The Challenges of “Re-engaging with Food“

Abstract

As the negative health, environmental and social consequences of the industrial food system are brought to light, convenience food options are being criticized and “re-engagement” with food celebrated. Indeed, there are many benefits when households are more involved in their own food provision, doing things such as growing food and cooking from scratch. However, calls for a return to more labor and time-intensive food practices often overlook the difficulties that food providers face in trying to manage both paid and unpaid work in the context of contemporary employment and household patterns. This paper brings light to these under-examined issues by putting the feminist concept of social reproduction into dialogue with the food literature. It is argued that significant and widespread changes in food provision at the household level cannot take place unless employment conditions and the gendered division of labor are addressed.

Keywords:

• foodwork/cooking
• gender division of labor
• social reproduction
• convenience food
• slow food
• work-life balance

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle Szabo

Michelle Szabo is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University, Toronto. Her interests revolve around household food habits and the gender division of food work as they relate to wider issues of health, sustainability and equity in the food system. Her dissertation examines the motivations for and meanings of domestic cooking among involved male domestic cooks in Toronto. Faculty of Environmental Studies, HNES 109, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada ([email protected]).