為什么家庭烹飪不能解決我們所有的食物問題

為什么家庭烹飪不能解決我們所有的食物問題

Gathering around the family table for a nightly dinner has never been so complicated. It seems like there's a new study every day describing rising obesity rates, the danger of ultra-processed foods, and the increasingly busy schedules of families — all of which contribute to a unique and sadly unequal food system in the U.S.

家庭聚餐從來沒有像現(xiàn)在這么復(fù)雜。似乎每天都有一項新的研究描述了不斷上升的肥胖率，超加工食品的危險，以及家庭日益繁忙的日程安排——所有這些都導(dǎo)致了美國獨特而可悲的不平等的食品體系。

Home cooking can't solve all of our problems — but we can do something about them. (Photo: Everett Collection)

A new book from a team of sociologists, "Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won’t Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It," explores the relationship between food, family and health. The professors studied 168 poor and middle-class families in North Carolina, some for as long as five years, going with them to grocery stores, observing them cooking at home, and generally observing their day-to-day food habits. What they found is, well, complicated.

一個社會學(xué)家團隊的新書《高壓鍋:為什么家庭烹飪不能解決我們的問題以及我們能做些什么》探討了食物、家庭和健康之間的關(guān)系。教授們對北卡羅來納州168個貧困和中產(chǎn)階級家庭進行了研究，其中一些家庭長達5年之久。他們和這些家庭一起去雜貨店，觀察他們在家做飯，并大致觀察他們的日常飲食習(xí)慣。他們的發(fā)現(xiàn)很復(fù)雜。

Added pressure

增加了壓力

Family meals have been loaded with symbolism and sentiment since the industrial era. (Photo: ESB Professional/Shutterstock)

The book is organized around seven popular "foodie messages," ranging from "you are what you eat" to "know what's on your plate" to "the family that eats together, stays together." The authors then break down how these well-meaning messages put pressure on families (and especially women) that returning to the dinner table will create healthier kids and stronger family ties. By embedding themselves in these nine different families' homes and kitchens for years, the researchers paint a compelling picture of why we need to look outside the kitchen for answers to our collective food woes.

這本書由7條流行的“吃貨信息”組成，從“你吃什么就是什么”到“知道你盤子里有什么”，再到“一家人一起吃飯，永遠在一起”。然后，作者分析了這些善意的信息是如何給家庭(尤其是女性)帶來壓力的，即重返餐桌將創(chuàng)造更健康的孩子和更牢固的家庭紐帶。通過在這9個不同家庭的家里和廚房里扎根多年，研究人員描繪了一幅引人注目的畫面，告訴我們?yōu)槭裁次覀冃枰獜膹N房外尋找解決集體食物問題的答案。

Taking the pressure off families to produce a home-cooked meal every night leads into their suggestion to consider other ways for people to share a meal together that don't involve burdening one individual with the labor-intensive task of preparing food. Collective solutions that help people across all income levels include universal school lunches made with fresh food, encouraging churches and daycares to share their commercial kitchens, and community suppers are all ways to bring people together while lightening the load.

為了減輕家庭每天晚上做一頓家常菜的壓力，他們建議考慮其他的方式讓人們一起分享一頓飯，而不是讓一個人承擔(dān)準(zhǔn)備食物的勞動密集型任務(wù)。幫助所有收入水平的人們的集體解決方案包括用新鮮食物做的學(xué)校午餐，鼓勵教堂和日托分享他們的商業(yè)廚房，以及社區(qū)晚餐，這些都是讓人們在減輕負擔(dān)的同時聚集在一起的方法。

Universal free school lunches made with healthy ingredients and diverse recipes could ease the pressure on families. (Photo: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock)

And finally, support the workers who feed us. The food that appears on our dinner table (or in our pizza box) every night doesn't get there by magic. It's a cruel irony that the staffers who work in fancy restaurant kitchens probably can't afford to eat there, or that the fruits and vegetables middle-class consumers buy to keep their families healthy are picked by farmworkers who suffer from occupational health problems. Consumers and retailers both play a part in improving workers' labor and living conditions.

最后，支持養(yǎng)活我們的工人。每天晚上出現(xiàn)在我們餐桌上的食物(或披薩盒里的食物)并不是靠魔法得到的。一個殘酷的諷刺是，在高檔餐廳廚房工作的員工可能買不起那里的食物，或者中產(chǎn)階級消費者為了保持家庭健康而購買的水果和蔬菜，是由遭受職業(yè)健康問題困擾的農(nóng)場工人采摘的。消費者和零售商都在改善工人的勞動和生活條件方面發(fā)揮了作用。

If we want to have a fair and just food system for everybody, we'll have to look outside the kitchen for answers.

如果我們想讓每個人都有一個公平公正的食物體系，我們就必須走出廚房去尋找答案。