Homogenization
I'm reading a book called The Last Sweet Bite by Michael Shaikh. It's about how war and violence destroy culture, and a part of that is local cuisine and food dishes. Food brings people together. Local traditions and foods make our community our own, oppressors seek to take that away.
The section of the book I'm in is covering the communist takeover of Czechoslovakia. One of the things they did was called "normalization." You had to use the same ingredients, use the same recipes, use the same plates, and set the table the same way. Ostensibly, this was to remove class differences, but also because of food shortages and fewer ingredients, both due to reduced trade, as well as the fact that farms were required to grow what the communist government told them to. Ultimately it was to control and oppress them.
I see parallels with the American food system. Just think about modern fast food, chain restaurants, and food served in school cafeterias, or ultra-processed packaged food that is shelf-stable in every grocery store. Instead of a communist government, we have corporate homogenization of local cuisines. In much of this country, most restaurants are chains that serve the same food everywhere, regardless of season or what is grown locally. Many grocery stores import nearly everything and buy nothing local. This de-emphasizes our local independence and uniqueness. It makes unique and intriguing local dishes available only to the wealthy. It's worth thinking about what else they are stripping from our communities, it lines up with a kind of violence against community that is insideious in that it's part of the economy.
Shop from people you know. Visit your local farmers' market. Cook and explore what that means with local ingredients. Where are the locavores and creative chefs to take your area of the world back from the corporate takeover of America? Spend your money at local independent businesses and farms.
A poet's hope: to be,
like some valley cheese,
local, but prized elsewhere. -- W. H. Auden
7:15 am – 5:30 pm, which is 10 hours and 14 minutes of daylight. I remember when it was getting dark before 5pm. So grateful for more light.
https://nationalshutdown.org/actions
and a little music for all of you out there protesting the horrific oppression we are under.
Stay in touch, y'all.
Sending oodles of love,
Tawnia
Bird List - 25 species today
Rock Pigeon
Anna's Hummingbird
Western Gull
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-masked Parakeet
Black Phoebe
American Crow
Common Raven
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Oak Titmouse
Bushtit
Bewick's Wren
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow
House Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
Dark-eyed Junco
White-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
California Towhee
Orange-crowned Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler