User:Alice/Thesis outline

Topic

The appropriation and reinterpretation of food culture through technology.

Main argument

Tech culture is appropriating food culture and changing its nature. Software engineers are increasingly becoming food entrepreneurs, constantly reinventing the role of food in people's lives. While there is a need to rethink current ways of food production, from agriculture to ultra-processing of our meals, the money currently being invested in food development are going into startup businesses selling hyper-processed complete foods and gadgets that have consumers completely dependent on these companies for their every meal.

Question: What are the implications of looking at food from a technological point of view on the way humans relate to their society?

Introduction

Background

Food conversations are becoming more prevalent in technology contexts. In many cases, this association is a representation of tech culture appropriating food culture, stripping it of its basic values and turning it into a commodity. This is manifested through a predominantly male environment, with aspects such as traditionally enforced gender roles in food production, or the community values related to collective memory and cooking, being unrepresented. The emphasis thus falls more on technical experimentation and skills. The disconnection between humans and the food they eat has never been greater, and new food technologies are not helping to decrease it. In my view, there is a need to critically reimagine food in technology, in order for it to be more self aware, less elitist, more feminist.

I've always been accustomed to food being considered either a trivial subject (food as sustenance or food as entertainment), or a topic related to privilege (fine dining). The fact that food related discussions and events are increasingly associated with tech culture and organized in hackerspaces is striking to me, and I would like to critically reflect on this phenomenon.

Thesis statement

Tech culture is appropriating food culture, stripping it of its basic values, using its terms and further increasing the disconnection between humans and the source of their food. The past struggles associated with the oppression of women forced into domestic labour are often overlooked, as well as the cultural and community-related values of food, and instead the focus is on technical experimentation, a display of a skillset, or a consumer profile that reflects a certain status.

The fact that more attention is being given to reflections on food is a positive step forward, but how critical are the current approaches?

Body

First topic

There is a theory that says the following: the development of the brain in Homo Sapiens happened mainly due to the discovery of fire, and subsequently cooking. By using less energy to hunt constantly for fresh food, and spending less time chewing raw materials, the human brain had increasingly more space and time to develop new activities, ponder upon its surroundings and physically grow (Wranghart, 2009). Throughout the years, cooking has maintained its crucial role in all parts of the world, as fundamental part of culture and society. However, the roles associated with food production have been extremely imbalanced.

Point A

Gender roles in food production have been very strictly defined for centuries. In recent years, cooking has received a new role of entertainment, in which men are the most prominently seen.

• Women have always been pushed towards domestic work, deemed too unimportant for men, women's role in the family is secondary in terms of power structure

• Cooking as a means of caregiving, or for health benefits is a practice identified more with women, while cooking as entertainment or skill display is associated with men (Cairns et al. 2010).

Point B

Cooking can be seen as a political act - How can humans become more self-reliant, less dependent on corporations in the food industry to provide every single thing they ingest?

• Disconnection between humans and their food has led to an increasing lack of cooking in people's lives. Now, there is an increasing trend in meal replacements, that have gone from medicinal use to status symbol, first in Silicon Valley, then in the life of a human you might know.

• A manifesto for being less of a consumer, more involved in the process of production of your own food (Pollan, 2014).

• Cooking as labour, taken over by food industry. People are encouraged to spend less time doing unproductive things. Humans are considered purely for production and profit purposes, and anything that slows them down or reminds them of their human nature and bodily needs should be eliminated.

Second topic

A bridge between cooking and technology. What is the current situation regarding food technologies? How has food become an issue viewed as an engineering problem that needs to be solved?

Point A

The recipe is often used as metaphor for computer programs.

• Programmers have been appropriating food terminology

• Programming and computer engineering has often been explained through the metaphor of cooking, sometimes in a patronizing way

Point B

Food and nutrition are viewed as an engineering problem that can be solved through technology. Our humanity is slowing us down from accumulating capital, which is why this problem needs to be eliminated.

• Advances in food technology have pushed people even further away from the natural world

• The rise of food startups, meal substitutes, biohacking, and engineered/personalized nutrition are all symptoms of a while male appropriation of food culture.

Third topic

What can we take out by putting all these matters into perspective? How can we positively use technology as a context in which food communities can thrive, while at the same time being critical of techno-idealism, and moving away from the control of corporate interest?

Point A

FLOSS culture is a positive example of communities, and alternative food future scenarios can develop within them

• A short analysis of FLOSS culture and its principles, and how it could provide a good framework for food tech
• Groups such as Food Hacking Base, which come from a more critical point of view, could represent a positive example in this direction

Point B

Workshops that open critical discussions on the topics related to food technology can help people better understand the current climate in which food tech is developed and make better choices in their own lives

• Examples of potential workshops using methods such as speculative design
• Using feminist tools to talk about food

Conclusion

Technology has become an important part in people's food lifestyles, by offering alternatives to personal nutrition, cooking and dieting. While it has some potential in improving people's relationship to food, current approaches tend to further increase the gap between the source and the human body, keeping consumers highly dependent on corporations with questionable ethics for their chosen lifestyle. (Dolejsova, 2018)

References

Dolejsova, M. (2018) Edible Speculations in the Parlour of Food Futures Montreal: Association for Computing Machinery.

Wrangham, R. (2009) Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, London:Profile books

Cairns, K., Johnston, J., Baumann, S. (2010) Caring About Food: Doing Gender in the Foodie Kitchen. Gender and Society 24, 591–615.

Pollan, M., 2014. Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation. Penguin Books, London.