Interview with Food Enthusiast Dr. Warren Belasco
It started as a chapter in a book on the 60s counter culture. Besides Rock & Roll and blue jeans, Dr. Belasco soon discovered there was a lot to be said about food. Politics, culture, and criticisms of the agriculture system all centered around food.
Dr. Warren Belasco is a professor of American studies here at UMBC teaching the course “American Food” that he has been teaching for almost 25 years. He is also a prolific author, publishing many books on the subject including a textbook that is a prime resource for the subject.
In his course, he tries to open up people’s appreciation to how magical food is, how people establish their identities through food, and how much food and culture are intertwined. Food is an essential part of our lives, especially our social lives: “It is hard to have a social event without some kind of food or drink, a positive one anyway”.
So, what is American food? Some argue that there is no true American food, that our cuisine is simply borrowed from other places but Dr. Belasco disagrees, “I don’t buy that, at the very least it is an amalgam of many different cultures that have come together, it is a very multicultural, diverse food culture. There are strong regional traditions from food.” Chefs and experts are now trying to discover what those traditions are and use them to create healthier dishes.
But he isn’t nostalgic about our food history. “If you look at what ordinary people ate in the past, it wasn’t always so good. There was hunger and often times in the year when you couldn’t get a vegetable and cooking was primitive without stovetops and ovens in the home”.
He hopes people become more informed about the chemicals in the food they purchase and how it is produced. But he acknowledges that this is one of the great challenges of making healthy foods accessible, especially to those who have limited funds and resources to obtain them. Retail grocers that boast foods that are organic and sustainably produced are out of reach for many. According to Dr. Belasco, Wal-Mart has become the largest retailer of organic food. “But,” he says “I wouldn’t shop there either”.
What’s the answer? Dr. Belasco is hopeful about the future. Alternative and sustainable options are out there, and more are being developed. Growing public awareness and concern about the many implications of how we produce and consume food is generating alternative and sustainable options.
UMBC students are working in cooperation with Baltimore County Public Schools on The Baltimore School Food Project that is working to educate school-age children about how healthy fresh food is grown and cooked and to improve school food for children.
- Alison
