American Food Culture

How does each photograph illustrate social, cultural or historical aspects of food culture in America? How are the photographs related? The ritual of food preparation is shared in every culture in the world. This custom is performed in slightly different ways in every country, however. Each country's culture has a strict mold that shapes the ritual of food preparation and begins to mold it. But sustenance is a two-way street: food culture in its own right meshes together different aspects of society, and helps shape into a common direction. The photographs I have chosen in this assignment illustrate that the interactions between food culture and American society have been catalyzed by the modernization and industrialization of technology
The next progression was that cities required food to be able to be kept longer. Americans' lives were moving at a faster pace, and they demanded that their food accommodate itself to fit their lifestyle. "Suburban Denver, Colorado" and "Recipe" both illustrate the effect that industry had on this process. Preservatives and canning were just the beginning of a process Americans would try to master. They would now try to get a fundamental and biological grasp on the nature of food. Hormones would be injected into chickens so that they would look more fresh and plump than the ones in "Augusta, Maine". Plants would be genetically modified to increase their taste, texture, and color, unlike the ones in "Produce and Fish Market". Americans tried their best to suit food to their needs, but they ended up losing the ritual that is food preparation, presentation, and
Americans began to eat foods from other parts of the country that had been previously unheard of. The romanticized city brought more and more industry and jobs, and created a greater demand for industrialized food and augmented the viscous cycle that separated people from their food source. When people realized that they had gotten so far away from the farms that supplied their local produce market, they shifted the romance the other direction. Just as rural people forgot about the danger and uncleanliness of cities when they dreamed of moving there a century ago, city dwellers began to romanticize the farm, never remembering the arduous task that cultivation is. Our culture is trying to evaluate whether the tradeoff of losing its connection to its food source for a wealthier society is worth