Why do hippies eat bean sprouts and brown rice? How can vegetarianism in 1960s San Francisco be considered a form of cultural resistance? Is the protest of McDonald's locations common only to the WTO meetings of the present?
The author presents an image of San Francisco of the late 1960s and 1970s as a site of activism through food. Often connected to concepts of socialism, civil rights, or utopian lifestyle, the provoking actions of groups such as the Diggers, the Food Conspiracy, and The People's Food System subverted the dominant post-WWII model of food distribution. These actions contributed significantly to the broadening of American tastes and stimulated the creation of the health food niche. For more on this subject, refer to Warren Belasco's excellent book Appetite for Change (review).
--Brent W.
"Bolstered by an expanding advertising industry, packaged, processed, and refined foods were percieved as clean, modern, and convenient. Most people were not aware that much of this food has been stripped of vitamins, minerals, and fiber content, or that much of the price consumers paid went to packaging and advertising costs. Food with a well-known label on it-Wonderbread, Ritz Crackers, Maxwell House-was what was welcomed into the American pantry" - Call Any Vegetable, Jesse Drew; page 320
ReplyDeleteThis quote represents the reading by showing how food can be precieved by the way it is packaged or advertised. People tend to buy what they know and recognize even if what they are buying may not be the best choice. Many people also may want to eat healthier foods, but still eat more processed foods because it is what they are used to and believe everything that the labels say. People aren't aware that most of the processed foods they are eating lack the vitamins and nutrients that it would have if they bought foods that weren't processed or organic.
-Kelsey B
"But the food-buying club model was very time-consuming and depended on volunteer labor. People grew wearing of working so much to stock their kitchens"(Drew).
ReplyDeleteI found the article interesting. What interested me most was the fact that the system became labor intensive and time consuming. In our age of searching for ever increasing time savers the same problem existed thirty years ago. Which in large part has led to the type of food system we have today. I think we as a society have to question how we do life.
-D. Brown
"This supermarket landscape seems common enough today, but a generation ago it would have appeared only in a mirage."
ReplyDelete-Drew, Jesse. "Call Any Vegetable: The politics of Food in San Francisco." Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture. Eds. James Brook, Chris Carlsson, and Nancy J. Peters. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1998. Pg. 195.
This represents the reading because it shows how America has gone from being a very farm oriented culture to wanting more commercialized products. As stated, people used to go to farmer's markets to get produce and now people look for more processed canned good in supermarkets. This concept was unheard of in the sixties where the economy was doing well and people were more focused on eating more natural foods.
I felt the reading game a lot of information about how people tried to keep natural foods flourishing in the sixties. To read about all different organizations that did everything in their power to make sure that everyone was eating fresh natural produce shows how much they really cared about eating healthier. After reading this article i can really see how America has severely strayed away from this idea. Nowadays the push to eat natural foods is is basically forgotten. there are very little advertisements about eating from natural sources. It is all about promoting a conglomerate company that makes tons of processed foods. I do agree with the author, i feel like this was written to wake up America and make them realize that we are not eating healthy and by not promoting farmers, they are getting closer and closer to going out of business. If people were able to do this in the sixties than we certainly can do it today.
-Arthur P.
"The question of who controls what we eat, and who gets to eat in the first place, were central aspects of the politics of the sixties and seventies." -Jesse Drew, University Reader, Call Any Vegetable, The Politics of Food in San Francisco, Pp. 196
ReplyDeleteThe reading told the history on how San Francisco pulled itself away from the "new modern American food culture" and was trying to keep itself at home by feeding the people and an affordable rate and healthy nature. During the sixties and seventies large groups and populations of people were fighting the politics of food, while even larger groups of people were enthused about the new microwave and the whole dinners that could be prepared in them. There will always be a fight between food, economics and politics. The problems that they had in San Francisco then and the problems we still face today are not that much different. Were still trying to feed our nations hungry people and lessen food waste, while making it affordable and lowering big agribusiness to give jobs back to our small people. I wouldn't say that this reading was an eye opener but by the end I was definitely in shock about how the people in the sixties and seventies reacted. I think that a lot of the group demonstrations were great at showing the public a different view, but the crazy bomb attacks and violence following some of these seem a little extreme for the peace loving hippies. I agree with what the author is trying to make a statement about the food culture and how we as Americans are the ones that need to commit to doing something about our food problems. Lets plant community gardens!!
Jessica M.
"This supermarket landscape seems common enough today, but a generation ago it would have appeared only in a mirage. Go back a few decades in the bay area and your supermarket stroll would of been different." (Jesse Drew, Call any Vegetable, Page 317)
ReplyDeleteThis article did a good job at showing how our country was once very farm fresh but made a drastic turn for commercialized food products. With technological advances made, the country was at a state of owe with the "Microwavable meals." The dominant view on food was not about organics or health, but mostly about the convince and ease of making food. this post-war mentality is what caused such a large shift in how we were feeding America. with the understanding of what affects the commercialization has done to our diet we will be better able to shift back into a proper diet.
-Kyle B.
“The image of the pig became the metaphor for everything wrong about America, a gluttonous monster gobbling everything in sight. But within the belly of this fast-food beast arose a movement that saw the fight against war and injustice as linked to a fight for better quality food at cheaper prices. San Francisco would emerge as a primary center and spiritual home for this new food consciousness.”
ReplyDelete(Drew, Call Any Vegetable, 196)
To me this quote exemplifies the reading in that what I got from the reading was that the writer was stating how San Francisco was one of the leading forces that drove the whole movement to strive to produce more nutritious foods for America and to really push away from the processed food movement into the more organic market movement.
Although my knowledge is limited to more southern areas of California and not so much San Francisco, I will agree that California as a whole was a great asset in the push to move from processed foods being the stable to everyone still getting processed foods but now at least feeling guilty for it. I liked how the writer was very factual about all the information he put into the article, but at the same time used historical knowledge along with metaphor to make his point (the quote above is a good example of this). The most provoking part about the entire article I would say would be that although yes California and maybe even San Francisco did lead a movement to push for more organic foods and less processed foods simple by making this more available to people as a whole, there are still people out there today that are choosing processed foods over organic. This may be partly due to ignorance but also due to the fact that the information published stating the health benefits of organic foods is not easily accessible to the ignorant people who choose processed foods over organic. Until articles like this are easily accessible to everyone there is no way that the full power of this long long long lasting movement will be able to take effect.
Jameson F
"San Francisco shows no sign of relinquishing its reputation as a city with an appetite for social change and a hunger for a wholesome ad ecologically sound diet"(202)
ReplyDelete--Drew, Jesse. "Call Any Vegetable: The politics of Food in San Francisco." Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture. Eds. James Brook, Chris Carlsson, and Nancy J. Peters. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1998.
I felt this quote represents why California will be an amazing trip this come March. Call Any Vegetable summed up the origins of the health and organic food craze in the 60's, all starting in California. This place that we will be visiting, with such a rich historical background in food, food movements, and food politics is going to be a learning experience of a lifetime. Its inspiring, the will of man like the Diggers, who would run an organization to feed the hungry free of charge. And learning the original purpose of food markets was to supply cheap and healthy foods to those who could not get them was an eye opeaner. California really is a land bent on change. Weather it be fighting against the corporations injecting hormones into their animals, or the mass use of chemical fertilizers, and fish DNA to produce a tomato all year round, California will be that which continues to find solutions. Success although, and an actual solution will not come until people as a whole realize having that tomatoe all year round might have to come to an end.
Gabrielle C.
" Most people were not aware that much of this food had been stripped of its vitamins, minerals and fiber content or that much of the price consumers paid went into packaging and advertising cost." pg320
ReplyDeleteThis article brought up a valid point that in the sixties most of the food was industrialized and "produced" in a factory. People were buying these convince foods without thinking where it was coming from (as they still do today). Once the war began people were short on money and food so gardens became very popular. In this sense the war was almost a good thing it brought people back to growing their own food. Although many people are stilling buying processed things, the farmers markets are holding their own in California
Molly.O
"The original Farmer's Market is still alive and well in San Francisco. In 1945, after many attempts by large retailers to eliminate the market, the voters of San Francisco voted seven to one to set up a permanent Farmer's Market owned and operated by the city."
ReplyDeleteThe entire article talks about processed foods and the importance of healthy, organic foods. It mentions the grocery stores and the types of products that the consumers buy. However, despite all of these problems the population of San Francisco out-voted the city council for the continuence of the Farmer's Market, which is clearly healthier and a better option than processed foods. The residence of San Fransisco have a wonderful oportunity by having a Farmer's Market in the middle of a major city. I find the things that Drew talks about interesting and of great importance.
-Brittany M.
“ organic anything? Unheard of. Granola? A radical plot to destroy the constitution of Americas’ young”
ReplyDeleteWhat I found interesting about the article was that California especially San Francisco was not always this organic only healthy food movement state/ city. That when the Second World War came around is when the cities culture began to change. When companies could no longer afford to feed the people the over processed, quick and easy food that is when San Francisco became healthy , with the implementing of victory gardens that were planted in small plots of land around the city. In the reading it said that throughout the city their was about 70,000 types of these gardens. This is something as consumers we need to take on today think about the two basic things that we would benefit from having city gardens one would be that the coast of fresh vegetables and fruits would go down. This making these items more accessible to the lower income families along with knowing where your food comes from and how it is grown. I for one think that people could take a hint from San Francisco. If the people of San Francisco could turn around their way of like I think we can too.
- Maria M.
A radical plot to destroy the constitution of America's young. Instead, you would have found aisles and aisles of highly processed foods, often created more in the laboratory thatn the kitchen, and possessing little nutritional value.
ReplyDeleteJesse Drew, University Reader, Call Any Vegetable, page 195
Drew is saying that people have started to move away from the processed foods, especially in San Francisco because it has become more widely available for them to get organically grown products opposed to the processed foods. There has been many votes taken about which food to keep in supermarkets and which foods to take out of the supermarkets, and every time the people have voted to get rid of the processed food opposed to the organically grown food. The people have taken notice to the fact that the organically grown food has much more nutritional stuff in them over the processed food, and that makes people want to eat them even though they cost alittle more money than the processed food. The people of San Francisco have developed a much more complex mind because they are being spoiled with the amount of organic food that is being produced for them, and you are able to tell for the fact of them only wanting to the organically grown food now.
Alex C.
"By the third day, an estimated 50,000 people had walked off with produce from over one hundred farmers' trucks. A great success, the Farmer's Market opened the eyes of many people to the wisdom of organizing alternative means of producing foods. It also educated the public to the inevitable conflict arising from tampering with the lucrative business arrangement enjoyed by big wholesale grocer operations."
ReplyDeleteI feel this part of the reading really captured what we can do as human to organize a central market for local farmers' to sell there perfectly fresh and ripe produce. We win as the consumer because not only do we get better tasting produce, we get to support our local community farmers. This also loosen the grip of big government on our poor farmers. The farmers have to grow certain produce and copious amounts of it to survive which this practice is killing our lands and water sources. But to look further we can see groups of people that organize to try to feed homeless people, like the Diggers, in Haight-Ashbury. They were able to take the surplus of large supermarkets to feed a large sum of homeless individuals during and after the "fall" of the hippie era.
As we see time to time. When people feel they are getting cheated or somethings being taken away from them they will retaleate against or find a way to beat the system. The great American idea of the individualistic nature we see an organization like the Food Conspiracy pop up to better a large group of people. They try to funnel in great produce on the exact quanity needed for whom ever wants anything. A spread of better for a smaller community we know it's possible on larger scale but it just moves much slow to be put in effect.
-Tim T
"It sounds like most of the food is low quality. No one received any beef or lamb, and it certainly didn't sound like the kind of food our family is used to eating"- Patty Hearst, Jesse Drew, University Reader, Call Any Vegetable, The Politics of Food in San Francisco, Pp. 201.
ReplyDeleteIn the section within the reading that contains this quote, the woman speaking Patty Hearst was kidnaped. She was the heiress to the Hearst Media company. The Symbionese Liberation Army held her hostage and their ransom was 1 million dollars of food to be given to the poor. They didn't get what they were expecting from the deal they didn't get hight quality food and there wasn't enough to go around.
The quote explains the times, if people are going to go to such lengths as to kidnap a person just to try to help others in need it shows you a lot on the character of the kidnappers because behind the fact they did break the law they were doing it to help the good of the people even though the outcome wasn't what they expected.
The overall reading really opened my eyes to how many and how long ago the fresh and farm movement was in San Francisco. This local movement started in the 60s and 70s within the city through farmers markets, storefronts that sold good of local farmers, and there was also groups of families that grouped up to purchase local produce wholesale. All where ways to support local, a common theme that has been traveling across the United States the past few years was started about 40+ years ago in San Francisco. I think the article provokes the fact that these ideas took that long to reach the rest of us. I mean i could see how it would take some time to travel across but also the success it has in San Francisco is unmatched within the US.
Zach K.
“’It was about an age-old question: Who’s getting all the money between the producer and the consumer? They reasoned that something must be wrong with our system of food distribution when they paid such high prices in the city, while within a radius of 35 miles the farmer’s market couldn’t give their crops away’” (Brucato in Drew 320)
ReplyDeleteThis quote represents the reading in that it exemplifies what was happening in San Francisco during the sixties and seventies. People were realizing that they were paying extravagant prices for food which had simply been changed into a different form and packaged. Especially once people realized how much was lost in terms of flavor and nutritional value during the processing of the raw products. It is easy, once people realized food straight from the farmer was better for them and better tasting, to see why there has been so much activism concerning food. While it is interesting that San Francisco has such a rich history of food activists, it might be more interesting to look at why other large population centers, where the same packaged foods were being sold did not react in the same way and start many of their own activist movements. The reading was quite interesting and it exemplifies the spirit of San Francisco across many issues in detailing the large amounts of people who all fought in their own ways to bring better food to the people of San Francisco. It was also good at exposing the work done by other groups who would prevent the rise of farmers markets to ensure profits or gentrification of the San Francisco area. It is easy to see nowadays why San Francisco continues to be on the cutting edge of low tech foods. In its restaurants, farmers markets, and overall focus on quality agricultural products San Francisco is still one of the leading areas for reclaiming the farm to table connection.
Philip R.