Jason Brown
I go through a situation every year where my food choice is influenced by social norms, and that time of year is Christmas Eve. My family is Catholic and my mom’s side of the family is 100% Italian. Each Christmas Eve, all of our family and friends gather at our house where we celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes. I have never been really into fish and this has tested me each year. We prepare fried cod, smelts, crab, and tons of other dishes. One of the main items that people go for is pasta with an anchovies sauce. It is infused with different flavors that help to hide the fishy-ness of the sauce, so those who don’t like fish go for that. Every year, I adjust though and I eat the fish even though I may not enjoy all of it. I do it for my family and my religion. I have started to adjust to some of the fish and have enjoyed it recently. But I had to warp my preferences to go with the norms of the dinner and be with my family for my religion.
One of the main societal issues that comes from this dinner is food waste. Every year, adults and kids will try new foods or different types of fish and if they don’t like it, it goes right to the trash can. I can’t tell you how many times that I have walked around after the party and found half eaten food on plates just sitting around. This directly relates to ethics. While we are blessed to have the food, by wasting it we are showing no empathy for the millions of people starving around the world. This is one of the main issues with society. People need to appreciate all that they have cause many others have nothing close to that. The social norm for this should be people finding ways to try new foods in ways that excite them. Like if they were to mix the food with something else or just simply leave it be and let others eat it. This way there would be less wasted food and more people would be happy with the end result.
Hi Jason,
My name is Cassie and this is the link to my blog post: http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/02/29/module-6-conform…ietys-food-norms/. I can definitely relate to your blog post because, like you, my family is very Italian and participates in the Seven Fishes Tradition. Growing up I hated fish and would not be able to eat much of the meal, but would continue to try like you did. Eventually I acquired a taste for fish and began liking a lot of the dishes. I agree that we should be more empathetic to those around the world who don’t have the opportunity to enjoy the foods that we do. Your systems diagram does a very good job of showing how our ecosystem balances these things and what our food choices lead to.
Hey Jason, After reading your post, I realized that there really are a bunch of social norm situation with food I am placed in and haven’t even realized it. Although my family does not do the Seven FIsh tradition, I realized we have the same food at every holiday. For example, at Thanksgiving, obviously, the norm is Turkey, so I eat the Turkey out of tradition. I may need to consider changing my post now that I think of this, but in everyday life I tend not to go towards social norm foods.
Here’s my post: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-bEx
Hi Jason,
After reading your blog post, I noticed that we talked about the very same issue dealing with waste. In my post, I talked about how to battle waste, people in India commonly eat very similar lunch and dinners, so leftovers can be eaten and less food is thrown out. I agree that waste is a big issue today, especially in a place like India where there is a large percent of the population suffers from malnutrition.
I think the issue can come down to making less, and eating less meat to help reduce the trophic level energy expenditure. That way, more energy can be consumed by the people, via smaller animals and vegetables.
You can read my blog post below
http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/03/01/module-6-indias-beef-with-beef/