The Meat of the Matter: Fundamental Issues in the Classification of Food

• In Event: Governing Food - II

Abstract

As Food Studies scholars and food justice activists continue to emphasize, many intersecting and intersectional factors will greatly impact an individual's dietary habits. Seeking to contribute to this lineage of thought, in this paper I ask if and how dominate classificatory schemas affect the ways individuals view and construct their relationship to food. Taking issue with the organizational framework used by the United States Department of Agriculture to describe and classify organisms marked for human consumption, I root much of the confusion and dissatisfaction resulting from these regulations in the specific ways foods are grouped and categorized within such policies.

Through content and classificatory analysis of dominant foodways within the U.S., I begin this discussion by evaluating common descriptive dietary groupings. While these “food groups” may identify more abstract relationships between items, I claim that the diversity of nutritional content within such groupings often results in misleading and contradictory dietary recommendations. Subsequently turning towards recent advances in biotechnology, I illustrate how the genetic alteration and modification of organisms used for food reveals numerous weaknesses embedded in the prevalent “food group” approach.

In questioning fundamental divisions between foods, I set about investigating biological boundaries and exploring their relationship to hegemonic EuroAmerican food epistemologies. In conclusion, I speculate how a system of knowledge organization based on a multivariable, non-dichotomous ordinal scale may allow public health professionals greater opportunity to weigh both the risks and benefits of individual items when constructing recommendations.

Author

• Carlin Soos, University of California, Los Angeles