I heard about this when I tuned into The Splendid Table for a minute this afternoon. It struck me on a new level how our capitalist system supports corporations in their quest to sell us more processed food.
How do you feel about a Kraft kiosk that scans your face to determine who you are and how they'll best get you to buy more of their products? Are you interested in this kind of "meal planning solution"? Don't you wonder how many fresh ingredients they'll try to get onto your shopping list? It's a very different way of getting to know the customer than the farmer's market model in which your grower knows you by name and what you tend to buy because you actually have conversations with a human being with dirt under her fingernails.
If people get over the initial excitement of seeing something so innovative like this, they'll probably recognize that it really has nothing to do with improving the quality of life of Kraft consumers and more to do with Kraft wanting to get ahead; nowhere in Kraft's statement about wanting to increase shareholder value of their products does it mention the benefits for its consumers--other than discouraging people to get a little creative in the kitchen by putting these new recipes into their hands.
ReplyDeleteScanning somebody's face can in no way compete to having a conversation with a grower about your likes and dislikes. And yes, what about fresh food?! I'd like to see how much of that would make those shopping lists. Grocery shopping doesn't have to be a hassle, and people can easily experience the same amount of anxiety in going to a farmer's market and being presented with a range of quality foods as they are in a supermarket with an often limited selection of "fresh" produce.
But if we believe Bourdain, or any reviewer off of the street, then we might be inclined to believe this too...
ReplyDeleteAnd if we're as disordered as Omnivore says then who's to know if this produces a new junk food addiction in somebody... or everybody. It could be right all of the time based on the fact that we're not super picky, as a society.
We give the system too much authority over our tastes, I think... and if we closed our eyes to it then we would know whether “The blueberries taste like blueberries, the strawberries taste like strawberries, the schnozzberries taste like schnozzberries.”
Way to get in a Willy Wonka reference, Kels! I think you nail it with "We give the system too much authority." Dismantling that authority would take . . . what?
ReplyDeleteEmily, you're so right about anxiety. I bet there are a TON of people who fear the farmer's market because they've never gone and wouldn't know how to navigate it. I think I sometimes forget about my own privilege afforded by my education and awareness--not to mention friends in the know who have taken me to the farmers markets in the various places I've lived and pointed out which growers are local, organic, friendly, etc.
How can each of us help dispel the anxiety, the omnivore's dilemma in ourselves and our communities?