Food Hating in America

A posting on Lawyers Guns Money recently on the use of microwave ovens has given me the inspiration to rant a bit about a long-irritating issue--Americans seeming hatred of good food in the post-World War II years. I look at America from 1945 to about 1980 or so as a low point in the history of American food. This was the period that witnessed the rise of the microwave oven, the rise of boxed food, disdain for ethnic foods, and (to generalize a good bit) a generation of people who disliked cooking. I look at my family and I am simply shocked at the crappy food that they eat. Hamburger Helper was a staple food growing up. Does anyone under the age of 40 ever eat this anymore? Meat was a staple at all meals, but it didn't matter if it was good meat. Canned meat was fine (though generally was eaten by my family) as was baked hamburgers, perhaps the worst way to prepare meat in the history of human interactions with fire and animal flesh. If you needed a coagulating agent, there were only 2 possible substances--Cheese Whiz and cream of mushroom soup.

Why did this happen? Why this dark age in the history of American food? This is a question that I need to explore further, but I will give a few tentative points.

1. The decline of ethnicity as an important factor in American life. World War II went a long way toward homogenizing America. European ethnic distinctions had great importance in pre-war America. But in the postwar period, these became less important by a good measure. To some extent, anti-southern and eastern European racism declined, which can only be considered a good thing. But also the children of immigrants didn't want to be seen as Czech or Polish, they wanted to be Americans. Part of this was to give up many ethnic customs, including unusual foods and conform to middle-class American standards. Thus ethnic communities declined and therefore ethnic eating establishments.

2. Related to #1 is the effect of immigration restriction laws of the early 1920s. By stopping immigrant flows, new people who wanted to bring their customs and foods with them stopped as well. With no new first-generation immigrants, this supply of new blood into America stopped. As we can look at immigration restrictions as an important step in making American food suck, we can also view the Immigration Act of 1965 which opened America's borders again as a key moment in the revitalization of American food that we see today.

3. Post-WWII gender roles. After WWII, women worked more outside the home but men were not about to start helping around the house. Plus fertility rates rose. So women didn't have a hell of a lot of time to cook, especially since these kids were the first generation in American history that weren't expected to contribute much around the house. So the microwave and boxed and prepared foods looked pretty good to an overworked and exhausted woman.

4. Changes in produce. A broad category that includes the massive uses of pesticides that had negative effects on the taste of produce, the decline in Americans growing their own fruits and vegetables, and the marketing of produce which valued tough skins for shipping that meant artificially ripening them so that they would get to market with a perfect look and an apple meaning Red Delicious and lettuce meaning Iceberg. Americans didn't seem to care about these developments much for years so it made perfect marketing sense. But all of these developments led to some really shitty produce in American stores that has really only changed in the last 5-10 years.

Since 1970 or so, this situation has greatly improved. The rise of Mexican food helped, as did the arrival of Asian immigrants after the Immigration Act of 1965. The reaction against pesticides, beginning with the publication of Silent Spring in 1962 but morphing into the organic food movement also made a big difference. Appreciation of multiculturalism helped as well. The massive variety of produce you can get in a Whole Foods, restaurants from maybe 2 dozen nationalities in a decent sized city, organic meats and veggies, and a positive emphasis placed on cooking in American life have all helped pull America out of the dark age of American food.

The only downside is trying to eat when I see my parents.