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Food Deserts: Where Nutrition Meets Inequality
What is a food desert? The 2008 Farm Bill defines a food desert as an “area in the United States with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly such an area composed of predominantly lower income neighborhoods and communities.” According to the USDA, to qualify as a “low-access community,” at least 500 people and/or…
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India Cash and Carry
“Twenty years ago, we had to go all the way to Berkeley to get to the nearest grocery store, and now we are only a five-minute drive away,” my dad remarked as he passed me a closely inspected ringan or eggplant to put into a clear India Cash and Carry plastic bag. My dad wasn’t…
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Lady Gaga and the Sexual Politics of Meat
Consider Lady Gaga’s meat dress from the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs): She walked the red carpet in an outfit made entirely from slabs of raw flank steak. Gaga, or her designers, cut out a large circle of meat from the back of the dress, leaving a large circle of her buttocks exposed with…
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Eat the Damn Bruised Apple
The other day I was in the dining hall and decided to grab an apple. Naturally, I rummaged through the stack of apples for a minute or two until I found the perfect, unscathed apple, because God forbid there is a dent in my apple. As I searched for the perfect apple, I realized something…
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Is a Hot Dog a Sandwich
Pro: I have radical sandwich opinions. I see lasagna as a pasta Big Mac and fried chicken as a fried, totally enclosed chicken sandwich. But, however much you may disagree with these positions, a hot dog clearly fits any commonly accepted definition of a sandwich, namely that it is some type of food between some…
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Judgments About Food as a Proxy For Class
“Like little ships set out to sea, I push my spoon away from me.” I grew up eating dinner with my family every night. Once my parents had both gotten home from work and my sister and I had gotten home from school, the four of us would sit down at our dining room table.…
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My Love Story With Judaism (And Bacon)
My classmates in high school knew the $4.29 Bacon Double Cheeseburger as the centerpiece of my infamous Friday lunch. When my friends would spot me in fourth period with greasy fingers holding a crumpled Burger King bag, they’d shake their heads and groan. They knew I had consumed my favorite meal yet again. The tradition…
