I think about it all the time.
All. The. Time. And I know that I'm not alone. Obsessing over food is pathological in this society we live in, where body image is absolutely everything. I would love to say I'm better than that--enlightened somehow. But that just isn't the world we live in. People like attractive, fit, thin people. As a psychology major, I know all the data to back that up. Especially in a place like this, an elite, predominantly-White, liberal arts institution, body image is on everyone's mind.
As part of my CORE 311: Food class, we are required to blog about our relationship and experiences with food throughout the semester, especially on days when we work our 3 hour internship at Common Thread, a local farm. Common Thread is a CSA which stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Pretty much, people buy shares at the beginning of the season and then divide up the crops that are produced that year. Therefore, the costs are covered even if a crop gets destroyed by disease or weather, and thus the sucesses of the farm bring more food to the shareholders, but failures don't seriously impact the livelihoods of Chris and Amy (the farmers). Common Thread is set on 16 acres and is absolutely beautiful (see picture below).
I'll be going there today at 2 for a tour, so I figured this would be a good day to start talking about my relationship with food... because like most American females, food has been my worst enemy, best friend, and one of the more frustrating aspects of my life. But as much as a I love talking about myself, you'll find out my story soon enough I'm sure. This diary is about Food in its many contexts- political, economical, psychological, and cultural. I'll undoubtedly give inordinate attention to the latter two, given my academic interests, but stay tuned for what should hopefully be a fairly interesting discourse on Food from the girl who microwaves the majority of her meals.
-Jenna
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