Comments on: Politics and Food: The Personal is Political

By: Azalais Malfoy

Azalais Malfoy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I read the Morford article, and my problem with it was that it was just another article berating working people as being “lazy” because they do not have time to research farmer’s markets, or cut up vegetables, after working a 45-50 hour work week that would be considered unacceptable in Europe or Japan, either because they have too much else to do with their families or they’d like to do something that they actually enjoy. One of the top ten reasons that the neoconservative message is eagerly swallowed by working people in America is that it doesn’t call them names because they’re lazy and tired and don’t want to do research–it just takes advantage of that fact.

By: Barbara Fisher

Barbara Fisher — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Actually, I didn't see him make fun of any working people. Nor did he call people lazy. In fact, the message mostly had to do with American consumer culture and the plethora of new food products that most people do not really need. Like, who really needs blue or green ketchup?

The food marketing budgets that target kids via television ads are staggering. And the food that is marketed towards kids is not healthy--and while he didn't speak specifically to this topic, the subtext is there. I mean, who else would want blue ketchup but a kid who saw it on television?

This may reveal our respective biases, Kiri--I have always been way more left-leaning than you, though I do remember you as being more left-leaning in the past than you seem to be at present. I don't see anyone being berated in the article--you do. I see an industry being targeted, you see people being attacked.

As for why a lot of working Americans have swallowed the neoconservative agenda hook, line and sinker--it has a lot more to do with religious propoganda and political spin than it has to do with liberals calling anyone names.

I come from a working class to impoverished background, as well you know, so I am not talking out of my bum here. What I see when I go back to West Virginia, is a lot of people misled by the government, misled from their pulpits and totally biased against a so-called "liberal media" that so far, I have yet to see much evidence of except where some few remaining big city daily newspapers are concerned.

But there are at least two things that I am pretty sure both you and I can agree on--that is that WIC provides a needed service to the most vulnerable of the impoverished in our nation, and that the neo-conservative message is neither compassionate nor conservative.

It is radical, and because of that, I am seeing more and more -real- conservatives (such as yourself and a lot of mainline Christian leaders, for example) adding their voices to the centrists, moderates and liberals who decry the neo-con movement as something that goes against the interests and needs of the American people.

So, now that we are clear on what you think of Morford, what did you think of my points?

By: Karyl

Karyl — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

If Bush wants to cut back a budget on a project like that to deal with the present deficit, I say instead HIS pay should be docked. The same goes for congress. Maybe I’m being all old-fashioned and stuff thinking that those sorts of things should go back to volunteer positions (aren’t most politicians rich anyway? Anymore I thought you had to be to even manage the kind of campaigns that go on now), but really, think of how much tax money that would free up to use for more important things. I’ll admit I’m a little ignorant about politics in general, but my parents have mentioned something similar (funny, that… they’re conservative yet I am technically liberal, and we agree on many things politically – there’s the thing my Grandpa refuses to understand: my brand of liberal does not say more taxes for more programs, it’s use the existing taxes more sensibly).

I’ll have to actually read the article later (blind commenting, I know, I should be smacked upside the head for that)… may comment again after that.

On an unrelated note, Bryian has told me that I need to meet you, and that your food does, in fact, taste as good as it looks. So I suppose he was saying I need to meet you AND your food someday…

By: Noddy

Noddy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I agree that WIC is an excellent program, and am saddened to hear Bush et al are gutting our safety nets even further. Between increasing liability insurance rates, making bankruptcy more difficult, and welfare assistance virtually impossible to qualify for, the eligible poor will have to turn increasingly to any remaining generous private sector. Assuming there’s much left – too many of the philanthropists are donating to old established charities whose administrations suck up the bulk of the donations, with only a small amount trickling through to those in need. That’s why I support, where possible, those small businesses and groups that have their “giving circles” – small charities dedicated to a single purpose or a specific segment of society. The “giving circle” model is the one we’ll use for the homeless resource center when we open the bakery.

By: wwjudith

wwjudith — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

When I lived in Very-Northern New York (Appalachia with snow) and worked in human health care, I was radicalized by being exposed to the terible grinding hopeless poverty that poor women and children live in. And, on the other side, having to listen to the not-poor try to excuse the failings of the social support system by pointing to the (slight) abuses of the system as justification for witholding or diminishing it. The fact that some people illegally trade their milk and orange juice chits for cigarettes does not in any way obviate children's need for milk and orange juice.

I was too saddened and disheartened to try to do anything about it other than emigrate and pay my taxes to a more enlightened country. I couldn't even convince poor people to eat the gov'ment rice--how could I make the tax-payers see the necessity of educating and supporting those same people?

*sends well-wishing, however*