The five scholars explored the question, “What is the meaning of food?” and debated its role in ethnic and religious tensions. They also examined the possibility that “food, which is something that all of us share, albeit in different ways, can be used to bring people together instead of differentiating between us.” According to Goldstein, one of the most important ideas to come out of the group was that food is a social process rather than a commodity and thus is central to multicultural understanding: “[Food] has to do with how we live and it’s not just an object that we ingest.”
Food: History & Culture in the West [PDF], was a 2010 UC Berkley Symposium exploring multiple links between food and culture:
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posted by byanyothername
on Jan 7, 2013 -
14 comments
The Quran says to eat what is good and wholesome (tayyib), and what is halâl. Therefore, if any food is not tayyib, the Qur'ân does not encourage us to eat it.
The world of Muslim vegetarians.
posted by Xurando
on Jun 16, 2010 -
46 comments
Natalie Portman has been a vegetarian for twenty years, but was recently inspired to become a vegan by
Jonathan Safran Foer's first nonfiction book,
Eating Animals. Portman wrote
an essay for the Huffington Post in which she compares the book favorably to Michael Pollan's
The Omnivore's Dilemma (
previously on the blue), and makes this specific criticism of the latter book:
But he reminds us that being a man, and a human, takes more thought than just "This is tasty, and that's why I do it." He posits that consideration, as promoted by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma, which has more to do with being polite to your tablemates than sticking to your own ideals, would be absurd if applied to any other belief (e.g., I don't believe in rape, but if it's what it takes to please my dinner hosts, then so be it).
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posted by Halloween Jack
on Oct 28, 2009 -
283 comments
Chickens are "natural born killers". This is the basic message of a
recent ad from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. This organization has filed
a lawsuit against Tyson Foods for making false health claims. I came across this organization and its campaign on
an entertaining C-Span program[Did anybody else watch this program?]. On the program, Neal Barnard, the leader of this organization, said that when you heat chicken(and other meats) certain carcinogenic amines are created. But, when you heat a veggie burger,
it just warms up. Therefore, he recommends a 100% vegetarian diet. It looks like the organization's next move is
a TV ad with this message. Your reactions?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy
on Dec 30, 2002 -
43 comments
McDonald's Fries NOT Vegetarian After All While I realize that a large percentage of veggies avoid McDonald's on principle, an equally large percentage of them go there for the fries.
A McDonald's spokesman said the restaurant chain had never claimed to offer vegetarian food and that it freely provides ingredient information to anyone who requests it.
I can assure you that no where on that ingredient sheet does it say there's animal products in the fries. They went to a good deal of trouble to switch to
vegetable oil so they could say they were healthier.
If they've always contained the beef fat and they are not trying to hide that, then why the hell isn't it on the ingredient list?
posted by astrogirl
on May 3, 2001 -
124 comments
