HW 5 - Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

Dominant discourse is what the majority of the people think about a certain topic. The most common value, thought process, idea or opinion with in a certain subject

According to the media there are conflicting discourses when it comes to the subject of whether or not the U.S. food ways have been changed or if there is still more change to be made. Form the article “Told to eat vegetables, America orders fries” the author made the point that the food industry has attempted to make eating veggies easier but that doesn’t necessarily meant that people are actually consuming more vegetables. Although there was reform made in availability of vegetables, the people that make up the country still need to have the will to eat more vegetables. All in all according to the author progress has been made but there still needs to be more improvement. We are only ½ way there.

I think someone who was moderately well informed about the mass media and the food dominant discourse would have probably in the past have been on a lot of diets in order to change the way they appeared to others. Although they were on a diet they would probably also binge on past food or junk foods that are high in saturated fats and starches, and they would have had an unbalanced diet. They might also buy a lot of organic fresh fruit and vegetables in order to relive their guilt of not actually having eaten any. But when they get home they put them in the back of the fridge and don’t reserve the time to cook or prepare them and the produce gets rotten. I think this person would be very talkative about how to make changes in their diets but never actually take the actions that would cause significant change.

One of the current dominant discourses in the U.S. regarding food ways are the whole organic themed movement. Many people are pro organic and they don’t even understand what it means for something to be organic. Others might not be affected by the non-organic products so to them non-organic is just fine. Other discourses are that Americans need healthier lifestyles, meat is unhealthy, pesticides are killing the environment and there is reason to be afraid of certain food products due to “outbreaks”. People such as doctors, nutritionists, Food and Drug Administration representatives, and celebrities get quoted about food topics because they are trusted by the majority of the population. The media knows that if they publish a quote from a credible source then they will receive a larger audience and in return higher ratings. Select places or sources where information about food can be found are in magazines, health shows, newspapers, restaurant and fast food advertisements and television food shows. The over all health of the people in the U.S. is a problem that requires a solution. People need to have their diets or daily exercises. I don’t know if there are any key solutions except for raising the future generations so they are not as exposed to junk foods and they learn to like healthier foods. Or maybe a solution would be to build schools that are grades pre-k to 12^th eleven stories tall that way children would have no way to avoid the exercise.