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Reconstructing Local (food)
- 1. Reconstructing Local FOR THE ASIAN AMERICAN AUDIENCE @paigeyim
- 2. How is local presented?
- 3. VARIOUS DEFINITIONS AND IDEOLOGIES Civileats.com
- 4. LIMITED REACH OF THE CURRENT MESSAGE • Expensive: $150 dinner for two • Purist: Cultural and practical component not considered • Homogenous: American cuisine and crusaders
- 5. WHITENESS IN THE LOCAL FOOD MOVEMENT
- 6. THE OPPORTUNITY :: RECONSTRUCT LOCAL • Demographic shift: By 2050, non-whites will represent 26% of the US population • Universal: Reconstruct message for maximum reach and impact
- 7. FOCUS ::THE ASIAN AMERICAN AUDIENCE 5.6% OF US POPULATION CURRENTLY BY 2050 17.3 40.6 MILLION MILLION US MEDIAN HHI $50,046 IN COMPARISON TO ASIANAMERICAN MEDIAN HHI $68,780
- 8. “My parents never hugged us or told us they loved us but I know they cared about us because no matter how tired my mom was from work, she would spend hours in the kitchen preparing homemade meals for us.” Ang Lee’s 1994 Eat Drink, Woman movie
- 9. ASIAN AMERICAN DIET • Fresh ingredients: Maximize health and taste • Plant-based: Meat as a condiment • Rice: Center component to be accompanied with a variety of dishes
- 10. DEFINING GOOD FOOD • Based on quality and value, sourcing is an afterthought • Ingredients speak for itself • In no way is local used as a way to define the food as good
- 11. ASIAN VEGETABLES :: WHERE ARE THEY FROM? According to USDA’s federal-state market news, domestically sourced, Asian vegetables come from New Jersey, New York, California, Florida and Texas.
- 12. LOCAL FOOD INTERSECT WITH ASIAN FOOD VALUES Local Asian Proximity (from farm to table) Proximity (from stove to table) Fresh Fresh Taste/Quality Taste/Quality Seasonal Seasonal Combat diet-related disease Holistic health Biodiversity (preserve Balanced diets heirloom/specialty crops) Ideological: social and environmental Conservation Conservation Community well being Longevity (future generation) Skepticism of GMOs and chemicals Skepticism of Chinese food imports
- 13. CO-EXISTING VALUES • Reimagine: Local food definitions in flux • Open-minded: Be less rigid and open to new interpretations • Commonality: Focus on intersecting values
- 14. THE WAY FORWARD ::A NEW CONVERSATION • Reframe: Frame the message based on existing food values • Diversify movement: Non-white groups as part of discourse • Reinvent Local, New American food: Asian and local as part of the cuisine
- 15. Thanks.
Editor's Notes
- The title of my project is “reconstructing local for the Asian American audience.” The idea was initially sparked from my personal experience with juggling two different and sometimes competing food values. One is my desire to support sustainably sourced, local food from my CSA or farmers market. And the other is the simple enjoyment and pride I take in eating food from my Chinese culture. And also I loved to explore other cuisines. Yet at these non-farm-to-table restaurants, I found myself feeling guilty, guilty that I didn’t know where the pork came from or if the vegetables in my dish was shipped from miles away. In the end, I just had to come to terms with the fact that I had to isolate these two values if I were to enjoy food.
- The bigger question became, are the two values really so irreconcilable? I felt challenged to look deeper…I looked into the current discourse to see how is local food being presented?
- Local food has really come to the fore in the past decade. There’s been a huge push for food localization spurred by the ideological viewpoint that local food is better for the planet and people. There are various definitions for what local means but the commonly accepted view is based strictly on the geographic distance or political boundaries between production and consumption, within the state or within a 100, 250 and even 500 mile radius.
- While the local food movement is based on sound values, the way in which it’s communicated is getting lost in translation for certain audiences. Local food critiques often say that’s it’s unrealistic and elitist. And one can see why they feel that way. It’s generally expensive.Dinner for two averages$150 without alcohol at renowned ingredient-driven restaurants like Chez Panisse and Blue Hill at Stone Barns. And the eat local message can come off as self righteous and too purist. Plus it’s quite homogenous. The fare is typically New American cuisine. And the crusaders behind the movement are generally white, liberally minded, upper middle class peoplelike Alice Waters and Michael Pollan.And that’s why the local food movement gets included in books like this.
- Stuff White People Like - a perfect example of how local food is viewed/ portrayed in popular culture. Local food is a social construct and represents ideals that unintentionally ostracize those who aren’t Anglo-American. The message doesn’t connect with people like for example, my parents. who ran a vegetable distribution company for 10 years. To them, fresh food is fresh food…
- People like my parents represent a huge portion of the US consumer market.According to the Census, by 2050, non-whites will represent 26% of the US population,and that percentage is projected to grow rapidly.These groups are not being served by the current message and image of local food.For the local food movement to have maximum impact, we need to reconstruct the message.Instead of being pigeonholed as Stuff White People Like, local food needs to become stuff that everyone likes.
- I’ll use the Asian American audience as the prime example to showcase the limitations of the message. I chose this group not only because I personally identify with it but also because they’re the fastest growing and highest income minority group. By choosing a high income group, price is taken out as a main obstacle to local food participation and instead, we can focus on the cultural aspects.
- Like many cultures, food plays an incredibly important role in Asian-American culture.Eating well to honor one’s background is a well-established cultural priority. Food is the focal point of family gatherings, often used as a way for loved ones to show affection for one another. An interview with the vp of sales and marketing of RP and a Korean-Am, Jina tells me, “My parents never hugged us or told us they loved us but I know they cared because no matter how tired my mom was from work, she would spend hours in the kitchen preparing homemade meals for us.”
- The traditional Asian diet consists mainly of fresh ingredients to ensure maximum taste and health benefits. It’s a heavily plant-based diet using tiny amount of meat to impart flavor. Achieving a balanced diet is critical to overall health and well-being. With rice always being the center of each meal.
- In defining what good food is, Asian Americans make their judgment base on quality and value, with no consideration of where the produce is sourced from. Value considers price and the quality of the food. And they’re willing to pay more for food that delivers on taste and health.The general consensus is. the food should speak for itself by how it looks at the store and the taste once cooked. When you’re at an Asian grocery store or wet market in Chinatown, you can often find a crowd of people rummaging through the stack of oranges choosing out the best ones. And it wouldn’t make a difference if there was a sign that read, “grown within 100 miles.” They’ll still be very particular about which ones they will purchase.
- Surprisingly, though some of the Asian vegetables acquired through the Hunts Point terminal, are from near by areas like NY and NJ. Even though it may be local, it’s not communicated at grocery stores or on restaurant menus as it’s not significant to this group.
- Ironically though, there are a lot values that locavores and Asian Americans share. An example is, locavores believe in conservation and recently have started to embrace eating the whole animal or what they deem as snout to tail eating which helped put foods like pork belly and offals on the map. Yet Asian Americans have always held a no waste mentality with food. They’ve been eating pork belly, tripe, and chicken feet for centuries. We need to connect the dots between existing values with the tenets of local eating so it makes sense for both groups.
- Taking what’s been learned, the values behind local eating and Asian-American diets can co-exist.We need to reimagine existing definitions to include diverse groups. Let them reinterpret local in their own way. Understand that we can’t be so strict and it’s not going to be perfect. Asians will eat rice and instead of condemning it, embrace it. Eating 70% local is better than none at all. Focus on the values that intersect. Play up those values. For example, focus on freshness of the food. Highlight the quality rather than proximity of Jersey tomatoes.
- The way forward is to start a new conversation, a two-way dialogue that empowers both groups to learn from each other. Frame messages in a way that makes sense for Asian Americans. Use existing food values, for example, for the Chinese, they know food is not created equally. And are very wary of food imports from China due to bad practices and lack of regulations. Yet most AA, are unaware about of the possible harmful affects associated with industrialized food, it’s a great opportunity to think about how to package the message to tell the story of industrial food through skepticism of food imports from china.Let’s include diverse groups in the discourse and it’ll help to broaden what local New American cuisine can be. Asian and local can be one cuisine. RedFarm a restaurant in the village is a great example of that. There are other ways to close the divide but being aware of the biases is a big step to disrupt the current belief systems, which requires a major shift in attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.