Blog Five: The 'Shocking' Origin of Food

Blog Five: The ‘Shocking’ Origin of Food

By Hollie Gill

What do you think of when someone says food? Breakfast and dinner? Or perhaps the grocery store? In this week’s lecture Dr Kuttainen (2013) spoke about the history of rum and Blackbirding in Australia. Blackbirding was the use of Islanders who were known as ‘Aliens’ or a ‘necessary evil’ in late nineteenth century Australia, for tropical and subtropical agricultural development (Mercer, 1995), or rather the development of sugarcane . Together with pictures such as the one shown here, this story would be a classic example of the type of content that would be seen in my virtual network, the Facebook page Stories That Shocked The World, as it fits with the historical, shocking, and educational theme of the group. This sort of shocking history is not something that is openly disclosed by corporations to consumers, I for one will never be able to buy a bottle of rum again without remembering the history of Blackbirding here in Australia.

Today, when it comes to large corporations that control the food market, the effects of production go much further than what people see and what they buy off the supermarket shelf (Patel, 2007). For instance, Atkins & Bowler (2001) discuss the market for exotic foreign food in ‘rich countries’, and that although many business opportunities have been established, it has resulted in poor work conditions and low rates of pay for the overseas factory workers. The corporations controlling the food market are certainly not going to reveal ramifications such as this.

The narratives of food are evidently hidden to a large degree in society and if known, could potentially deter buyers and lose large food corporations a great deal of profit. If I ask you now, what do you think of when someone says food, would you still think of what you see on the grocery store shelf or would you see beyond and think where does this food come from? The origin of food can certainly be a shocking truth. What price are we really paying for food?

Reference List:

Atkins, P., & Bowler, I. (2001). The origins of taste. In Food in society: Economy, culture, geography (pp. 272-295). London, England: Arnold.

Kuttainen, V. (2013). BA1002: Our space: network, narrative and the making of place, week 6 notes. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

Mercer, P. (1995). Putting down roots. In White australia defied: Pacific islander settlement in north queensland (pp. 40-73).  Retrieved from http://masterfile.jcu.edu.au.elibrary.jcu.edu.au

Patel, R. (2007). Introduction. In Stuffed and starved: Markets, power and the hidden battle for the world food system (pp. 1-19). Melbourne, Australia: Black Inc

Image Credits:

Maproom: Blackbirding in the pacific. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.britishempire.co.uk/maproom/blackbirding.htm