How Canadians Communicate VI: Food Promotion, Consumption, and Controversy

Abstract

Food not only makes our lives possible, but is of particular interest to us humans: testing new materials and techniques, borrowing, improving, and sometimes abandoning certain elements. If there is anything that brings almost the same pleasure as eating, it would be reading about eating. It is over food that we tend to come together-to communeand so it is relevant that we consider the role of food through the lens of communication studies. In How Canadians Communicate VI: Food Promotion, Consumption, and Controversy, we can see the close link between identity and what we eat, as well as how food is represented, regulated, consumed, discussed, accepted, and sometimes feared. The book reminds us that food is more than just what we put on the table; it has a history, a path, and a politics. In doing so, the 17 chapters of this book cover four major themes: i) food as cultural meaning; ii) food as economic interaction; iii) food panic; and iv) rethinking food.Under the theme food as cultural meaning, using the example of Mennonite sausages and pies, Charlene Elliott and Wayne McCready show how the qualities of places and cultures can be contained in certain foods. In a similar way, Ken Albala explores cultural meanings in early Canadian and québécois cookbooks. Through the semiotics of recipes, he illustrates the political context of cookbooks. Cookbook author Elizabeth Baird looks at the construction of a "Canadian" cuisine, which contains strengths such as pastry-making, grilling, and preserving. Jacqueline Botterill outlines some of the performative and normative rituals of the dinner party in Canada, which has survived despite lifestyle changes. Irina D. Mihalache explores issues of masculinity in Canadian culture through the lenses of Food TV and the playfulness around the resurrection of the cupcake. Nathalie Cooke discusses the early history of food radio in Canada, and outlines the rise of important female icons of everyday cooking, such as Kate Aitken. And John Gilchrist offers a more personal set of reflections on his life as a food critic and the expectations of his audiences.The second thematic area, food as economic interaction, focuses on the ways that food choices are structured by retail and marketing operations. Jordan LeBel offers a fine review of the food retail environment in Canada. He introduces the intriguing retail measure related to a store's "share of stomach," and also rightly notes that stores are often in the real-estate business (selling shelf space and collecting listing fees for products). The consumer may put the items in their basket, but whole networks of processors and retailers try to influence those decisions. Valerie Tarasuk's chapter explores the complex world of human nutrition, and the rise of fortified foods and "functional beverages" Early on, such foods met public health needs, but they are now much more discretionary and are marketed with loose references to non-essential "nutrients."