Food Choices, Political Action, and Class

Judy Wicks, owner of the White Dog Café in Philadelphia, writes on her menu that “eating is a political act” and also “likens food choices to voting for a better farm and food policy” (173). I agree with this point – and I really like the idea that our food choices should be understood as an empowering action made by informed citizens – however, I think that there is an objection to this model that isn’t discussed enough, namely how class determines whether the political nature of our food choices has any weight. Food choices are ultimately economic choices; when we spend money on certain foods we are supporting specific markets with their own set of values. At the same time, however, our food choices are sometimes restricted by our economic means. Some markets, like fast food chains, support factory farming, while others like the White Dog Café support local, fair trade, and organic products. But when one equates food choices (and by extension economic choices) to voting power, an undemocratic system emerges. If, in a local economy, there are considerable amounts of people who are morally opposed to factory farming but aren’t wealthy, and at the same time there is a smaller but much more affluent group of people who aren’t concerned with animal welfare, the significance of food choice as a political act seems mitigated. Easily, the wealthier people could continue to flood globalized, corporate, or factory farming markets with money while the less affluent members of the society are left fighting an uphill battle – the wealthy in this scenario get more votes. If we are to consider eating as a political and economic act, ultimately those who have more economic power are the ones defining the market and political system. It’s also plausible that many people will buy fast food because it’s cheaper even if they don’t ethically agree with factory farming. Again, in this scenario economic power defines the food choices we can and cannot make, and thus the food-choices-as-voting-power model is, in the end, undemocratic. I’m intending to argue that making strategic food choices is an ineffective political move, but only that it’s restricted by class and that reliance on free market capitalism and supply-demand models are not the best way to create political change.