The politics of food!

Veggie Burger - Not the real McCoy!
Credit: bonappetit.com

We all know how hunger can change governments. History has shown us again and again that hungry people become angry. Think Bastille and 'give them cake', there went the French monarchy. Look at starving Russian peasants, and poof went the Romanov dynasty, the brutal killing of Rasputin (of the lover of Russian Queen fame) and the Bolshevik Revolution.

We also know that people can be controlled via food and eating practices. As early as antiquity, the Pythogarians, who believed that everything in the Universe has a mathematical calculation behind it to make them work like clockwork, had peculiar eating habits of avoiding certain foods. Their rationale is that that practice would ease their quest in discovering the 'Truth'.

Potatoes were never a staple diet in Europe before the 16th century. Having depended on cereals for food, famine was a common occurrence as harvests were unpredictable. Sir Walter Raleigh, yes of the chivalry fame, introduced a new plant from South America to Ireland in 1589 to solve this problem. Potatoes were hardy and grew fast. People were sceptical, however. Potatoes as food were never mentioned in the Bible, they said. It, being a tuber, was considered the domain of the dark world. Witches were known to use roots as their working paraphernalia. Then they said, potato consumption causes leprosy, as its external appearance reminds one of a leper. Can you imagine continental food without potatoes?

It is the same with tomatoes and Italian cooking. Even though the Columbian Exchange brought this exotic Aztec plant to Europe, it was viewed as poisonous by the Italians. Spanish conquest of Italy and the escalating spice cost drew them to experiment with tomatoes to infuse flavours into their cooking. Now it is unimaginable to think of Italian cuisines without these flavonoid-rich additions.

Like that, economic circumstances,  geographic locations and epidemic of the time determined what people ate.

Cricket fritters anyone?
Credit: vietnamnews.vn

The latest inclusion must be ecological considerations. We have been bombarded with vegetarian burgers which have the flavour, textures and taste of premium meat. There is also talk of supplementing our diet with insects as they carried 'wasted protein' which could be put to good use. The conventional method of the raising of livestock depletes the national resources, emits extensive green-houses gases and leaves a big carbon footprint.


Not to forget the allegations that the mega multinational companies with their GMOs out to destroy small farmers in the third world countries. These farmers resort to mass protests and even self-immolation to state their objections to their respective governments as their lands become barren with gross contamination with lethal chemicals. The MNCs use their effective means through the media to make a paradigm shift in people diet. Eating rice and rice-based foods is not cool anymore. Wheat seems to be the hype thing to eat. With that probably comes metabolic syndromes and food allergies, maybe.

It might not be surprising if we were caught in a situation like in Soylent Green or Snowpiercer to save our civilisation.

(N.B. Point to ponder - Perhaps what needs to be drilled is overconsumption. But then, consumption generates business which stimulates the economy. And money makes everybody happy.)

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