NAKISKA SHAIKH THESIS 1, FALL 2011
“Food makes philosophers of us all. Death does the same, but most of us try to avoid thinking about death. Of course death only comes once, so we can postpone thinking about it, but choices about food come many times a day, every day.” — Gregory E. Pence, The Ethics of Food
Food is the one thing in the world that everyone needs to survive and thrive- it is our energy source. Food has also become the subject of one of the largest, if not the largest global industries. Even though we are exposed to it everyday, we really don’t see the politics or the science behind the systems of food production. We know they exist, yet we wonder how and do
they affect me? We have given our trust to faceless
corporations hoping that they make the right decisions for us. We trust labels with nutrition facts, and we are satisfied - the product must be safe. Before the FDA, we used to feel fruit to determine it’s ripeness or smell meat to avoid rottenness. We have lost our senses in the marketplace; numbers, codes, stickers with brands have taken over and have command over our food system. We have lost touch with traditional methods of agriculture and are continuing to lose touch as technology complicates something that was once so pure and second-nature to much of the world. Now that many foods have become bioengineered or genetically modified, the clear line between the natural world and the artificial world is turning into a blurred one. Food systems are becoming invisible because of technology, and perhaps because of this, they grow stronger with every move.
“For some time now ecologists have been documenting the principle that ‘you can’t do one thing’ - which means that in a natural system whatever affects one thing ultimately affects everything. Everything in the Creation is related to everything else and dependent on everything else. The Creation is one; it is a uni-verse, a whole, the parts of which all are ‘turned into one’.” — Wendell Berry, The Ethics of Food
FEAR & TRUST IN THE FOOD SYSTEM The first piece of information is that we trust the system and that gives us reason to fear that system. They (by “they”, I mean the few global corporations that control the world’s food production) have a power over the food market that is unprecedented.
ORGANIC vs BIOENGINEERED The second piece of information is that we (westernized populations) have been mislead to think that ‘Organic’ is always better and that there is no upside to Bioengineered food. Organic and bioengineered foods both have their pros and cons both locally and globally.
THE WHEEL OF LIFE The Third Piece of information that my audience should walk away with is the fact that we are all part of a living system- we are not above it- or below it and we must work with it. When I say that we all are part of the circle of life, I mean that there are forces of nature that should not be tampered with, especially if we do not know the consequences.
I’ve been sifting through massive amounts of cultural, natural, scientific, biologic, and historical information as it pertains to the systems of food that are everpresent but invisible in nature. Much of my research revolves around Gregory E. Pence’s book called The Ethics of Food. Pence and the other authors that have contributed to this book are biologists, scientists, botanists and socio-economic scholars share their thought onmany topics. Some of those topics include Bioengineering versus Organic methods of agriculture, vegitarianism, impacts on the enviornment and politics and lawmaking as the driving force behind food systems.
The popplet below is a consolidated form of my research. There are a few main branches that I have been focusing on: the science of food, history of food, and the food market. These points focus not only on why, but when and how we have come to transfrom our means of food production from a natural and bonding experience to one that is detached and technologically separate from the human body. Our bodies and the earth were at one point codependent and this Popplet is an exploration of the causes and the effects of the technology that has broken that coexistence.
ILLUSTRATIONS
CHICKENOSAURUS
VICTOR KROEN
JACK HORNER
GLASS CITY EL ULTIMO GRITO
Victor Kroen creates beautiful illustrations
“What we’re trying to do is take our
common spaces seen in everyday life can
using a human or another natural form as
chicken, modify it, and make a chicken-
be broken down. He features some of the
his base and adding an invisible interface
osaurus.” - Jack Horner. Horner is a
most distinct spaces in the city such as a
to the body. The illustrations are a
reverse evolver of chickens and a
hotel, a theatre, a parking garage, and the
response to technology and it’s impact on
dinosaur-maker. This project appeals to
underground metro systems. This is a great
the natural world. This apple could be a
me because not only is it a hilarious
way to display the flow of traffic in city
metaphor for the bioengineered world of
concept, but also plays with the idea of
systems.
agriculture.
taking technoligy too far.
Grito uses glass as a medium to show how
BIOMIMETIC BUTTERFLIES
WHY BUY LOCAL?
THE BARBARIAN GROUP
E - LOCAL USA
The Barbarian Group created these
This infographic is not only an important
famously known for his Rube goldberg
beautiful lifle-like butterflies using simple
source of information for my thesis, but it
MAchine. This machine was more- or less a
prograpmming tools and lasercut butterfly
also proves Wendell Berry’s theory that
toy that represented an endless stream of
patterns. The series is a beautiful example
you can never do one thing and that
motion. When one component was
of technology and nature working together
everything is connected. The theory
activated, it would trigger another
in a way that is graceful and intelligent. I
explains that nomatter haow small or
activation and so on and so on. This
feel that this is applicable to my topic
insignificant a choice may make, someone
Machine is an metaphor for the endless
because I also want to comment on tech-
else had to make choices before you, in
cycle of life and technology that has
nology’s influence in the natural world as
order for you to proceed with your actions.
influenced it.
well as the power of technology.
RUBE GOLDBERG Rube Goldberg was cartoonist and inventor
— Wendell Berry, The Ethics of Food
JANE PIRONE THESIS 1, FALL 2011