The disconnection between humans and the origin of the food we eat has become increasingly greater, and the food industry is further contributing to this situation. Food is a field that can be exploited easily, since everybody eats. In recent years, Silicon Valley has become the main generator of technological solutions, and this includes getting into the food industry as well. They tackle questions like what is the value of one's time, who should do what jobs, what kind of labour is important and what can be delegated. These questions are reflected in a number of consumer products and services, some of which try to reinvent the role of food in our lives. My research question is this: How is the role of food being questioned and reinterpreted by mainstream tech (represented by silicon Valley and similar), and how does it relate to the way we relate to our bodies and our society?
Food is a field that can be exploited easily, since most of the population relies on the food industry for nourishment, and startups have happily capitalized on this. In recent years, Silicon Valley has become one of the main generators of technological solutions, with a large sector focusing on the food industry. In the past decade, technology companies have tackled issues like work/life balance, job specialisation, the rise of the gig-economy. These issues are reflected in a number of consumer products and services, some of which attempt to reinvent the role of food in our lives. My research question is this: based on what is happening today, what will the future of food look like?
Silicon Valley's interpretation of food does not reflect the importance people place on it. The focus within that culture is on innovation for the sake of profit, while the cultural role of food, traditional gender roles in food preparation, or the values related to collective memory and cooking, are largely unrepresented. Instead, the emphasis is on the continuous quest to improve food as a product, within the value system of techno-solutionism. This system revolves around striving for perfection, maximum efficiency, and zero ambiguity, all unrepresentative of what food actually represents. Evgeny Morozov, in his book *To Save Everything, Click Here* critically describes this value system, explaining that "this never-ending quest to ameliorate [...] is shortsighted and only perfunctorily interested in the activity for which improvement is sought"(Morozov, 2013). This criticism is valid when it comes to presenting meal replacements, the materialization of techno-solutionism in food, as an universal response to anything from time management, nutritional dilemmas, food waste and sustainability.
Silicon Valley's interpretation of food does not reflect the importance people place on it. The focus within this culture is on profit-driven innovation, while the cultural role of food, gender representation, or collective values associated with sharing food, are largely unrepresented. Instead, the emphasis is on the continuous quest to improve food products, within the value system of techno-solutionism. This system revolves around striving for perfection, maximum efficiency, and zero ambiguity, all unrepresentative of food culture. Evgeny Morozov, in his book *To Save Everything, Click Here* critically describes this value system, explaining that "this never-ending quest to ameliorate [...] is shortsighted and only perfunctorily interested in the activity for which improvement is sought" (Morozov, 2013). With this in mind, I believe food will become increasingly commodified and products such as meal replacements, the materialization of techno-solutionism in food, will continue to be pushed by venture capital-funded corporations as an universal response to anything from time management, nutritional dilemmas, food waste and sustainability.
Of course, it is imperative to rethink current ways of food production and consumption, from the harmful effects of industrial agriculture on the climate to the damage processed meals are causing our bodies. Issues such as food access and food waste also demand immediate action. However, the money currently being invested in food technologies are going into startup businesses selling hyper-processed complete foods and gadgets that have consumers completely dependent on these companies for every meal, while claiming to solve the problems listed above.
Of course, it is imperative to rethink current ways of food production and consumption, from the harmful effects of industrial agriculture on the climate to the damage processed meals are causing our bodies. Issues such as food access and food waste also demand immediate action. However, the money currently being invested in food technologies are going into startup businesses selling hyper-processed complete foods, as well as gadgets and services that have consumers completely dependent on these companies for every meal, all while claiming to solve the problems listed above. Within this context, it will become increasingly easier for corporations to exploit the global food system and consumers, especially with food becoming more scarce on a global level.
Cooking is a task traditionally imposed on women, ever since the rise of agricultural societies (Smith, 1997). Up until today, women received little help from others in the kitchen, and were expected to provide meals for their families, at the expense of having a career. The wish to liberate themselves from this imposed, time-consuming activity has been expressed throughout history, from the first dreams of food compressed inside a pill, developed by both suffragettes and science-fiction enthusiasts, to various tools to make cooking easier and more efficient. Today, technology companies selling meal replacements present their products as innovative solutions for the current zeitgeist, as well as a glimpse inside the future of food, while completely disregarding previous struggles that have led to these ideas being posed in the first place.
Cooking is a task traditionally imposed on women, ever since the rise of agricultural societies, and continuing until today (Smith, 1997). The search for innovative solutions to improve the experience of eating and cooking has often been expressed throughout history, from the first dreams of food compressed inside a pill, developed by both suffragettes and science-fiction enthusiasts, to various tools to make cooking easier and more efficient. Today, technology companies selling meal replacements and the services of gig workers claim to bring innovative solutions for the current zeitgeist, as well as a glimpse inside the future of food, while completely disregarding previous struggles that have led to these issues being discussed in the first place. Replacing the traditional role of women within the household with applications funded by venture capitalists does nothing to reflect on the value of these tasks, but instead further deems them as unworthy of one's time, within the framework of the post-mom economy.
To understand the way the role of food is being reinterpreted, I follow a path through the history of cooking and gender roles in food preparation, the role technology has in food culture and the way Silicon Valley, an important actor in the world of technology, is appropriating food traditions and knowledge in creating new consumer products for the privileged. My research was inspired by the book *In the Age of the Smart Machine* by Shoshana Zuboff. In it, she described her privileged position to experience and investigate the world of labour on the verge of it being revolutionized by computerization (Zuboff, 1988). She looks at the changing relationship of workers to their own bodies, the abstraction of their work and the way this dramatic change influenced the relationships between individuals. It is fascinating to look at the meal replacement phenomenon, and the repositioning of food within society as potentially similar, while wondering what the future of food could look like in the context of ever increasing abstraction and commodification of food and the labour of cooking.
To understand the way the the world of food is being transformed by technology companies, I follow a path through the history of cooking and gender roles in food preparation, the role technology has in food culture and the way Silicon Valley, an important actor in the world of technology, is appropriating food traditions and knowledge in creating new consumer products for the privileged. My research was inspired by the book *In the Age of the Smart Machine* by Shoshana Zuboff. In it, she described her privileged position to experience and investigate the world of labour on the verge of it being revolutionized by computerization (Zuboff, 1988). She looks at the changing relationship of workers to their own bodies, the abstraction of their work and the way this dramatic change influenced the relationships between individuals. It is fascinating to look at the meal replacement phenomenon, and the repositioning of food within society as potentially similar, while wondering what the future of food could look like in the context of ever increasing abstraction and commodification of food and the labour of cooking.
What can we learn today, on the brink of a crucial development, ahead of technological innovations that will change the way we live as humans and relate to our bodies?
**it also relates to how we deal with gender representation, our bodies, our work/life balance, our priorities**
# Chapter 1 - The Gender on Your Plate
## We love food, we hate having to cook it
@ -28,43 +26,37 @@ Discussing the gender politics of cooking, Pollan wonders: "Was home cooking den
However, the more time we spend watching chefs cook meals we'll never get to eat, the less time we spend cooking for ourselves. In the past decades, studies have shown that cooking time has declined (Pollan, 2014; Ferdman, 2015). Less cooking in the average household means, one the one side, less housework reserved for women. It also means that corporations have made great profits from providing the food we eat on a daily basis, which comes with several downfalls. "Corporations cook very differently from how people do [...]. They tend to use much more sugar, fat, and salt than people cooking for people do; they also deploy novel chemical ingredients seldom found in pantries in order to make their food last longer and look fresher than it really is"(Pollan, 2014). Eating packaged foods has increased the distance between what raw ingredients are and where they come from, and the food we actually consume. "Food becomes just another commodity, an abstraction. And as soon as that happens we become easy prey for corporations selling synthetic versions of the real thing - what I call edible foodlike substances."(Pollan, 2014).
However, the more time we spend watching chefs cook meals we'll never get to eat, the less time we spend cooking for ourselves. In the past decades, studies have shown that cooking time has declined (Pollan, 2014; Ferdman, 2015). Less cooking in the average household means, one the one side, less housework reserved for women. It also means that corporations have made great profits from providing the food we eat on a daily basis, which comes with several downfalls. Food made by a corporation has many more chemical ingredients, that people very rarely use in their kitchens (Pollan, 2014). Eating packaged foods has increased the distance between what raw ingredients are and where they come from, and the food we actually consume. "Food becomes just another commodity, an abstraction. And as soon as that happens we become easy prey for corporations selling synthetic versions of the real thing - what I call edible foodlike substances."(Pollan, 2014).
**food as commodity, how does this relate back to the question?**
## Women in the kitchen
The phrase *a woman's place is in the kitchen*, or in the home, has been traced back as far as Ancient Greece's Aeschylus. Since then, it has been restated and reinterpreted throughout history, in literature, art, and politics (Popik, 2013). We can see an example of this belief clearly phrased in a clip from *Leave it to Beaver*, a popular 50s American sitcom. In it, the father explains to a confused son why he's more suited to do all the grilling outdoors, while his mother works inside the kitchen. "A woman's place is in the home, and as long she's in the home, she might as well be in the kitchen. Women do alright when they have all the modern conveniences, but us men are better at this rugged type of outdoor cooking. Sort of a throwback to cavemen days." (Leave it to Beaver, 1957). His last remark reinforces the idea that gender roles have an evolutionary development, are part of human nature and should not be questioned.
A brilliant example of the portrayal of women in the kitchen, from a woman's perspective this time, is Martha Rosler's *Semiotics of the Kitchen*. In this performance piece, Martha Rosler stands in typical kitchen, without any discernible facial expression. After being still for a few seconds, she proceeds to go through all kitchen tools spread out in front and around her, each representative of one letter of the alphabet. She manipulates every object with sudden, violent gestures, sometimes even performing useless tasks such as pretending to throw the contents of a spoon over her shoulder.
A brilliant example of the portrayal of women in the kitchen, from a woman's perspective this time, is Martha Rosler's *Semiotics of the Kitchen*. In this performance piece, set in a typical kitchen, Martha Rosler manipulates kitchen tools with sudden, violent gestures, sometimes even performing useless tasks such as pretending to throw the contents of a spoon over her shoulder. Her piece is meant to express the frustration of women being stuck doing domestic labour, which is taken for granted. It is also a parody of the cooking shows of the time, particularly the one hosted by an always cheerful Julia Child. In her video, the woman becomes only a representation of the tools she uses, which is why, for the last few letters of the alphabet, she uses her body to represent the letters. In her mock culinary show, she is no longer a cheerful performer, but uses the tools that have been assigned to her as an expression of anger and frustration: "when the woman speaks, she names her own oppression" (Rosler, 1975).
Her piece is meant to express the frustration of women being stuck doing domestic labour, which is taken for granted. It is also a parody of the cooking shows of the time, particularly the one hosted by an always cheerful Julia Child. In her video, the woman becomes only a representation of the tools she uses, which is why, for the last few letters of the alphabet, she uses her body to represent the letters. In her mock culinary show, she is no longer a cheerful performer, but uses the tools that have been assigned to her as an expression of anger and frustration: "when the woman speaks, she names her own oppression."(ibid)
As both men and women have been finding their place within the workforce, sharing the workload within the home has increased slightly. However, even in homes where both partners work full-time, the majority of chores and administrative tasks still fall on the woman's shoulders, either mentally, or in practice. The extra workload that consists of planning and organisation and leads to the execution of the tasks has been coined by feminists as *the mental load* (Emma, 2017). Household management is yet another invisible task done by women, a time-consuming work nonetheless, which adds up to the time already spent doing house chores.
Today, we have more options. Both the mental load and the actual chores can be automated, to some extent, through technological solutions, such as subscription-based services, or simple tasks executed by gig-workers, facilitated through various apps.
Today, we have more options. Rather than sharing the work more equally, both the mental load and the actual chores can be automated, to some extent, through technological solutions. No longer framed explicitly as women's work, tasks such as cooking can be facilitated through various apps. From a tool of oppression directed at women, food becomes a task delegated to gig workers.
**food as a gender issue, traditional gender roles still apply. when there is no woman to do the work, it has to be delegated. rather than sharing the mental load, it's easier to use an app**
## The post-mom economy **the value of time in the post-mom economy? based on the assumption that food is a time waster**
The contemporary field of technology has created a world that suits its workers perfectly. A well-paid position in IT allows one to move from mom's home, which also means moving away from all the benefits that come with living under her roof. But the solution to all the extra work on their shoulders, which they are often unprepared or unwilling to do, can be easily fixed. Mother, in this situation, can be replaced with software tools - services performed via applications by gig workers.
## The value of time in the post-mom economy
In the *post-mom' economy*, there are services like Uber to drive you around, Washio to do your laundry, Deliveroo to bring your food, Lot 2046 to send you regular supplies of clothes and grooming items, DUFL to pack your bags, Sleepscore to wake you up, HydroCoach to remind you to drink water, and various other subscription-based services to deliver new underwear. These seemingly easy tasks are deemed not worthy of one's already limited time, in a culture where people are being constantly pushed to perform and be productive at all times. Once mommy stopped providing these services, it's time for her to be replaced with an app.
**main points: cooking framed as time-waster, further devaluing women's work, corporations are capitalizing and reinforcing this idea**
The main goal of these services it to convince users to separate important decisions from meaningless ones, and focus their time on what's important, usually represented by paid labour. Deciding how to dress and what to eat can be outsourced to a corporation, which uses this as its selling point. This form of convenient consumption limits the need to think about your choices, and becomes an automated form of comfort. **In this mindset, food is being perceived as a chore rather than leisure**
It is easy to explain why most of the latest startups can be put under the *post-mom economy* umbrella. Entrepreneurs are encouraged, or rather pressured, to find solutions to problems they are facing themselves, and monetize every aspect of life. For many, the problem they face is becoming an adult with too much money to spend, and too little time outside of work. Keeping a high level of performance at work at all times does not allow much time and mindspace for dealing with the practicalities of adult life, and the latest consumer products reflect this reality.
The contemporary field of technology has created a world that suits its workers perfectly. A well-paid position in IT allows one to move from mom's home, which also means moving away from all the benefits that come with living under her roof. But the solution to all the extra work on their shoulders, which they are often unprepared or unwilling to do, can be easily fixed. Mother, in this situation, can be replaced with software tools - services performed via applications by gig workers.
## The value of time
In the *post-mom' economy* (Maney, 2015), there are services like Uber to drive you around, Washio to do your laundry, Deliveroo to bring your food, Lot 2046 to send you regular supplies of clothes and grooming items, Sleepscore to wake you up, and HydroCoach to remind you to drink water. These tasks, forms of unpaid labour traditionally reserved for the woman in the household, are deemed not worthy of one's already limited time, in a culture where people are being constantly pushed to always perform and be productive. Within the current economic regime, this workload is often performed by so-called *gig workers*, self-employed labourers controlled by applications, who work under the premise that they can manage their time however they want. Once mommy stopped providing these services, it's time for her to be replaced with an app.
Cooking is an activity that falls under the issue of what one's time is worth. Depending on the socio-political environment, and on gender expectations, there are different standards to what is celebrated as a good use of one's time. However pleasant and rewarding, proper cooking takes time, starting from planning and sourcing ingredients, to peeling, chopping, boiling, frying and doing the dishes.
The main goal of these services it to convince users to separate important decisions from meaningless ones, and focus their time on paid labour. Deciding how to dress and what to eat can be outsourced to a corporation, which uses this as its selling point. This form of convenient consumption limits the need to think about your choices, and becomes an automated form of comfort. Within this mindset, cooking is being presented as a chore rather than an activity that can be done as leisure. Entrepreneurs are encouraged, or rather pressured, to find solutions to problems they are facing themselves, and monetize every aspect of life. For many, the problem they face is becoming an adult with too much money to spend, and too little time outside of work. Keeping a high level of performance at work at all times does not allow much time and mindspace for dealing with the practicalities of adult life, especially when they are framed as low-value, time consuming activities, and the latest consumer products reflect this reality.
Within the household, traditional gender roles apply to time management as well. When feminists were asking for equal responsibilities in the household, the time they spent cooking and cleaning was valued as caregiving for the family, a task they were *supposed* to do. Nowadays, many people live in single-person households, or shared accommodation, and do not have access to this traditional female figure, whether a mother or a partner, to do the work.
The tasks associated with preparing food or keeping a home are forms of unpaid labour that are often considered not worth one's time. Within the current economic regime, this workload is often performed by so-called *gig workers*, self-employed labourers controlled by applications, who work under the premise that they can manage their time however they want. In fact, their working time is strictly surveilled digitally, and are often pushed to take risks and work even faster to cope with their precarious income (Woodcock, 2017).
It is much too easy nowadays to rely on the food industry for ready-made meals. Taking time from one's day to dedicate oneself to cooking from scratch can be a luxury, since it involves planning, trips to the store, extended cooking time. In this context, cooking can become a statement, a liberation from corporate enforced consumption, a decision to become involved in every step of the process of transforming raw ingredients into a satisfying meal. I find Michael Pollan's view on this very inspiring:
"In a world where so few of us are obliged to cook at all anymore, to choose to do so is to lodge a protest against specialization [...]. Against the infiltration of commercial interests into every last cranny of our lives. To cook for the pleasure of it [...] is to declare our independence from the corporations seeking to organize our every waking moment into yet another occasion for consumption. It is to reject the debilitating notion that [...] the only legitimate form of leisure is consumption. This dependence marketeers call 'freedom'."(Pollan, 2014)
The post-mom economy reflects embedded preconceptions on gender roles within the home. When the main provider of these services is not available any longer, startups offer the option to replace her with a techno-solutionist product, that brings convenience for those who can afford it, while pushing others into low-wage gig work. Instead of reflecting on the value of maintaining a home and caregiving, or on the struggles of those who are pushed into these roles, the tasks are simply delegated to strangers. This further increases the infiltration of corporations into our lives under the pretense of earning more freedom (Pollan, 2014), while continuing to devalue *women's work*.
@ -74,7 +66,6 @@ When the amount of chores one has to do as an adult takes up a considerable amou
One of the first mentions of a solution to the division of labour in the kitchen came in a dystopian novella written in the late 19th century. The author was a conservative woman called Anna Bowman Dodd, an avid critic of the women's emancipation movement. In *The Republic of the Future*, she imagines a transformed New York in the year 2050, governed by socialists and feminists, seen through the eyes of a Swedish aristocrat called Wolfgang. The man writes home to his friend and describes the life of future New Yorkers as joyless and bland. He blames the situation on a couple of developments such as equality between sexes, reduced labor hours and abolishing of class society.
One aspect of life that comes up is food, provided not by kitchens, but personalized by scientists in the Office of Hygiene. In this socialist society, food has been reduced to pellets or liquids transported to every home through pneumatic tubes, convenient enough to be taken in one's pocket and eaten on the go. The explanation for this development, that the author finds quite outrageous, is women's liberation. "If kitchens and cooking and long dinners hadn't been abolished, the final emancipation of women could never have been accomplished. [...] When the last pie was made into the first pellet, woman's true freedom began" (Dodd, 1887). Thus, the first idea of meal replacements as alternatives to time-consuming activities such as cooking appears, notably as a criticism, a ridiculous solution brought about by outrageous feminists who try to ruin everything that's fun in life.
@ -85,8 +76,6 @@ Soon after the publishing of this work, another futurist food reference was intr
The purpose of this futurist food was to liberate women from their household chores, and decrease inequality between both genders and social classes. It was also meant to provide a more sustainable food source, that would replace meat, and would make the lives of agricultural workers easier.
This is quite an interesting look at the birth of the same idea, suggested by two opposing ideologies, one as a criticism, the other as a serious suggestion. It is unclear which part mrs. Dodd is opposed to - the idea that forcing women into housework is oppressive, or the rejection of food-related traditions, which she presents in her fictional work. However, being the sole responsible for cooking in the household was a reality for most women, and I believe that situation is what feminists wanted to be solved in the future through the wonders of technology.
Representations of food in the future are typically bleak. Regardless of it being a dystopian or utopian future, a drastic change in the way people consume food is called for. But one aspect of future food that is recurrent is the fact that food production is always obscured. There is no telling where the food behind the Food-a-Rac-a-Cycle in The Jetsons came from, nor what are the ingredients of the various meal-in-a-pill representations. However, when the origin of food is revealed, as with the examples in the movies *Soylent Green* and *The Snowpiercer*, it is usually a gruesome reality that is better to be obscured.
@ -94,14 +83,14 @@ Representations of food in the future are typically bleak. Regardless of it bein
This is yet another example of the work done inside kitchens of the past or the future being hidden behind the scenes, too confronting to be brought to light. The details of the actual cooking are either too boring or too disgusting to be revealed, when the only goal of food, in the previous examples, is to fuel the human body.
Humans' relationship with food has always been complex. Cooking has increased our brain capacity, has made us more social, and has led to the development of intricate, highly personal relationships between members of the same community. It has also been a reason for frustration. Generations of women have been educated with the only purpose of eventually hiding inside their family's kitchen, where they will find themselves stuck for most of their life.
**what is the purpose of this sub-chapter?**
Technical innovations in the kitchen and in the food industry have largely been targeted to women, to allegedly help them cook faster and more efficiently, in order to have more time to spend with their family. Meanwhile, dreams about not having to cook at all in the future kept coming up, from futurist essays of suffragettes to science-fiction movies. Technology has always had a great importance in the world of food, and today we have numerous examples of new technologies that reflect our current socio-political climate. In the following chapter, I look at some of the ways in which the world of technology and the world of food are interconnected.
**cooking is denigrated, work done by women behind the scenes, unless it's done by men on the screen. So unless it's fancy and techy, it's not worth doing (not by us at least). Leave it to gig workers. This is how the tech world is framing food and cooking today.**
# Chapter 2 - Eating through algorithms
## What is appropriation
**food as a tool for appropriation**
## Food as a tool for appropriation
The transfer of food terminology in programming, on a smaller scale, and the innovations in food technology on a larger scale are instances of cultural appropriation. The definition of cultural appropriation is "The unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society." (Oxford dictionary)
In the case of the current representations of food in society, I noticed a couple of trends that have certain aspects of cultural appropriation. On a broader scale, I can mention the representation of men and women in popular food culture. Women's attempts to make cooking and domestic activities recognized as a legitimate occupation have been largely overwritten by the new status symbol given to chefs, male in their majority, around the world.
@ -143,14 +132,12 @@ The rise of products branded as innovative foods has largely happened in the las
The celebration of not having time to tend to your bodily needs properly, and at the same time putting so much emphasis on giving the body personalized nutrition in the most pleasureless way is, of course, a paradoxical incongruity. At the same time, the idea that you are solely responsible for your well-being, and that you can control your health and efficiency with the right consumer habits is another heavily promoted concept. Trying to reconcile and adopt all these suggestions for how one should live their life is almost impossible, and leads to burnout. However, startups in Silicon Valley and all over the world are more than ready to provide products to any imaginable issue that can be identified, in order to achieve their prescribed quality of life. This is problematic in many ways, because it completely ignores other factors that influence our lives, such as social class, income, education, access etc, while promoting efficiency and production as the main goals to be achieved by humans.
The celebration of not having time to tend to your bodily needs properly, and at the same time putting so much emphasis on giving the body personalized nutrition in the most pleasureless way is, of course, a paradoxical incongruity. At the same time, the idea that you are solely responsible for your well-being, and that you can control your health and efficiency with the right consumer habits is another heavily promoted concept. Trying to reconcile and adopt all these suggestions for how one should live their life is almost impossible, and leads to burnout. However, startups in Silicon Valley and all over the world are more than ready to provide products to any imaginable issue that can be identified, in order to achieve their prescribed quality of life. This is problematic in many ways, because it completely ignores other factors that influence our lives, such as social class, income, education, access etc, while promoting efficiency and production as the main goals to be achieved by humans. **Here food is a tool for self control, for status**
## Nutrients > Food
Technology startups did not invent meal replacements, nor fortified foods. These products came on the market for various reasons historically, most importantly to deal with nutrient deficiencies. In some cases, the nutritional value of food is reduced through various processing methods. For instance, in the case of white flour, the same nutrients contained in the husks removed in the process of milling wheat are added back into the flour, increasing the price of the product, and enabling flour producers to make all sorts of health claims.
Nutritionism is the basis of all iterations of products trying to *disrupt mealtimes*. As expressed by Huel's community manager, "We wanted to strip it back to what the actual purpose of food is to provide nutrition (...) People are very focused on taste now – does it taste good? That is not the primary purpose of food"(Turk, 2018). Nutritionism and the food industry in general have, for decades, capitalized on people's fears and confusion related to food. They created the problem, and then promoted a product to allegedly solve it.
Technology startups did not invent meal replacements, nor fortified foods. These products came on the market for various reasons historically, most importantly to deal with nutrient deficiencies. However, companies which produce meal replacements frame these products as ways to *disrupt mealtimes*. As expressed by Huel's community manager, "We wanted to strip it back to what the actual purpose of food is to provide nutrition (...) People are very focused on taste now – does it taste good? That is not the primary purpose of food"(Turk, 2018). Nutritionism and the food industry in general have, for decades, capitalized on people's fears and confusion related to food. They created the problem, and then promoted a product to allegedly solve it.
Today's companies which produce and sell meal replacements and other innovative food products present a number of health claims, including complete nutrition, better concentration, disease prevention, etc. But the lack of unaffiliated long-term scientific studies, and the association with nutritionists that sit on the board of directors can raise suspicion in anyone. The fact that the food industry is able to make such claims can be traced back to the 90s, when the United States Congress passed a couple of laws, FDAMA (Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act) and DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act), which gave more freedom to the food and supplements industries to introduce new substances into their products without much pushback from the Food and Drug Administration (Nestle, 2013).
@ -160,17 +147,17 @@ Looking at food as simply fuel for the body means completely disregarding the en
## The rise of meal replacements
**food as fuel**
The way we transform nature for our personal purposes changes the way we relate to the world around us. The food we eat reflects our relationship to the environment and the current socio-economic context, and is also a crucial part of one's lifestyle. Looking at certain food trends throughout time can give us insights into the way people lived at that point in time.
The way we transform nature for our personal purposes changes the way we relate to the world around us. The reductionist approach to food, as mentioned before, has led to the creation of a new interpretation of food as fuel for the body.
One telling example from today are complete foods, or meal replacements. Most commonly in the form of a powder meant to be mixed with water, these products allegedly contain all necessary nutrients, and can thus replace normal meals. Meal replacements target young professionals who can't find the time, or desire, to prepare and consume a traditional meal throughout the day, a situation many can relate to. By consuming a shake for breakfast and lunch, one does not have to sacrifice time, or nutritional value, in order to be able to keep going about their daily work. The companies producing these products, largely startups owned by technology entrepreneurs, promote them as solutions to a large variety of problems: lack of time, inconvenience of cooking, *food voids*, which is all the times one doesn't have direct access to a meal when hungry, world hunger, climate change, etc.
In my research of meal replacements I looked at the development of the brand Soylent, the first one of its kind. The product was developed in Silicon Valley by a couple of computer scientists looking for their breakthrough in the startup world. They were all young white males with no cooking experience, who were surviving on frozen fast food, and were frustrated by the quality of their meals and the time it took away from their day (Widdicombe, 2014). Taking the approach of an engineer in a social vacuum, they came to the conclusion that traditional nutrition is very inefficient. The best way to go about this, according to them, is by reducing food to its most basic elements. This comes across as the ultimate life hack, as it allows them to further release themselves from their bodily needs and exist purely for the purpose of being efficient in their search for profit. In this way, food preparation and consumption necessary on a daily basis is reduced to a minimum.
In my research of meal replacements I looked at the development of the brand Soylent, the first one of its kind. The product was developed in Silicon Valley by a couple of computer scientists. They were all young white males with no cooking experience, who were surviving on frozen fast food, and were frustrated by the quality of their meals and the time it took away from their day (Widdicombe, 2014). Taking the approach of an engineer in a social vacuum, they came to the conclusion that traditional nutrition is very inefficient. The best way to go about this, according to them, is by reducing food to its most basic elements. This comes across as the ultimate life hack, as it allows them to further release themselves from their bodily needs and exist purely for the purpose of being efficient in their search for profit. In this way, food preparation and consumption necessary on a daily basis is reduced to a minimum, and food is reinterpreted purely as fuel for the body.
After Soylent's astonishing success, and due to the fact that their product didn't meet international food regulation standards for shipping, many similar products appeared on the international market. In the UK, Huel is making huge profits by selling products with an extremely similar design to Soylent. In the Netherlands, Joylent (later JimmyJoy) came as a clear imitation of the original brand. Meal replacement brands are often promoted similarly to software or hardware, rather than food. They have different iterations, such as Soylent 1.0, 1.1, and so on, prominent lot numbers, and improvements are described as "fixing bugs" (Widdicombe, 2014). Framing them as products of technology pushes them further away from traditional food products, and further abstracts the role of food in our life.
After Soylent's astonishing success, and due to the fact that their product didn't meet international food regulation standards for shipping, many similar products appeared on the international market. Meal replacement brands are often promoted similarly to software or hardware, rather than food. They have different iterations, such as Soylent 1.0, 1.1, and so on, prominent lot numbers, and improvements are described as "fixing bugs" (Widdicombe, 2014). Framing them as products of technology pushes them further away from traditional food products, and further abstracts the role of food in our life.
The rise of meal replacements came not from a desire to improve food, but to disrupt the food industry and make the kind of profits a small technology startup can nowadays. The products are a techno-solutionist representation of Silicon Valley ideologies, manufacturing new problems in daily life that can only be fixed by them. They promote a quantified lifestyle, of an individual that is highly efficient and productive, both professionally and outside of work, to the point of burnout. And, going even further, they claim to improve people's health and solve food waste and world hunger, while disregarding issues such as wealth inequality and capitalist structures that have caused these problems in the first place. However, the products target a demographic similar to that of a technology startup, which is dominated by Western, middle and upper class individuals, which heavily limits the universal solution ideal that they promote.
@ -239,6 +226,7 @@ With accelerating levels of technological development, and increasingly destruct
Increased life expectancy and health, something that Silicon Valley works hard towards **for their own people, find a way to express that**, arguably only increases the need for nourishment. Our bodies will still need nutrition from good food. The importance of communities and organisations that dedicate their work towards a more fair distribution of food, skills and knowledge will grow, faced with increasing levels of inequality. At the end of the day, we will have to take matters into our own hands and learn how to prepare and preserve our food, and how to share the labour and the meals more equally amongst ourselves and with others.
**make the argument clear**
# Appendix
@ -300,6 +288,8 @@ Kera, D., Denfeld, Z., Kramer, C. (2015). Food Hackers: Political and Metaphysic
Leave it to the Beaver (1957). *Revue Studios*. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXhlTQJcgbc [Accessed 11.03.2019]
Maney, K. (2015). Silicon Valley Needs Moms! *Newsweek* [online] Available at: https://www.newsweek.com/2015/11/20/silicon-valley-working-replace-mothers-391794.html [Accessed 18.03.2019]
McKie, R. (2018). No Death and an Enhanced Life: Is the Future Transhuman? *The Guardian*, [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/06/no-death-and-an-enhanced-life-is-the-future-transhuman [Accessed 06.02.2019]
Morozov, E. (2013). *To Save Everything, Click Here. The Folly of Technological Solutionism*. New York: Public Affairs.
