Food in Society: Economy, Culture, Geography
Review by Sarah Shepherd
Peter Atkins and Ian Bowler, Food in Society: Economy, Culture, Geography (London: Arnold/New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. xii, 328, index ; RRP UK £16.99 (PB), £45.00 (HB).
Food in Society is a kind of food-studies primer. Aimed, in the first instance, at undergraduate food-students (with a hopeful eye on their required reading lists) but also striving for broader appeal, Food in Society is intended to help "popularise" the subject area in all its variety. Whether it does this I can’t say, but it certainly does offer an impressive range of information. From the history of twentieth-century agri-politics to a scholarly examination of the ‘yuk’ factor in food avoidance, I found myself wanting to know more. Succinct, clearly structured and interdisciplinary in approach, Food in Society offers a fine opportunity for the time-poor reader to bone up on global food issues.
I imagine I’m probably preaching to the converted here, but a volume like this deals with issues that concern all modern thinkers and eaters. Certainly all world citizens. If we are all to eat responsibly and well, there’s a lot we need to know about. For example: in a fit of good timing, Food in Society, whose authors want nothing more than to inform us about the quality, safety and health debates, has arrived on the market at the very same time as a whole lot of sick cows and pigs are being taken off it. Want to find out more about the politics of quality regulation, how long the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee has existed in the UK, or the role of the media in managing public health issues? It’s all in here. If the manuscript had gone to the printers six months later than it did, it might have included a more serious and detailed treatment of the BSE debate. Yet, though it appears narrowly to have predated the serious onset of the epidemic, Food in Society contains background information that will make you a better informed participant in the global debate. The end of each chapter sports a well-chosen list of suggested further reading, a feature which helps compensate for certain shortcomings in the treatment of some topics.
Food scares come and go, governments release policy documents with fanfare today and throw them in the bin tomorrow, but the underlying issues remain the same. Who controls what food we eat, who should exercise such control, and how? Atkins and Bowler argue persuasively for food ethics and assert the need for consumer action in shaping the food supplies of tomorrow. "The early years of the century will … be important in determining the extent to which quality will be driven by market forces or by the democratic will of the consumer."
After all this politics, Part Five, "Food Consumption Spaces", strikes out in a different direction, focusing on some of the cultural and environmental aspects of our relationship to food. In Chapter 21, "The Origins of Taste", for instance, we stop to ponder how and why particular foods are identified with particular places, cultures, philosophies, or with our own individual selves. Is it true that the more fractured our personal and community identities become, the more we are likely to make food a central element of our lives? Certainly, food can be a source of continuity, excitement or solace, a way to forge a sense of commonality with our neighbours and friends.
Though well theorised and effectively structured, the book as a whole seems to suffer from a lack of cohesion. You can’t be all things to all people, though Atkins and Bowler give it a good bash. Their project is ambitious, and they tread a fine line between superficiality, on the one hand, and overextending the scope of one single text on the other. Their solution works really pretty well; graphs, tables and maps give us condensed information, the reading lists show us how to expand on the important things, and the authors are conscientious in acknowledging what they have omitted. There is little direct commentary. The text sticks mostly to the facts, a tight argumentative structure and a fairly concise review of the literature. And really, this is the best way to get informed.
A minor gripe: What’s with the VAAs? (*Very Annoying Acronyms) I know many of them are in common use, and perhaps the others are necessary to maintain the flow of the text, but in some instances they are so numerous, they appear to be launching a takeover bid for control of the page. And really, is it necessary to say SMP for Skimmed Milk Powder? Expect to refer often to the list of abbreviations at the front, unless perhaps, unlike myself, you are a VAA wizard. Apart from this, though, Food in Society is highly readable, informative and certainly a worthy place from which to start expanding your knowledge of the field.
Sarah Shepherd is a graduate student in the Department of History at Adelaide University. Her research focuses on the food culture of German migrants to North America and Australia.
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