Monsieur le pain et mon amour pour vin

I am curled up in my bed right now, examining a beautiful bottle of red wine.  Since my arrival, I have bought 4 bottles of wine and tasted several more.  I think the red that I have right now has been my favorite thus far; it’s a 2007 Dauvergne et Ranvier from the Côtes du Rhône region.  It’s very smooth for a red, and I don’t mind drinking it without a meal, which is what I usually prefer when drinking a red wine.  I can’t wait to try it, but I’m waiting until classes get out this week; it’ll be a celebratory bottle for surviving the first week of cutthroat classes here at Sciences Po.

So!  I absolutely LOVE my class called Food and Food Ways: A Social, Cultural and Political History of Food and Eating (aka my DREAM).  It’s taught by a Cornell professor who lives here with his French wife.  He seems pretty tough and old-fashioned, but he really knows his stuff and is passionate about food, food culture, and the role food has played throughout history and continues to play today in shaping the way people think, act, and interact.  I picked up my course pack, which is a hefty size, but all of the readings look incredibly interesting.  My professor described himself as Monsieur le Pain (Mr. Bread) because he loves studying bread and the way it is viewed, treated, and eaten in different cultures; we’ll be doing a couple of readings about that.  We’re also learning about the role of food in religion, how food relates to gender, and the role food plays in the economy and in the political realm.  Food is even closely tied to language.  Just think of the myriad expressions that somehow incorporate food: full of baloney (also properly known as bologna), sour disposition, pea brain, hunger after righteousness…the list could go on forever!

We’re also reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is actually the book that piqued my interest in food culture, justice and distribution.  I read this book a couple years ago in my Global Sociology class, and was absolutely fascinated by the fact that so many of the food products we consume are made of corn.  I was also deeply disturbed by the statistic that pointed out that even though the amount of food produced in the world today is more than enough to feed every single human being, more and more people were going hungry each and every day.  I wanted to learn more about these issues, and I joined a group called Real Food at BC.  I also did a couple of projects on global food distribution this past semester, and am currently thinking about writing my thesis on the topic.

To sum up, I was smiling the whole time and found myself nodding emphatically after almost everything my professor said.  I don’t want to wait another week to learn more (ha, I’m such a dork)!  I have never felt so engaged or passionate about a class before; I think I have found my calling in life.  I NEED to be doing something that relates to food and the culture surrounding it.

As I finish my glass of wine, I shall leave you with the following thought-provoking, pro-hunter-gatherer quote from an Australian aboriginal: “Why should we plant, when there are so many mongomongo nuts in the world?”