Are we loosing our food culture?

August 26, 2009 at 2:35 pm · Filed under About Food and tagged: Books I have read

Everyone has noticed that there is a lot of talk going on about food. Makes you think about how our attitudes have undergone so many changes in the last few years, some articulated by writers like Michael Pollan and chefs like Alice Waters. In the west, 1940′s were the last few years when people didn’t advertise natural ingredients and local provenance because almost all food was exactly that. But then since the 1980′s when industrial food took over – from Cuppa-Noodles to dirt-cheap factory raised chicken – they have ever since tried to capture the “Arcadian” organic past.

From High-end chefs in the west and in India, now unanimously share the view that food should be sustainable. The industrialized culture of the west is slowly creeping into the lives of the young and the working people in India. With fast food being very affordable and “tasty” it is a growing number of people who are discontinuing cooking practices and opting for an evening out at a mall and Chinese for dinner – or even a quick grab of a juicy big-Mac for lunch. But of course, the slow-homemade food culture is still way ahead of its greasy counterpart, although it is important to mention here that fast-food is pervading quickly. Especially with the younger generation, families are more and more “alright with” children not sharing the family meal but supplanting it, or supplementing it with mac n’ cheese, Maggi noodles, and Lays chips.

So is the next generation going to be a slow or fast food one? So what the west is trying to get rid of, are we slowly adopting?

Im reading an amazing book by Michael Pollan and I recommend it to all because it is not only relevant, it is also a great read, hilarious in parts (I’ve been giggling crazily through the read) but most importantly it makes me think, and I hope it makes you think. I’m still reading it, not done with it yet. Here is the blurb

a couple of reviews here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/books/03masl.html
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article3202051.ece

some stuff cited: from the book, In Defense of Food, and Print Magazines latest food issue

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