Food and Identity in Modern America, Part 5: Loss of Connection to Food

Food is fundamental to human life and the development of personal identity, yet understanding of and involvement in one’s food is not the norm in modern American society. Fewer Americans are involved in food production than ever before. In 2009, less than 0.7% of Americans were employed in the agricultural sector (CIA World Factbook). Having moved off of the farm, the vast majority of Americans are now largely separated from the biological origins of their food and the place from which it comes. With convenient access to diverse, abundant, and pre-prepared foods at supermarkets like the one pictured in figure 1, it is no longer necessary for the majority of us to understand or participate in the origins of our food. Few modern Americans’ diets reflect any certain ethnic or cultural background or distinctive food culture. As with fast food or the frozen TV dinner, the food itself has suffered a “loss of identity” by being stripped of differentiating characteristics and becoming “just another part of the blend, an anonymous commodity” (Kingsolver 161). With the advent of“convenience foods” many Americans have moved not only off of the farm but also out of the kitchen. Fast food, microwavable meals, and other packaged foods reduce necessary thought and preparation time to almost zero. As a result, individuals come together around the preparation and consumption of their food less and less frequently. The NYU Child Study Center reports a 33% decline in family meals over the last 20 years as all family members put in longer hours at work, school, and extra-curricular activities (Gurian). As Carolyn Steel says in her book Hungry City: “Few of us know much about food, or care to invest our time and effort in it. … [We are] happy to let food take a back seat as we get on with our busy lives, unconscious of what it takes to keep us fuelled” (Steel 5). As Americans have become more specialized, we have lost our understanding and stopped engaging in the origins of our food. In doing so, we have weakened our food-based relationships to place, heritage, and other people and thereby obscured the parts of personal identity that come from them.