chosen. (Parenthetically, food allergies, sensitivities and intolerances do exist and are different physiological reactions which now appear to be on the rise. It seems that some individuals decide on the basis of inadequate understanding and little hard evidence that they have problems with some foods and construct their personal

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__________________________________________________________________ diets accordingly. This may serve a double purpose: it reduces the anxiety associated with choosing, and at the same confers some sort of distinction upon the person in question.) Conversely, the omnivore’s paradox may be one of the factors that drive individuals to become self-conscious ‘foodies,’ people with great interest in food and eating who are devoted to the exploration of taste and gustatory sensations. Once you say that your position is ‘anything goes,’ and declare ‘open season on everything,’ the concern can be made to disappear. In practice, the position is more often not quite so general and many selfproclaimed ‘foodies’ do have dislikes and may exercise a level of care in eating. Nonetheless the professed attitude is important, again not only because it helps solve the paradox, but also because it adds to one’s view of oneself as a sophisticated, discerning person. Of course, the link between wealth, power, sophistication and eating has always been with us. In traditional societies, however, and historically in ours, the link was built into the social structure and maintained by social mores. All of these constraints have now loosened up (at both the structural and cultural level) and anyone can have a go at something different, new and at least once in a while, luxurious. 4 At the very least, we can all read about innovative and luscious food, ad nauseam, in fact, in various glossy publications and see it portrayed in numerous television shows. The latter is not a trivial point: surely the very existence of this strong, and growing, trend in the media goes hand in hand with an avidity of individual concerns with matters relating to food. The second circumstance to be discussed is also a paradox. The previously mentioned loosening of the social structure has brought a new set of pressures with it and a heightened expression of an old tension, or a paradox, in the human existential condition. On the one hand, we want, as well as need, to fit in with a group, to be accepted (by the tribe); but on the other, we seek to distinguish ourselves: no one wants to be a featureless sheep in the herd. What to do? How to stand out, to be distinguishable, somehow, while at the same time being securely one of many? This is not just about food, of course; it is a more general condition. But to-day, in our affluent societies, eating is becoming more important in this respect, perhaps because there is so much food around and so many different ways of consuming it. By making various choices about their foodways, it may be possible, then, for individuals to carve out and to present a view of the self, not only for exhibition to their social world, but also for the self itself. There is by now a considerable body of theoretical writing about the importance of what has come to be called self-identity, the consciousness of one’s self and the understanding of it as an ongoing project. 5 In the complex ‘postmodern’ (or ‘high modern,’ if you like) society, structures and cultures are fluid and visibly subject to continuous change, and individuals must put in work to

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__________________________________________________________________ secure and maintain their group, and increasingly nowadays, network memberships. Status now has many sources and is rarely ascribed (as was once predominantly the case); it has to be acquired, but in most cases this is not for life. In such a situation social standing is more likely to be employed in the process of self-construction, rather than submitted to, as was once the case. 6 In the past, we were who we were, socially speaking of course, largely because of what we were up against. Now we are what we are, or are seen to be, because of what we are into. This is an oversimplification, but it does have some meaning in an indicative way. It may apply differently to individuals in different age groups. In the context of rapid social and cultural change, it is likely that the importance of ‘being into’ is associated particularly strongly with younger people. 7 Against this background, eating, at the personal level, may serve as an identityacquisition and maintenance strategy - a strategy that can be used both expressively, for impression management purposes, as well as reflexively, for reassurance about oneself for oneself, a sort of code for self-realisation. At the collective level, there has been a progressive detachment, with the development of modern society, of food and eating from the strictly existential domain of human existence. 8 Need is not the defining paradigm any longer. In our evolutionary history this detachment probably began with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years or so ago when seasonal food production meshed with culture to produce ritualised foodways. But scarcity still had the upper hand until relatively recently. Culture was subjected to it and was thus itself naturalised in society and taken for granted. Modernisation has progressively undermined this state of mind both collective and individual - and gaps have opened up in the system of socially approved criteria regarding eating habits. So now these are left to individual choice. (Weddings and funerals, too!) Such freedom may sound attractive - but, returning to an earlier point, how do we choose? We cannot act randomly because randomness does not create a secure image of the person, neither for society nor for oneself. A conceptual order needs to be invented to handle the pressures that emanate from the sheer abundance of food that is now available. Another important factor that bears down on us as we choose what to eat is the welter of information (often conflicting) about various aspects of food. Whether valid or not, it confronts us and has to be taken into account, even when some of us decide to ignore it. In contemporary society, such information creates fictitious social relations which are then projected into consumption. 9 For example, if someone chooses to become a vegetarian, this can become a marker of a health-conscious person, an ethical person, an ecologically aware person; and a ‘foodie’ can be taken to be a discerning and sophisticated person in all sorts of other ways - or, from a different point of view, a snob. Thus individual choice is inescapable, significant (and signifying) and therefore problematic. The hunting, gathering and foraging of post-modern persons (as we

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__________________________________________________________________ do in the supermarket, for example) are not mundane. These are problem-solving activities lodged in the ambiguities that are inherent in the freedom to choose. The quest for reasons to do so attaches to the self through the very tensions it creates. The tensions, in turn, are translated into appetites that become imbued with personal meaning. In more sense than one, we are what we eat.

Notes 1

Stuart Hall, ‘Who Needs Identity’, in Stuart.Hall and Peter Du Gay, eds., Questions of Cultural Identity (London: Sage, 1996), 18-36. 2 Barbara Santich, ‘Round Table’, The Weekend Australian Review (October 1997): 14. 3 Claude Fischler, ‘Food, Self and Identity’, Social Science Information 27 (1988): 257-292. 4 Zygmund Bauman, ‘Sociological Responses to Post-Modernity’, Thesis 11 23 (1989): 25-63. 5 Antony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991); Derek Layder, Modern Social Theory (London: UCL Pres, 1997). 6 Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity. 7 Mira Crouch and Grant O’Neill, ‘Sustaining Identities? Prolegomena for Inquiry into Contemporary Foodways’, Social Science Information 39 (2000): 181-192. 8 Fischler, ‘Food, Self and Identity’. 9 Jean Baudrillard, ‘The Ecstasy of Communication’, in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster (London: Pluto Press, 1985): 129-141.

Bibliography Baudrillard, Jean. ‘The Ecstasy of Communication’. In Postmodern Culture, edited by Hal Foster, 129–141. London: Pluto Press, 1985. Bauman, Zygmund. ‘Sociological Responses to Post-Modernity’. Thesis 11 23 (1989): 25–63. Crouch, Mira, and Grant O’Neill. ‘Sustaining Identities? Prolegomena for Inquiry into Contemporary Foodways’. Social Science Information 39 (2000): 181–192. Fischler, Claude. ‘Food, Self and Identity’. Social Science Information 27 (1988): 257–292. Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and Self-Identity. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991.

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__________________________________________________________________ Hall, Stuart. ‘Who Needs Identity’. Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by Stuart Hall, and Peter Du Gay, 18–36. London: Sage, 1996. Layder, Derek. Modern Social Theory. London: UCL Pres, 1997. Santich, Barbara. ‘Round Table’. The Weekend Australian Review, 10-12 October, 1997: 14. Mira Crouch is a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Arts, University of New South Wales. Before retirement in 2003, she researched and taught in the School of Sociology across a variety of topics, one of which included the Sociology of Food. Mira’s latest book is War Fare: Sustenance in time of fear and want (Oxford: Fisher Imprint, 2008).