I’ll admit that it isn’t easy to be a vegan and an animal rights activist on one hand, and an advocate against eating disorders on the other. Obviously, these commitments should be compatible, as the issues aren’t necessarily linked. Yet in a culture where repressive images of female beauty are used to make veganism alluring (say what you will about the generally excellent content of the book, the title “Skinny Bitch” for a text designed to encourage vegan eating is at best problematic), and in a culture where more than a few young women with body dysmorphia “hide” their eating disorders behind the more socially-acceptable facade of veganism, it’s clear that there are some problems to work out.
I’m not going to post about animal rights for a while yet. But I did want to respond to this piece from columnist Paul Campos in the Rocky Mountain News: Fight food fascists’ effrontery. (Let’s leave aside the asinine reference to fascism.)
Campos makes the case, popular with the fat acceptance movement and with at least some feminists, that the “war on obesity” is misplaced. Campos gives talks:
My talk involved points I’ve made hundreds times over the past few years, to audiences ranging in size from a dozen high school students to a few million TV viewers.
I spoke about how the definition of “overweight” used by our public health authorities is a bunch of completely unscientific garbage, created by pharmaceutical companies eager to push the next generation of diet drugs through the regulatory pipeline.
I described the absurdity of various widely held ideas about weight: that we know how to make people thinner (we don’t); that haranguing people about their weight is doing them a favor (it isn’t); and that the reason there are fat kids in America is that fat kids haven’t been informed that it’s considered desirable in this culture to be thin.
This last bit of rampant insanity, which is at the center of the government’s current response to the panic over “childhood obesity,” makes about as much sense as arguing that poor people are poor because they haven’t been informed it’s considered desirable in this culture to be rich.
Fair enough. But there’s one teensy-weensy problem with Campos’ argument. He presents the dynamic as innocent (and hungry) consumers being browbeaten by haughty fashionistas and hysterical policy wonks. The public, apparently, is shamed out of the pleasure of eating by Vogue magazine and state assembly members. And while there’s much to be said that is critical of both government food policy and the fashion industry, Campos ignores the biggest and baddest villain of them all: the agriculture industry.
Apparently, “Big Ag” is not part of the problem. Never mind the high fructose corn syrup (paid for by your taxes); never mind the hormone-stuffed cattle; never mind the over-processed fast food pushed in commercials and on billboards. In Campos’ world, Archer Daniels Midland and Monsanto and the rest of Big Ag are our friends. Dunkin’ Donuts is our friend. McDonalds is a very special friend. The food served in these fine establishments is tasty and nutritious, and only the policy wonks and the fashionistas suggest otherwise. Never mind that the price of fattening over-processed food, filled with corn syrup, is kept artificially low by farm subsidies — while organic greens, which will not keep as long on the shelves and do not receive the same subsidies, remain out of reach financially. Shorter Campos: Don’t blame the politicians kow-towing to the Iowa corn lobby. Don’t blame the fast-food industry. Blame Vogue.
Campos wants his listeners to take action:
At the end of the evening I tried to suggest that the best way to combat this madness is through individual acts of rebellion.
Get angry at the lies that bombard us 24 hours a day about what’s supposedly wrong with our bodies.
Get angry about a culture that’s dedicated to making people try to fix things about themselves that aren’t broken.
Eat a doughnut and tell a food fascist it tasted pretty damn good. Light a copy of Vogue on fire.
The revolution starts one body at a time.
Does Paul Campos work for Hormel? Is he on the farm lobby’s payroll? For all the legitimate criticism that can be thrown at the fashion and diet industries, what Campos is really proffering is obeisance to the myth foisted by Big Ag. He’s dressing up a reckless disregard for personal health, animal welfare, and the grossly distorted agriculture policy of this country in the language of personal liberation and self-acceptance. And that’s more shameful, far more shameful, than a thousand books called “Skinny Bitch.”
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Does this man live in a vacuum? Hasn’t he heard of Michael Pollan? Specifically, “Our personal health… cannot be divorced from the health of the food chains of which we are part.” (here)
“say what you will about the generally excellent content of the book”
Oh, would that be the excellent content calling women “pussies” for drinking coffee? Or the excellent content that exhorts women to suffer through their periods rather than taking painkillers because cramps are your body’s way of preparing you for childbirth?
I’m also not following your false dichotomy - that because ADM (which makes TVP, by the way) gets subsidies, we should not criticize any suggestion that obesity is worse than death.
On body image, I don’t think it’s that a lot of women are “hiding” their issues - veganism isn’t “socially acceptable” in many places outside of the blue bubbles where you and I live. What’s probably going on with these women is that the desire for extreme self-control pushes both the eating disorder and veganism. For them, it’s not “hiding behind” veganism; giving up animal products is one more way to control themselves. (You see this in some observant Jews, unfortunately, who think of kashrut observance as a competitive sport.)
Perhaps we read different columns, but I failed to spot the part where Campos says “McDonalds is delicious.” The closest he gets to anything like the support for big ag that you claim to see is when he writes “Eat a doughnut and tell a food fascist it tasted pretty damn good.” Perhaps it was a vegan, organic doughnut?
I’d agree that he ~overlooks~ the connection between poor diet and the agriculture industry–at least in this column–but that’s hardly the same thing as endorsing Monsanto. Nor is there always and necessarily a connection between poor diet and obesity. I don’t know if this is what you intended to imply, but your argument reads to me as, “Fatties are fat because they eat BAD FOOD. If only they didn’t eat BAD FOOD, they wouldn’t be fatties!”
I’m missing the connection with his piece and your column. You didn’t seem to address his points about how are culture worships skinniness to the detriment of people. Shouldn’t you agree with this???? He never says big ag is a good thing. It seems like this is touching a nerve with you. Nor do you address his argument that our culture has a vastly distorted idea of what overweight is that leads to unhealthy pressure. I cant’ actually see how you disagree with that. Yes his use of fascism is over the top. However people can be snobs about anything, maybe he is pointing out that some people are snobby about food and that a tasty doughnut is, well, damn tasty.
Read what he says. He hears the war on obesity as a war on fat people — rather than what many nutritionists are fighting, which is a war against the way in which “food” is produced in this country. Most of the poor who struggle with obesity consume food produced by big ag, particularly in urban areas. The fault is not theirs, Campos is right; but the reality of diabetes isn’t being made up by Vogue magazine either. It’s due to the combination of lifestyle choices and agricultural policies that foist cheap, fast, processed and deeply unhealthy food on the poor. Telling folks to relax and eat a donut as a form of rebellion is irresponsible.
Vogue magazine is not the enemy. Calvin Klein is not the enemy. Anna Wintour is not the enemy. None of these can give a single person a case of diabetes.
The poor are not the enemy. The 2008 farm bill was the enemy.
I have to say, Hugo, that I read the linked piece, and I think you’ve attributed several things to Mr. Campos that he just didn’t put in this column. He says nothing about animal welfare. He says nothing about agricultural policy. He did paint people who make moral judgments about other people’s bodies as oppressive, and I agree with him there.
As a matter of public policy, I support measures to make active transportation (mainly cycling) safer and more convenient. I support all the measures to fet fattening and even dangerous foods clearly labelled. And I have no brief for Archer Daniels Midland or Monsanto. But I see a direct line between enforcing the “thin” standard of beauty and punitive actions against Gays and Lesbians; both offer a license to try to remake other people in your own image. That impulse (as George Orwell noted) exists in all of us, and to have a decent society, we have to always limit it. I criticize public policy with the intent of reforming it. I will and I do criticize the oppressive things that I do and that other people do. But I work hard to draw the line at intruding on the body or the mind of, well, anyone.
I read his column and I guess I missed the connection too. Poor people are not the only people who struggle with obesity. Good eating habits start in one’s family, which I think is the bigger connection here. I do agree that a combination of lifestyle choices also plays a major role in people struggling with weight. I lived in poverty while attending college and I never ate a meal out and never ate fast food. I simply couldn’t afford it. I also could not afford meat and seldom ate it. My money went further when I purchased veggies, fruits, lentils and legumes and I learned to cook–something my friends didn’t like to do.
I read the Amazon reviews for Skinny Bitch and mythago’s observations and on the basis of that I probably will not read the book. Likewise, I’d steer clear of a diet book that pushes colonics as being an important part of being healthy. Instead I’d encourage anyone who reads this to really start doing some research.
I’m not pro big ag, however I am anti-Vogue and I don’t care for obessive food snobs either. I also agree with greginak observation’s and I’m not opposed to lighting a copy of Vogue on fire (so long as it doesn’t pollute the air quality).
People ate an unhealthy diet way before the 08 farm bill. and much of that is cultural. i assume you have eaten in the south. not to paint to broad a brush, but some folks have been heavy on the fried, salty, meaty side for a while.
And I’m all for burning me some Vouge.
Greg, the ‘08 Farm Bill reinforced a long-standing set of policies that subsidize unhealthy food, inhumane farming practices, and so forth.
It may be cultural for people of Mexican anceestry to eat tortillas, rice and beans; it isn’t culture that makes the cheapest rice, tortillas and beans available in US supermarkets loaded with HFCS and other preservatives not found in the traditional diet. And it isn’t Vogue magazine that’s giving folks diabetes.
I have to agree with commenters that you’re reading quite a bit into an omission in a short piece that I don’t think is meant to be exhaustive. I don’t see any particular inconsistency between your case against farm subsidies and the priorities of ADM and the like and Paul’s argument about body image; they seem potentially complementary to me.
Now, it’s reasonable for you to say, I think, “Campos’ priorities are misplaced and he misses a large part of the picture” but that’s a far cry from “Campos is lackey for big ag.” You’re reading an awful lot of your own priorities into this.
“It may be cultural for people of Mexican anceestry to eat tortillas, rice and beans; it isn’t culture that makes the cheapest rice, tortillas and beans available in US supermarkets loaded with HFCS and other preservatives not found in the traditional diet.”
Traditional tortillas are made with LARD as are refried beans and that contributes to their high caloric content, not to mention the cheese. I don’t know where you get your information about HFCS and I was unaware that rice or beans was loaded with it, unless you are talking about canned beans. Greens, fruits and vegetables have a shorter shelf life and that may be one reason why they are more expensive. People can learn to cook and purchase seasonal produce. People can also make choices to purchase raw rice and dried beans and to educate themselves about the foods they prepare and eat. Poor people can make good choices.
As I said I’m not pro big Ag, but I think you greatly underestimate personal responsibility about choice, family, cultural influence and habit. The issues surrounding weight are many and complex.
I don’t think anyone should be trying to tell anyone else what choices they have! “Poor people can make good choices”? Which poor people, and when, and where? How good of a choice can you make when you haven’t the time or energy left, after working just to make the rent and keep the kids diapered, to find a good store or learn to cook? If there is a farmer’s market near, do they take food stamps? How many people know about foraging anything other than blackberries? How many know wild carrots from poison hemlock? Do rice and beans grow in the unpaved areas on the way to work? Ever try guerilla gardening only to see your patch turned into a new condo or warehouse? How many local fruit trees have you mourned? If you have bad knees, can’t get around that fast, and don’t feel safe out after dark, can you locate roadkills while they are still fresh? Is it easy to keep rice and beans from boiling dry when you are tending a bunch of kids, fending off an abusive spouse or just catching up on some rest? How hard would it be for you to overcome a load of cultural prejudice and eat a rat or pigeon, assuming you knew how to catch one–and knew how many local toxins might be inside, that you might be hungry enough to risk? Have you ever been poor, anyway??
Maybe all of us have a few options we don’t know about…but as long as we don’t know about them they might as well not be there. How many poor people have you 1-on-1′d with about what sources of good food they may actually have, and how to access these? Come to think of it, how much did you give to the food banks this year, and how many usable items did you pull out of the garbage, clean up and give to Goodwill?
I myself would not make sweeping statements about what poor people can or can’t do, and I myself am currently on the govt’s largesse. I’m responsible, but also lucky. And some aren’t, and I’m not going to pretend to know what choices they have…or say they don’t deserve a donut at the end of a long day. And don’t even get me started on the weight thing.
Are you really saying that you believe that Vogue magazine does not promote poor body image among young women? Or are you just saying you no longer give a shit if a woman hates her ass and starves herself, as long as she doesn’t have diabetes?
Having read just enough to not want to look into Vogue or Skinny Bitch, let me say this–I am more worried about waking up to find that Big Ag, or Ags as the case may be, has 1) pushed monoculture to the point that when some plant disease mutates, ALL the crops will die and I will starve, 2) has put so many antibiotics into everything before it even matures than the germs will have mutated into invulnerability by the time our bodies are involved, and I will die of disease, 3) has taken over the genetic manipulation to the point that no one can grow anything for themselves any more and I will die in the ensuing riots, 4) all of the above. I am more worried about this than about some people being fat.
A while back I watched an old film clip of dead supermodels being scooped up with a backhoe–that is, for a moment I thought they were supermodesls, and then I recalled once again that I was watching a documentary about the Holocaust. If the disasters I mentioned occur, at least the fat people will have something built-in to tide them over; the skinny ones won’t. Me, I think of my fat as bike fuel.
Diabetes? That’s something more people besides the fat ones might have to watch for–my best friend had it, and she was thin. And how much you want to bet that it might have something to do with being raised on sugary formula instead of the breast, and sugary cereals and pop before one is even old enough to think? Especially if the parents can’t afford protein, vegan or otherwise. And the dieting and other unhealthy habits of the thinness-obsessed, you suppose that might have something to do with it too, in the long run? Fat might be only part of the problem.
And even if a certain amount of fat on you is unhealthy, that still does not mean it is your fault. People with real light skins are susceptible to sunburn, and I don’t see anyone blaming them for that.
There are so many forces working to make people hate their bodies, and feel like they are guilty for whatever is wrong too, that I wonder anyone is strong enough, physically or mentally, to stand up to “Big Ag”. Standing up to the blandishments of Vogue et al might be good exercise. I’ll bring the matches if you spring for the gasoline.
Excellent content and style…keep up the good work!
Hugo,
Last Friday on the Journal (PBS) Bill Moyers spoke with author, Michael Pollan about America’s problematic food policies, etc. The website and Blog features the interview and segment as well as other related posts.
Perhaps you were already aware that earlier in the year, the Los Angeles City Council passed a moratorium on any new fast food restaurants in a number of poor neighborhoods with disproportionate rates of diabetes and obesity. The Council passed the moratorium arguing that nutritious options were too difficult to find.
Public response was mixed; journalists noted that healthy fare was already easily available from fast food franchises and the area’s three underutilized farmers’ markets, while many community members were skeptical that the ban would prove effective. Naturally restaurant chains complained.
I thought this may be of interest given your post above. The website for the program and posts is below:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/