P9: Religion and Politics

The prominent reoccurring theme in both the Pollan and Dupuis articles was the extraordinarily strong tie between both religion and politics with food. I had never realized before the connection between religion and food. Of course I had recognized some of the bizarre orders some religions follow, Such as no caffeine and kosher foods, but I did not realize it was so ingrained and common in religion as a whole.  Dupuis’s essay was very descriptive with this aspect. He went into a lot of detail about how the different religions were influenced by “visions” or seeing angels etc. and how these included instructions for eating foods. Shakers were well known for having a strict diet that would control celibacy, and the short-lived Fruitlands that were vegetarian before it existed.  Being religious myself, I understand the strong connection between symbolic foods and their tie to what we believe, but I suppose it was just surprising to me to realize how common this was amongst all religions and it made me come to realize how religion focuses on giving instructions to all parts of our lives that are a basic function of survival.

I found that both articles also discussed the powerful influence of politics in the modern food industry. Pollan’s Unhappy Meals essay went into detail:

“The linguistic capitulation did nothing to rescue McGovern from his blunder; the very next election, in 1980, the beef lobby helped rusticate the three-term senator, sending an unmistakable warning to anyone who would challenge the American diet, and in particular the big chunk of animal protein sitting in the middle of its plate. Henceforth, government dietary guidelines would shun plain talk about whole foods, each of which has its trade association on Capitol Hill, and would instead arrive clothed in scientific euphemism and speaking of nutrients, entities that few Americans really understood but that lack powerful lobbies in Washington.”

It’s always shocking for me to realize how little control we really have over the government and what we eat. This political control has also led us into focusing less on the food we eat and simply consider it food, instead focusing on it and breaking it down onto chemicals and overanalyzing it. This is largely what has caused an obese nation, as we have shifted our attention to enjoying small amounts of it to overindulging on the substances we do not really enjoy. The Food Inc. movie we watched in class also brought to light the political maneuverings of the huge seed company Monsanto.  With a large number of former employees working for the government, laws that should pass to insure safety for animals and consumers do not go through which further points to the flaws within our political system.