America’s relationship to/with food is deeply ethnocentric. It’s bizarre to see from a country with such a diverse and expansive repertoire of cuisines, but it’s been that way for as long as I can remember. Maybe it’s because I spent my formative years growing up in the shadow of the Great Smokies, and in the Deep South in general, but I don’t think there’s been a time where I was uncomfortable with the idea of people eating dog, horse or bug meat as a part of their diet because I also know what it’s like to see people debase local cuisines and delicacies in my region.
It wasn’t lost on me why the consumption of anything that’s not beef, pork or poultry is so “taboo” in my country (America clutches pearls at everything, who’s shocked), but this is the same country where there’s a food culture around preserving and eating roadkill— a food culture we share with other countries at that. That can range anywhere from elk and white-tailed deer to raccoons and possums. In a few states, proposals have been considered to legalize the practice: some passed, some didn’t. It depends on where you live. That doesn’t stop the culture from existing, though. Either way, there’s been pushes to recognize this cuisine on a collective level. This is the same country where some coastal communities regularly prepare and eat the meat of alligators. No one down here (the South) bats an eye when deer are hunted for their meat and other parts. All of these things are familiar to me, but it may come off as “strange” to someone who isn’t familiar with these practices or the regions they take place in.
Yet, even in the examples I give, there’s plenty of Americans who shun these practices because they believe it to be appalling. It’s outside of their comfort or sense of “normality”, and that’s enough to dismiss it. If not that, it strikes something in their moral compass. Instead of learning more so they can be informed on which of these practices are ethical and those that aren’t, they assume all aspects of it are unethical without further research.
Like anywhere else, this country is full of different cultural norms and practices based on where you live. Because of this, I can say with confidence that my outlook on the ethics of food and consumption is informed by the regional bias I’ve seen against Southerners, specifically rural Southern communities and their food cultures. Many stereotypes against roadkill preservation in particular are classist, associating practitioners with redneck caricatures, poverty and a general lack of “civility”. My outlook has only grown from there as I opened myself up to learning about cultures outside of my own and studying cultural anthropology. That’s when you get into the greater issue of these perspectives turning towards cultures across the world— especially towards communities within Asia and Africa— as an extension of both USAmerican-centrism and white supremacy alike. A common example being the framing of food cultures as unethical and abusive against specific animals because it involves animals one likes (dogs, cats, rabbits, etc) OR treating a food culture as inherently disgusting because it involves animals one personally dislikes (bugs, most amphibians and reptiles). In my opinion, this has become a covert way of calling any culture that isn’t one’s own “savage” in the classic fashion of the Global North. Sure, this isn’t reflective of all USAmericans nor are all offenders of this USAmerican, but we are all familiar with the Global North’s— especially America’s— behavior of condemning food cultures outside of their own because they find them “morally wrong” or “gross”.
I find it rich as hell coming from the people in my country and other countries in the Global North when factory farming exists. Something that is a genuine issue not only with how our food is cultivated and prepared, but also a major issue within animal welfare. In the case of the United States, I see far too many Americans acting like they care about animals whenever they see news about people using dog meat in their dishes, preparing a rabbit they caught for dinner or eating meat in general when the actual problems have been packaged and branded in our supermarkets for decades.
America cannot begin to heal its relationship to/with food if it doesn’t confront its ethnocentrism first.
