Notes on the "Social Agenda" of Food.

I’m new to food blogging. Scratch that. This is not a food blog. I just happen to write a lot about the food I prepare (or have delivered) because, well, I have to eat. And when you think about it, so much of who we are as people is tied to food and what we do to get it and eat it.

Yes, I had intended to write a bit more about my actual life, the small tools I use to navigate it, and my daily passions. For some reason, however, I keep coming back to food. This really isn’t that surprising given that our whole lives are basically shaped around our need to eat every few hours to live. By extension, our whole society is shaped around this basic need as well. We (or our proxies) have to find it, cultivate it, grow it, buy it, hunt it, transport it, and save it until we eat it. Once the food is in our homes we have to clean it, chop it, cook it and serve it. None of this can be done without the participation of others with whom we have to socially interact and all of it takes place in a social ecosystem that developed around our need to eat. Food, in fact, is the medium for all of our social relationships. Food is how we create community.

So in light of this it is only natural to see the social aspect of our lives when we talk about food. Or share recipes. I haven’t been very good at it but I can see now that my favorite food bloggers are those that share more of their personal selves and personalities. In light of this I was rather surprised to read of criticism aimed at one of my favorite food bloggers, Greg at Sippity Sup. Seems Greg was accused of inserting his “social agenda” into his yummy blog postings! (He is so good humored that he even had a little fun with the criticism on Braised Potato day. If I read between the lines correctly he is a bit more restrained than I would have been!) Now, to my way of thinking, a food blog post without color or some sort of personal anecdote is just boring and “setting the stage” before sharing a recipe is the specialty of Sippity Sup so I certainly hope he doesn’t heed the advice of the wingnuts.

So back to food. Reading between the lines of Greg’s post and thinking about how important food is made me think about this blog and what I hope to say through it. Guess what? I still don’t know! But I do know that going forward I will try to inject more of MY “social agenda” whether or not I am talking about food because I definitely have one. Inevitably however, that means I will be be talking about food a lot because, like I said, I have to eat. And I prefer to eat with people. And I prefer to cook for people. And I work so I can buy food to eat. And when I’m celebrating, I eat. Etc.

So if it is just recipes you want devoid of any of its social agenda, move along and go to Epicurious.