Perspective Food Meanings, Marylynn Steckley

PERSPECTIVE FOOD MEANINGS FOOD MEANINGS , IDENTITY AND STATUS THE CASE OF HAITI , KRAFT DINNER , AND ZEN CRUNCH was a Policy Analyst and Advocacy in Haiti for and is now member at University . investigates the relationships between of class , food , and environmental health , she is intrigued by how food meanings , expectations , and symbols impact diets , relationships , and politics . Food is power but eating can also be loves vegan fare , but peanut butter stuffed pretzels and chocolate cheesecake from time to time too . 174 FOOD MEANINGS

Learning Outcomes After reading and discussing this text , students should be able to Identify connections between food choices and food meanings , identities , and statuses . Demonstrate how food choices are constrained by food meanings , social structures and ideologies . Explain how food meanings , and food hierarchies are to debates about food sovereignty . INTRODUCTION FOODIE OR FRAUD ?

IDENTITY , CLASS , AND FOOD MEANINGS What do I eat ?

I a white , female professor in food systems . I know what thinking Whole Foods , fair trade , organic . Foodie and scholar , Julie calls this yuppie food . You have never seen me eat , but my job , my gender , and my skin colour tell a story about me . The inverse is also true . The foods I eat also tell a story about my identity . Here an example . I was out for an interview lunch for an academic job , and I needed to make a good impression . This was a foodie bunch . I ordered the Zen Crunch , which included grilled bok choy , cashews , bean sprouts , shredded kale , and . Why that dish ?

Certainly , taste played a role ( it sounded delicious ) but it also gave just the right mobile , woke or enlightened , food conscious and appreciating , healthy , perhaps vegan or vegetarian ( diets that have their own connotations of environmentalism , animal Welfare , and beyond ) 2010 . 175

Each of these are valued in foodie culture . But these foods don reflect my roots . I grew up in rural , and money was tight because I from a home . My mother worked in a factory ( she was the only woman ) and my sisters and I also helped her clean houses . My mum food ethic was healthy and low cost porridge was the breakfast of choice . But when she wasn around , my sisters and I loved Kraft , Swedish Berries , and Cap Crunch . We would often grab these at the convenience store up the street when home alone . My class background , and current class position are paradoxical , and my food preferences mirror this disjuncture . When I need to invoke my foodie identity , I know what choices will give the impression that I am educated and of a certain class farmers markets , heirloom tomatoes , goji berries . But I also have a sort of coming out fantasy , in which I escape the pressure of ing a class that I don feel I belong to . It goes like this I walk into my food studies class with a covered tray of something tasty to share with my students . Close your eyes , I have brought a I imagine their thoughts Vegan chocolate chunk cookies ?

Himalayan kale chips with lime zest ?

Open your In front of each student is a paper cup full of Kraft Dinner ( with a squirt of ketchup . My fantasy ends when the students look up at me , surprised and unsure . ust what I was hoping for ! Disrupting identity and food meanings makes me almost gleeful . It like throwing off the shackles of social hierarchies . I do my best to make environmentally sound and socially just dietary choices , but I also grew up connecting with my sisters over fast food and sugary cereals . I careful not to order the Happy Meal equivalent during a lunch interview , but I sure my sister would make fun of me if I brought a vegan quinoa Buddha Bowl to a . Kraft Macaroni Cheese is known as Kraft Dinner in Canada . 176 FOOD MEANINGS

potluck . There are the foods I proud to eat in the company of , and there are foods I would eat at home , but not in . The symbolic significance of . On the surface , enjoying both Zen Crunch and might seem innocent , but our food choices have hefty environmental , social , and health consequences . Food shapes landscapes , community health , and bodies . Power really is in every bite . Organic foods are more environmentally friendly , fair trade foods are more socially justice , diets are more nutritionally sound . Maybe you see no problem with the disdain for the junk foods that I grew up on , especially when they include Kraft Dinner and Happy Meals . But what happens when people disdain other kinds of family or traditional with specific cultural significance ?

What happens if I turn my nose up at my aunts Christmas pudding , or my mums lasagna ?

That kind of disdain has a different feel it leans towards food stigma . Familial and culturally significant foods harness emotions and relationships . Beyond cultural value , food meanings can also reflect hierarchies and social stratification . So what happens when the food of one group is considered more valuable than that of another ?

In what follows , I explore food hierarchies in Haiti , where ant farmers often disdain the very foods that they produce where many black , Haitian , rural dwellers value imported white foods over local , nationally produced ones and where food hierarchies often mirror social hierarchies . FOOD , RACE , AND IDENTITY IN HAITI pearl of the perhaps most famous for two things it is the worlds first Black republic , and it is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere . For 300 years , kidnapped 177

Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to the island of , where they laboured on sugar plantations . Alongside the physical brutality of the plantation system , enslaved people were psychologically oppressed . violently imposed based social hierarchies that cemented a perceived relationship between skin colour and status , entrenched ideas of Black , and fostered desires to assimilate to the white colonial ture . In the late century , the enslaved people of rose up , defeated Napoleon army and declared independence . But Haiti physical liberation from plantation agriculture did not mark the end of racial hierarchies . Haiti , the biological ity of race continues to be overshadowed by pervasive that link race to social status . French sociologist Pierre argues that history and ory have lasting impacts on ideologies , which , in turn , guide and constrain . In the case of Haiti , histories of ism , violence and racism racist ideologies , which have become hegemonic . Caribbean scholar Franz Fanon tells us that many formerly colonized people experience the tion of inferiority , which is when racist ideologies are , and people of colour start to believe that that they are worth less because of their skin colour . The result is that vidual choices and preferences uphold elite values , and habits . In the colonial period , for example , those perceived as often . 1980 , 1984 . 1963 , 1967 . It is important to note that while the word translates directly to the English mulatto , the word carries a different meaning in Haiti than in North America . In Haiti , it is a historically rooted term used to describe either a person born with one Black and one white parent ( the latter usually being a colonizer ) or a person born of two parents . It is also used to signify a person of lighter complexion and is generally associated with the urban 178 FOOD MEANINGS

mimicked white habits and styles to improve their social ing . Today in Haiti , rural , speaking peasants are often described using derogatory terms , and people with lighter skin are often more likely to have professional jobs , speak French , and tend to be prioritized in hospitals , banks , and government offices . So , what does this have to do with food ?

EXPLORING FOOD MEANINGS AND HIERARCHIES IN , AND When I first set out to research the struggles of the Haitian , I had just completed a term as a Food Coordinator in the country capital , I was privileged to have been in a position where I learned from ers of organizations who were deeply engaged in food justice and food sovereignty movements . That learning led me to a pursue nearly three years of critical ethnographic research in , Haiti in the valley . During this time , I conducted over 300 qualitative food frequency , dietary recall , and food and cultural behaviour surveys with peasant farmers , and over 40 key informant interviews with government officials , and leaders of peasant organizations . bourgeoisie class . This is illustrated by the Haitian proverb Neg rich se , se neg , which means A rich negro is a mulatto , a poor mulatto is a negro . This suggests that skin colour and class are not only intricately , they are also malleable . In Haiti , lighter skin can signify a higher class , and lighter may make people overlook other attributes that signify poverty . At the same time , when one has Wealth and dark skin , one might be labelled I remember a day in , when a Haitian pulled up to a street Vendor near me in a fancy SUV , and an onlooker said , Gade yon blan , or Look at the white In Haiti , colour and class are in complex ways . 179

FOOD MEANINGS Food Shame Some of the those I interviewed became mentors , and taught me about how the colonial plantation economy , recurrent foreign interventions in Haitian politics , and the country parasitic chant elite and predatory state have together impoverished the masses , undermined democracy , and denied the rural citizenry access to most basic services , from potable water to electricity to decent education and healthcare . One of my most important mentors was Ari , the director of Kore ( Support Local Production ) Ari said To understand Haiti , you first must recognize that for 300 years we were forced to believe that we were inferior , and these ideas have not gone away . Although we haven been physically enslaved for over 300 years , these ideas reference point of what is good is what is white , what is Western . The enduring mentality of enslaved ple today is the consequence of slavery . To understand Haiti , you need to understand this history . Ari and I often shared ( millet ) cornmeal ) sweet potato ) pumpkin ) rarely served at roadside restaurants , or at the office of organizations , which unfailingly served white rice . In my effort to learn , I asked the office kitchen cook if we could prepare together . She laughed , No ! she told me , is peasant Similarly , a friend told me a story about his ner and her love for , another peasant food . One day he came home to find her in the backroom eating she was hiding , and embarrassed to have him find her . Over time , I learned that many peasant foods are viewed with disdain , and that prestigious foods are often associated with and the elite . I started to log these and got a sense of 180 FOOD MEANINGS

Haiti food hierarchies . Prestigious foods are refined , packaged , and For example , white beans , white sugar , and white crackers are considered superior to black beans , brown sugar , and dark molasses buns ( ban ban , which are an alternative snack to white crackers , or 19011 ban ) Similarly , and are disparaged and associated with the poor , Black peasantry . One interviewee called these ( able food ) My surveys also showed that spaghetti , meat , and rice are associated with white people , the urban elite , and the wealthy . To illustrate the centrality of rice in Haitian dietary aspirations , one community organization leader described a local study that he conducted to a get a sense of the significance of local desires to eat rice , and the prestige that rice carries . Researchers went to the mountain tops ( mountain people are notoriously looked down on in ) and conducted dietary surveys . They found that people were eating yams , even though they said that they didnt , and that they only eat In other words , these survey pants wanted to claim a higher status by saying that they ate rice . Food Pride In Haiti , food meanings and hierarchies are influenced by racist ideologies . But equally importantly is the historical fortitude of social movements and the long legacy of peasant resistance . While my research indicates that dietary aspirations tend to be geared towards the consumption practices of the elite , some food values do exist . For example , many Haitians believe local chicken is more nutritious and tastes better than imported chicken , that local rice is superior to ( imported rice ) and that local fresh juice is more prestigious that imported soft drinks or sweetie ( which is like ) And although pumpkin is disparaged , soup ( pumpkin soup ) which in the colonial era was reserved only for blan , is an important symbol of Haitian pride and independence . It is said that following the revolution and the advent of Haitian 181

, Haitians of all class groups came to celebrate by feasting with soup every Independence Day . These examples speak to a countermovement in food , a food tice sentiment that challenges the status quo . Indeed , food values exist in Haiti , and are gaining strength . Ari continues to lead a food justice movement . He local food across the country at festivals , and community gatherings , and has local food advocacy commercials , like this one , on national television . implications and Future Pathways Prospects for Food Sovereignty in Haiti While it would be impossible to quantify the of food meaning on total food consumption ( or to calculate the threat that aspiration for elite foods poses to peasant producers ) there is striking symbolic alignment between peasant and elite values with respect to food preferences . Prestigious foods continue to be associated with white , elite , and foreign groups , and Black , peasant food continues to be met with disdain . This indicates an enduring ideological control that the Haitian elite and exert over the Haitian peasantry , and presents an tant obstacle to food sovereignty . Food sovereignty emphasizes that power relations are embedded in food and overcoming food system inequality by supporting democratic over food , ecologically integrated agricultural systems , and local . The vision is to create food systems that are ecologically , ally , and culturally enriching . is a term of endearment , which literally translates as kind . Patel 2009 McCarthy 2016 2015 . 182 FOOD MEANINGS

Negative attitudes towards the peasantry and towards peasant foods raise serious questions about the role of food meanings in limiting the goals associated with food sovereignty . Historically rooted social hierarchies food meanings and preferences . It is not a stretch to imagine that ensuing food choices affect the land , create demand for imported food , and limit support for local food , peasant farmers , and food justice . At the same time , Ari local food , support the peasantry , have pride in what you a core mantra among peasant leaders , who agree that food is to Haiti development prospects , and that any change to Haiti food systems must involve the of traditional diets . CONCLUSION FOOD MEANINGS MATTER In Haiti and beyond , social hierarchies affect food meanings , and in turn food meanings affect food preferences and choices . Our food choices have real impacts on the ground , environmentally and socially . My hope is that the case of Haiti sheds light on how ideas of impede healthy , ecologically rooted food systems . As Ari says , food justice initiatives must address systemic inequality , including social , and the of Beyond Haiti , the truth is that I love a good vegan Buddha Bowl . The environmental burden of foods pulls at my heart strings ( and my pocketbook ) But I also love chips . Mostly , I try to do right by my health and the environment , but sometimes I dont . less , shaming and exclusion do not move us toward food , in Haiti , Canada , or elsewhere . Exercises 183

Mind Mapping Personal Food Choices List five foods that you would be proud to share with a new acquaintance or colleague , and five foods that you would be embarrassed or hesitant to share . on your personal history with these foods . Then , in a diagram , write the , qualities , or social perceptions that you associate with these foods . does this food say about me ?

You a university student and you have just arrived on campus . The first person you meet is really nice , has many friends , and seems effortlessly cool . They ask you to join them for lunch at a craft beer pub a block away . On the walk over , they tell you about the activities they enjoy . You sit down to your table . You like you re more and more interested in them liking you . What do you order ?

You find yourself wondering What will a bacon cheeseburger say about me ?

What will a Vegan Aztec Grain Bowl say ?

Write a description of the food that you order and explain in a paragraph why you made this choice . on Racism , Food Preference , and Meaning Listen to the podcast Erasing Black Barbecue and , on what you heard in the podcast and what you read in this chapter , consider the following Franz Fanon argues that the of ity happens when people of colour come to believe , or internalize , racist myths that associate skin colour with worth . In Haiti , ideologies of racism have become , food meanings and food preferences . How does racism food meanings and food archies in the North American context ?

184 FOOD MEANINGS Additional Resources Podcast The Racist Sandwich . 58 , Erasing Black Kore ( Support Local Production ) Kore ( Support Local Production ) References , 1984 . Distinction A Social Critique of the judgement of Taste . Cambridge Harvard University Press . 1980 . The Logic of Practice . Cambridge Stanford University Press . Fanon , 1952 . Black Skin , White Masks . New York Grove Press . Fanon , 1967 . The Wretched of the Earth . New York Grove Press . 2003 . Fast Organic Food Tastes and the Making of Yuppie Social Cultural Geography ( 185