COMMUNITY & REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: FOOD SYSTEMS-CRD 020

The Interplay of Culture, Identity, and Structure in Foods We Eat

Food serves as more than just nourishment; it is a potent cultural and identity symbol that shapes and reflects our identities as people and as communities. Our dietary preferences reflect various facets of our identities rooted in our social and physical surroundings. We are impacted by the meals cultivated or sold in our geographic areas, the foods our guardians served us as babies, and the foods that our friends and family consumed as we grew up (Burt, 2022). However, institutional elements like food availability and socioeconomic circumstances can influence these decisions, enhancing or restricting personal autonomy. Examining how identity and culture affect eating habits can be beneficial in comprehending the intricate relationship between structure and agency and how social identity and cultural customs affect dietary choices.  

Culture acts as a compass, influencing people’s dietary preferences through ingrained habits, group activities, and shared values. From family recipes passed down through generations to region-specific dishes, food becomes a vehicle for preserving cultural heritage and connecting individuals to their origins. This can be attributed to the fact that food habits are mostly passed on from parents to their kids (Monterrosa et al., 2020). Social groups teach us about the timing and organization of meals, where food can be eaten, and proper eating techniques. These customs strengthen ties to the group and identity while also supplying nutrition. Therefore, we can say that cultural customs around food go beyond personal choice or taste; they represent shared values and preserve continuity throughout generations.  

Culture and ethnicity are other major determinants of one’s identity that considerably shape diet and food choices. For instance, analyzing the cultural values behind cocoa production in countries of West Africa, including Ghana, Ivory Coast, and other partners, Leissle (2013) establishes that it subdues itself to the international market trend of standardization of chocolate products. Big chocolate manufacturers hide the different origins of cocoa beans mainly to retain the familiar taste and brand identity esteemed by Western markets rather than the diverse and authentic African geography-tailored flavors. This attainability of West African cocoa from its cultural identity illustrates how the global market erases diverse cultural practices in making foods, thereby diminishing the representation of African cuisine globally.

In the same respect as cultural identity, food choices can also act as a way to signify compliance with or resistance against certain aspects of identity. In a multicultural society, people can choose what they would like to eat with regard to certain parts of their cultural practices or belief systems, which may not resemble the culture they belong to. According to Reddy & van Dam (2020), the racialization of eating habits frequently occurs in diverse, multicultural communities, making race relevant to understanding food behaviors. Food practices are not only a practical choice impacted by environmental factors, nutritional requirements, and accessibility, but they are also essentially social, cultural, and psychological because food is also utilized to give oneself meaning. Therefore, food consumption becomes a way of reinforcing and reconstructing one’s identity, a prospect that unveils how people define who they are by what they eat.

Therefore, although identity and culture play a vital role in determining food choices, another determinant is socioeconomic status, which helps dictate what is eaten, considering the economic power and food availability. For instance, the notion of alternative food networks (AFNs) in Ecuador represents an effort to maintain traditional eating customs through specialized marketplaces, especially for goods like Ecuadorian Nacional cocoa. According to Melo & Hollander (2013), fair trade and organic certifications allow small-scale cocoa farmers in Ecuador to penetrate international markets and maintain the culture of native products by adopting the traditional technology of shade-grown coca crops. However, these AFNs can create an economic paradox. As they are intended to help smallholder farmers, they contribute to increasing production costs and set high standards that are difficult for many farmers to achieve. This paradox exemplifies how socioeconomic factors can influence food producers’ agencies as they must balance cultural farming practices and the financial costs of adhering to international certifications.

Advertising and food marketing also depict how structural factors influence the freedom of the agents in food choices since they are influenced by business gains and not their well-being or culture. For example, fast-food businesses are heavily located in low-income neighborhoods and favor cheap, highly processed foods over more expensive, often healthier alternatives. Such a specific advertising approach minimizes agency: people are encouraged and taught to eat in ways that may be different from what their culture or personal preferences dictate. For instance, White (2011) documents how neighborhoods lack quality grocery stores in Detroit. Therefore, residents are left to shop at gas stations or stores selling liquor with very little fresh produce, thus deepening food insecurity. This reflection on Detroit redeems the understanding of the agency in food consumption, regulated by oppressive structures which forces adjustments according to availability rather than desire hence leading to population decline in Detroit as shown in the table below.

An outstanding example of how one foodstuff may capture cultural identity, structural constraints, and global food dynamics is rice. Rice is considered a cultural food in most Asian, and Latin American countries because it represents nutrition, wealth, and culture. In Japan, for example, rice serves as a staple, is used in ceremonial occasions and celebrations, and is even represented in art. The general integration of rice in the cultures above illustrates that food can possess a tremendous identity reference indicating heritage when consumed daily. However, rice is not only important as a cultural aspect; its production and distribution demonstrate how structures influence rice accessibility and its consequences on the environment and cost. As Holt-Giménez & Harper (2016) noted, the capitalist food system discards culturally rational crops such as rice as mere commercial products, ignoring impacts on big production’s environmental and social bearings. This disparity of cultural values and economic drivers reveals how structures generate a phenomenal penetration of food practices internationally.

Consequently, when analyzing Identity and Culture about foods and eating habits, it is clear that eating is not merely a biological necessity; instead, it is a manifestation of the way of thinking, a reunion with the origin, and the reality of the availability. Even though cultural, personal, and social norms and identity give people a chance to speak about their values and beliefs through food, aspects like economic rationales and food advertisements make them complicated or restrict them. The example of rice also shows that cultural and structural perspectives often cannot be separated, as rice is, at one and the same time, a symbol of culture and a representation of various difficulties of modern production. Finally, food consumption is a process of interaction between agency and structure, where identity on the individual and cultural level mediates and negotiates the structures.

References

Burt, K. G. (2022). Perspective: Food and Identity. Ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub. https://doi.org/10.22215/fsmmm/bk06

Holt-Giménez, E., & Harper, B. (2016). Food—Systems—Racism: From mistreatment to transformation. FoodFast. https://archive.foodfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/DR1Final.pdf

Leissle, K. (2013). Invisible West Africa. Gastronomica, 13(3), 22–31. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2013.13.3.22

Melo, C. J., & Hollander, G. M. (2013). Unsustainable development: Alternative food networks and the Ecuadorian Federation of Cocoa Producers, 1995–2010. Journal of Rural Studies, 32, 251–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2013.07.004

Monterrosa, E. C., Frongillo, E. A., Drewnowski, A., de Pee, S., & Vandevijvere, S. (2020). Sociocultural Influences on Food Choices and Implications for Sustainable Healthy Diets. Food and Nutrition Bulletin, 41(2), 59S73S. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0379572120975874

Reddy, G., & van Dam, R. M. (2020). Food, culture, and identity in multicultural societies: Insights from singapore. Appetite, 149(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2020.104633

White, M. M. (2011). Environmental reviews & case studies: D-Town farm: African american resistance to food insecurity and the transformation of detroit. Environmental Practice, 13(4), 406–417. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1466046611000408