P5: Eating on the Go

In Horwitz’s “Eating at the Edge” he describes America’s changing eating pattern from one that focused on eating with family and friends, a special occasion to one that focuses instead on the TV in front of us or one that focuses on convenience eating. He uses the good example of  Campbell’s invention of soup in hand, where the eater doesn’t even have to stop walking to have a single serving of soup. The success of the TV dinner was another one of his examples of Americans being not only content with eating in solitude and on the go, but eager to embrace it. I am writing this essay while eating an instant, microwavable lunch of rice. I most definitely have embraced this “American “ value of food being fast and easy. This comfort Americans have compared with people from other nations was noticeable on the space station where the European astronauts made a stronger effort to eat meals together rather than on the go.

Something interesting he talked about was the different lives of American and how they affect their eating patterns. Students and the life of those in academia tent to eat on their own schedule, Horwitz explains "In contemporary American colleges and universities the rhythm of institutional food services and schedules coexists with that of the microwaves and refrigerators found in nearly every office and dorm room." (Horwitz, pg.46) The work of farmers is also task-oriented. Often dinner would not be until 8 or 9 at night at my house, since that was when my dad was home. My brother and I would come home and eat a snack my mom prepared to hold us until that late at night. Both academia and farming are task-oriented jobs, as opposed to clock-oriented jobs that get out at a set time. With clock-oriented jobs it would be easier to eat at a set time every day.