Am I a Marxist? Food and Issues of Class

Upon working on my thesis yesterday, I suddenly came to the realization that I am a marxist. Ok, that is a bold statement to make, but everything about my main argument in my thesis is marxist. To sum it up far too quickly, my main argument is as follows: One of the main reasons American consumers buy artisanal foods is to regain some connection with the people who are actually producing their food. As Michael Pollan says, vote with your fork and support local farmers over big cooperate agriculture and ranching. In frequenting farmers markets and purchasing artisanal cheeses, honeys, olive oils, vinegars, and so on, American consumers make a political statement against big industry in favor of the small scale working man. Not only do these people want to support the small scale local farmer, but people also feel a more intimate connection with their food if they know where it comes from and the farmer who produced it. To put this in marxist terms, many Americans feel alienated from their food and those who produce it, thus buying artisanal foods is a way to become connected again, both to food and fellow man. I go on to argue that the irony of this is that to buy artisanal foods requires a significant deal of capital and that this money is often not going to the farmer, but rather to big corporations like Whole Foods or Horizon Organic, and that the idea of being connected to the small local farmers is often actually a false pretense used in marketing schemes. However, the main thrust of my argument is undoubtedly marxist. I don't think that you can talk about food without talking about class, income level, and labor relations, and this is one of the biggest holes in food writing at the moment--so many food writers are ignoring, or deliberately avoiding, the class issue.

One of the biggest movements around food at the moment is the Slow Food Movement, which is going to be the focus of my post here. The term “Slow Food” refers to an idea, a movement, and an international non-profit organization. The roots and idea for Slow Food go back to the 1980’s in the small town of Bra in northern Italy. A group of young people connected with the left wing Associazione Ricreativa Culturale Italiana (ARCI)—an organization that promotes social solidarity, culture, and democratic values in Italy—called themselves the Arcigola, meaning, ‘arch appetite’. Their goal was to take a stand against the wave of industrialization taking over their hometown by promoting and educating people about Bra’s traditional agricultural past of wine and cheese making.

In 1986 the group’s leader (and the current International President), Carlo Petrini, organized a protest against the second opening of McDonald’s in Italy at the Piazza di Spanga in Rome. Holding bowls of penne pasta, the group sought to educate not only Italians, but also the rest of the world about the dangers of industrial food. Carlo Petrini remembers, “In taking a stand against McDonald’s and Pizza Hut, multinationals that flatten out flavors like steamrollers, we know that we have to fight our battle on their ground, using their weapons: globalization and worldwide reach”. From this protest, the name Slow Food was inspired, along with its symbol of the snail.

Three years later delegates met in Paris to sign the Slow Food Manifesto, and the organization, Slow Food International, was born. Delegates from fifteen different countries signed the original manifesto, and what started out as a gastronomical association evolved into a self-described eco-gastronomic movement, claiming that the quality of the food and drink on our table links us to the work of farmers and producers as well as to the environment. Thus, the preservation of our food is the preservation of human rights and biodiversity.

Slow Food currently has over 80,000 members in 104 countries around the world. Italy has the largest membership (38,000 people), with the United States second (14,000 people), and Germany third (8,000 people). Most members belong to one of the 1,000 local chapters known as convivia. Each country with a membership over one thousand members as well as at least five convivia has a National Executive headquarters and its own national statute. The National Executive Committees work to promote the Slow Food International’s principles and ideals with specificity to their own country.

According to Slow Food, the rationality of the modern world—represented by the machine and industry of present day—has led to the irrationality of humans, demonstrated through our lives lived in such a fast paced manner that food has become unhealthy and not pleasurable; the environment is threatened; workers are unjustly compensated. Members of Slow Food exhibit disenchantment with the world as a result of societies’ rationalization—much in line with Weber’s concept of the “iron cage”--the world has become so rationalized that we are caught up in the game of the capitalist system, always wanting more and more at a faster and faster pace. The aim of Slow Food harkens back to a simpler, more traditional era of local farmers and artisans providing for a local community, and long communal meals with family and friends.

I could write much more about the admirable projects that Slow Food is undertaking and the good that the organization is doing in the world--they are doing some wonderful things in the name of food and the environment. In fact, I found a statement by Carlo Petrini that I thought was really cool the other day. "Food history is as important as a baroque church. Governments should recognize this cultural heritage and protect traditional foods. A cheese is as worthy of preserving as a 16th-century building." I have great admiration for Carlo Petrini. He has a vision and he is doing everything he can to make this vision a reality.

However, Petrini's vision is a BIG one. And I don't think that the Slow Food movement alone can bring it about. As as an organization, Slow Food completely ignores issues of class. Like I said earlier, to shop at farmer's markets, buy artisanal products, and support organic agriculture requires some serious cash. I know that I can't afford to live solely according to Slow Food principles. Not only do the principles behind the movement require a cunk-a-change, but they also require significant amounts of time--time that say, a working single mom of three kids, simply does not have to prepare 3 family sit down meals a day. Opponents to the Slow Food movement claim that its principles are Euro-centric and elitist. Slow Food maintains that the praxis behind the movement is of universal concern, but this argument may not be the case. People in the western industrialized world cannot even all adhere to the the ideals purported by Slow Food, not to mention those who are starving in the "Third world". While people in “western” nations have the luxury of worrying about whether or not their food is ecologically sound, most of the world must worry about having food on their plates in the first place. Why does a refugee in Darfur care if the corn rations he receives are from GMO corn flown in by the United States. GMO corn is better than starvation.

But at this point, I can't help but think that there is no single solution to the food problems in the world at the moment. I admire the initiatives that Slow Food is undertaking, but I think that the organization must realize and admit that its efforts are for a privileged population in the world. Rather than ignoring the issue of class, and maintaining that an organization can benefit EVERYONE, admit that it is aimed at a certain segment of society. Then form another movement that will benefit another segment of the world's population. Don't push the issue of class to the back burner and hope that no one will notice. I think that we need to talk about it openly and understand that class stratification is a fact of life at the moment; then we need to make an effort with initiatives that can actually do something about it. My point here is not to offer any solution or anything of the sort (if I had a solution, don't think I would be stressing about finishing my master's thesis at the moment), but rather I just want to point out that class and labor relations behind food are so often not talked about, and these issues need to be brought into the forefront of the discussion.