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With political issues simmering like cauldrons of five-alarm
chili, IU Home Pages decided to ask IU political scientist Christine
Barbour to talk about her current research, her involvement
in the Slow Food movement and the “politics of food.” Barbour
co-authored the textbook Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship
in American with her husband, political scientist Gerald Wright,
and writes a column on food for Bloomington’s Herald-Times.
She is currently working on a book about an endangered fishing
village in Apalachicola, Fla., and Indiana Cooks, forthcoming
from IU Press.
Q: The average American might find the concept of food being political rather odd. How is food political?
A. At its most basic level, politics is about who gets what and how they get it. One of the things that everyone needs to get is food. For human beings, food—the control of our food supply and its distribution—is power, and power is essentially the stuff of politics.
Q: How do you teach students about the politics of food?
A. I begin by asking the students, “If you are what you eat, who are you?” We talk about the role of food in immigration and assimilation and national identity, and about gender roles and food. Students draw a “food tree”—kind of like a family tree, only identifying characteristic family dishes and where they came from—so they can see the sources of their family food traditions and habits. We also look at food and politics through the lens of the food pyramid, which was built by the FDA with the help of nutritionists heavily lobbied by the food industry. We look at hunger policy as a national problem, but students also have to do a profile on how their home communities handle the problems of poverty and hunger. Finally, we read Fast Food Nation and examine the political, economic and cultural implications of being a nation that thrives on fast food. We finish up by looking at Slow Food as a political movement.
Q: Is the Slow Food movement a backlash against fast food?
A. It started that way. Slow Food is an international movement that began in 1986 with one man’s frustration when a McDonald’s went up near the Spanish Steps in Rome. Italian Carlo Petrini decided he would fight the encroachment of a foreign fast food culture by promoting its opposite—relaxed, enjoyable eating based on regional products, artisan producers and seasonal foods. Today, Slow Food is in something like 46 countries around the world and all over the U.S. There are at least four chapters (called convivia) in Indiana, and a fifth is in the works in Fort Wayne. We started the Bloomington convivia in spring 2004.
Q: What do you see as the primary advantages of being involved with the Slow Food movement?
A. Slow Food keeps us connected to community and to the sources of our food. It also helps to support a way of life that is valuable and endangered. It would impoverish us all if we lost our family farms, our independent fishermen and our regional cheese makers and brewers and vintners. It also tastes great to eat food that is fresh and hasn’t been sitting on a truck for days!
Q: In this busy day and age, is it really feasible for the average American to embrace Slow Food? Can Slow Food be a “part-time” practice?
A. Slow Food is not an all or nothing proposition. Some people can manage it all the time, but I can’t. I shop at chain grocery stores, eat at Subway or make a dinner of leftovers eating in front of the refrigerator sometimes, too. It is about choices, and I try to make as many good choices as I can. Since living a Slow Food life makes me very happy, this isn’t a burden, it’s a delight.
For more information about Slow Food internationally, nationally or in Indiana, check out the following sites:
http://www.slowfood.com/
http://www.slowfoodusa.org/
http://www.slowfoodbloomington.org/
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