Food Connections by David Suzuki - Literature review Example

The essay, Food Connections, by David Suzuki has a theme which says that by leaving behind the traditional way of cultivation and by artificially surpassing the seasonality of food, we have alienated ourselves from mother nature. The basic premise of this argument is that, “food is what nourishes us, connects us with the earth and reminds us of the cycles of seasons” (Suzuki, 539). What Suzuki has pointed out is that, “in the industrialized countries of the world, fresh fruits and vegetables are available throughout the year and we often forget that food remains a gift of the soil, water, and air” (539). Suzuki has alluded to the traditionally and ritualistically rich ambiance of third world countries where farm fresh food is brought to be sold in markets, in comparison with the unblemished and artificially uniform fruits and vegetables that is kept in frozen interiors in supermarkets-food that is grown in controlled, chemical conditions and which is detached from the soil and its seasonality. Here, Suzuki makes a contrast between cleanliness and dirt, and between the liveliness of the rural market of naturally grown food and the coldness of the experience of supermarket food items. The writer has given many examples to prove his point. First, he leads the reader to a market in a third world country which he calls a “collage of sounds” and where we see: Vendors hawking their products (and some of the live produce adding their own squawks) ; buyers haggling over price and old friends greeting and exchanging gossip; smells that range from the perfume of flowers and spices to non-refrigated meat and fish; and splashes of colours in clothing, fruits and flowers (Suzuki, 539). After describing this vivid scene, Suzuki has explained the cultural as well as health-wise importance of this scene (539). He has said, “Markets give us a sense of the people. That is not surprising since food is what keeps us alive and every society has evolved elaborate rituals around the gathering of food” (Suzuki, 539). Apart from this cultural aspect, Suzuki has also related his argument with the healthy habit of eating fresh when he said, “in poor countries, where only a few people own refrigerators, most have to shop for food daily” and hence they get fresh food (Suzuki, 539). He has also observed that, in poor countries, the market products are invariably indigenous and grown locally” (Suzuki, 539). He has here, drawn attention to the fact that such produces “give us an idea of the kind of agriculture practiced in a locale and the variety of products grown or collected in the area” (Suzuki, 539). In this essay, one interesting fact has been that the author has only indirectly and subtly suggested the health benefits of eating naturally grown food. It is only when the chemicals used for agriculture are mentioned that a more direct connection with human health is made. Instead the focal point of this essay has been a more philosophical question regarding the danger of severing ones ties with nature. This becomes evident when we explore the number of instances when an abstract statement is made by the author pointing to th severing of ties with mother nature brought about by the new system of artificial cultivation and keeping of food. For example, Suzuki has discussed organic food not because he wanted to stress upon its health value but because he felt that by labelling some thing as organic, we are imparting a special value to something which is actually the real normal thing (540). Then he has moved on to show the contradiction in our notions about normalcy. He has revealed that the, “food that has been treated with pesticides, herbicides, hormones, preservatives and antibiotics requires no special label” which surprises him (Suzuki, 540). Here, the question raised is whether is it not this kind of food that needs to be labelled as different from normal food. In the same vein, Suzuki has added, our overriding concern has been with the appearance, the looks, of the food product (540). To prove this point, he has used a simple yet powerful example. He has recollected his childhood in which, his “mother would sit with a basket of apples and nick out the scabs and worms before cooking them or putting them in a bowl” for the children to eat (Suzuki, 540). Here, the author has indirectly made two strong points- one is that a food produce in which there are scabs and worms suggests that it is poison free and edible, second point is that, it is only normal for humans to share their food with their fellow organisms (Suzuki, 540). Thus the author takes his argument further from the socio-cultural level to the environmental level. The canvas of his picturisation of thoughts thus goes on expanding. In contrast to the snapshot from the childhood of the author, the essay had earlier cited yet another example in which a young girl of modern times is horrified to see that cucumbers actually came from the soil, the dirt (Suzuki, 540). After citing this example, the author has in a sad tone, remarked that, “we have become so used to clean food presented in plastic packages that we no longer think about where it comes from” (Suzuki, 540). There is a humourous tone when the writer depicts the story of the girl who sees for the first time, cucumbers in the fields. This comic effect is used by the author to enhance the argument he is making. When the reader go through the lines which say, “the woman tucked at the producers sleeve and asked, what are these cucumbers doing on the ground,” apart from raising a smile on the lips of the reader, we are also reminded how far we have traversed away from mother nature. The author has concluded the story of the girl by giving another similar example- “a BBC April fools Day broadcast showing how farmers grow and harvest spaghetti as a crop.” (Suzuki, 540). The arguments of the author have the capacity to convince the reader. It is by the way of logic and contrasting examples that the author has made his point home. By choosing a topic like food, which is so focal to our lives, the author has succeeded to evoke the interest of the readers from the very beginning. By using this as a metaphor to prove how detached we have become from mother nature, the author has been able to address a big philosophical question through a very mundane element of life. Though Suzuki has said that, his writing is not “just the nostalgic yearning of an aging man for the good old days”, it is the same nostalgia, at different levels, sets the tone of this essay (540). But this write up has risen above being a romantic recollection through the serious nature imparted to the subject by discussing the environmental politics of food. The author has concluded his essay by glorifying the traditional markets “where those who consume can come into direct contact with their produce and producers “ (Suzuki, 540). This direct connection with what we eat is put forward as an alternative to our present life style in which we eat, apples from New Zealand, asparagus from Peru, grapes from Argentina, and of course, everything from California” (Suzuki, 540). The distances that our food items travel before they reach us is alluded to in these lines. And the suggestion being made by the writer is that these food items are stale as well as strange to our social and biological make up. In this way, Suzuki has written a manifesto for naturally and locally grown food in vivid strokes. But this essay leaves a thoughtful reader wishing for more. The health aspects and environmental aspects of the new food culture might have made this essay more powerful, if discussed more directly. It is evident that the author is alluding to the wider backdrop of the transformation of a society from productive to consumerist life. While discussing that social phenomenon, the author might have delved upon the subject from different angles rather than repeatedly arguing that we have become detached from mother nature. The author has suggested that, “we are paying a terrible price for our separation from our natural world” but never explains directly what that price has been (Suzuki, 540). The abstract notion of detaching ourselves from Mother Nature may strike home for a studied environmentalist or a nostalgic lover of nature. But for an average reader who is immersed in the modern food culture, the words of Suzuki may seem just ethereal. Works Cited Suzuki, David. Food Connections, In Exposition: Comparison and Contrast, ----------(Place of Publication): -----------(Name of Publisher), ------ (year of Publishing. Print. (Dear customer, please add the place of publication here, then the name of the publisher and then the year of publication here. After all that written, we put a full stop and write, print and then again put a full stop. This is the MLA format) Read More