Food Mondays: Capitalism And The Language Of Food

Food Mondays: Capitalism And The Language Of Food

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

One researcher says that the way we talk about food within capitalism perpetuates hunger and poverty. Megan Blake has a new article in The Conversation about how food waste is rooted in the philosophy of economic deserving. Bulk produce and other ingredients that are owned by individual households as commodities.

Meanwhile, food pantries are relegated to only the poverty-stricken, garnering a lot of shame around free food. Blake suggests that rethinking the terms we use around food could help prevent poverty, and establish a culture of food sharing that is more just than our capitalist Anglophone world currently allows. Worldview takes a closer look.

GUEST:

Megan Blake, a geographer and Director of the Food Security and Food Justice Program at the University of Sheffield