On a never ending journey with food, as a novice, as a mom, as a restaurant owner, as a chef, and as someone who needs to eat every day to survive, I frequently wonder why food is constantly left out of the conversation. I am unsure when it is ever irrelevant, after all, it is the source of our survival. In my journey as an art gallery owner, IT Director for a non-profit, Director of Operations for disaster catering, restaurant owner, web-designer, project manager, sales manager, bartender, researcher, waitress, hostess, office manager to smoothie girl food has always been at the center of all of my success. My relationship with food and my understanding of how transformative it can be for others is the one consistent throughout my 42 years. If humans are social creatures focused on survival, than meals together are more pivotal to our human history and our future than we ever give them credit for.
Our entire lives are shaped by the ecosystem of food production and consumption that swirls around us every second of the day. Food equity, scarcity, abundance, waste, production, storage, transportation, and cost are buzz words that never seem to leave the news cycle for long. In addition, our daily conversations are peppered with the topic of food as well; what's for dinner, where to eat, what's on the grocery list, who's cooking, and of course, who's cleaning up. Food is central to our success as a species, perhaps it needs to be given credit for its many other contributions.
Centralizing chefs has been a part of my business design since I became an entrepreneur in 2013 and much of the success of my events, companies, and consensus building activities have placed food as a central tenant. Showing the artistry of chefs at my gallery openings led to more engaging events, more news coverage, and significantly higher than expected art sales. My work in consensus building over issues such as race, food equity, and workers rights have always been centered around meals. The most impressive triumphs of communication I have ever witnessed are mediated discussions over a meal, where two distinct adversaries find consensus, respect, and even friendship.
Food is powerful.
Studies such as Mudrick et al.'s consistently acknowledge the importance of meal times in conflict resolution as we raise our children (2023). Should we continue to implement this strategy throughout our lives and in all types of relationships? Behavioral studies so frequently explore the environments and causes behind social connection and conflict resolution, but rarely do these studies evaluate how the mere presence of a meal can have measurable impact on interpersonal communication. Dowler et al. explored some of these concepts in their paper on reconnecting biological and social relationships via food. However, their research was observational (2009) and I believe there is measurable science behind consensus building and food ways.
At the heart of a meal is shared sustenance and shared survival. The way humans engage in meal sharing is nearly wholly unique to our species (Alger et al., 2023). Our social habits and our relationship with food are crucial to our success and evolution; perhaps there are answers hidden in our food itself and our relationships with each other over meals that can help us solve much larger issues that we would assume. As some of us look to find connection across deeply divided groups, tapping into savory moments with each other may be the spark we are searching for.
References
Alger, I., Dridi, S., Stieglitz, J., Wilson, M. (2023, June 13). The evolution of early hominin food production and sharing. PNAS and Stanford University. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2218096120
Dowler, E., Kneafsey, M., Cox, R., & Holloway, L. (2009). Doing food differently: reconnecting biological and social relationships through care for food. Sociological Review, 57(2), 200–221. https://doi-org.uncfsu.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2010.01893.x
Mudrick, H. B., Nelson, J. A., Pylypciw, M., & Holub, S. C. (2023). Conflict and negotiation with preschoolers during family meals. Journal of Family Psychology, 37(7), 984–992. https://doi-org.uncfsu.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/fam0001072
