The students waited in anticipation as Chef Adam Fox put the first spoonful to his lips.<\/p>\n
The four, who made up one of six groups in Professor Sarah Worth\u2019s Philosophy of Food weekly lab, had made chicken curry, garnished with rice and fresh pineapple. Their only guidance was a table of groceries and knowing their creations were about to be judged.<\/p>\n
Certified by the American Culinary Association, Chef Adam\u2019s critique wasn\u2019t guaranteed to be all positive, so relief washed over their faces when the words \u201cIt\u2019s good!\u201d spilled out. \u201cFresh jalapenos? I like the kick,\u201d he added before moving to the next table and its duck tacos as the amateur chefs dug into their self-made dinner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe class has helped me think more critically about food and transparency from start to finish,\u201d said junior Blake Yoder. \u201cFor example, if you have a plate that\u2019s aesthetically pleasing but you know it was produced using low-wage workers or the animal was abused in a slaughterhouse, can it still be considered aesthetically pleasing? There are questions that I have considered in this class that I haven\u2019t considered apart from this class.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philosophy of food? Most Americans have one, and it goes something like this:<\/p>\n
Hungry. Eat something that tastes good and probably too much of it. Pay as little as possible. Repeat.<\/p>\n
What the heck do you need a class on that for?<\/p>\n
That approach is soothing in its simplicity, but some are realizing there is more to the story. Becoming a mother made Worth one of those people. \u201cI became really interested in food seven years ago when I gave birth to twins and all of the sudden it really mattered what they ate,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing a philosopher I started reading everything I could get my hands on about quality and distance and environment, all the kinds of choices that get put into this.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the more she thought about the subject the more she realized how little thought was being put into the subject. Giving her students the opportunity to bring their bright, young minds to the conversation was a natural next step.<\/p>\n
Worth scheduled the class for the spring of 2014 anticipating \u201cmaybe five\u201d students out to satisfy a General Education Requirement. What she got instead were 28 who have eagerly tackled questions ranging from feeding the poor to gluttony to how eating together shapes our morality to animal treatment and the environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been fun to assign old philosophical arguments about morality and such to eating,\u201d Worth said. \u201cThen of course we have all of the ethical considerations that have to do with purchasing power. What do we buy and should we eat animals? Can I eat meat if it\u2019s sustainably raised, if the animal is morally treated, or can I not eat it at all? And how do I come up with my food rules, how do I come up with my own personal food choices?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jenny Steel, a sophomore from Jacksonville, Fla., had considered some of these issues before taking the class. Her mother already fed her family minimally processed food, and her younger sister is a vegetarian. But she realized quickly that even the shape and height of a table, which is different in different cultures, has significance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been talking a lot about the central nervous system and how it\u2019s actual pain for the animals (to be slaughtered),\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been making me question eating meat or being more detailed on where I get meat and how it\u2019s done. It\u2019s been a real eye-opener, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost as much of an eye-opener as a duck egg that has been fermenting underground for several months, a Chinese delicacy, or beef tongue. Students prepare meals in relation to the subject matter of the week, and culturally forbidden foods are also a frequently visited topic.<\/p>\n
Worth says the lab portion is what makes the class really unique, and without Aramark\u2014Furman\u2019s food-service provider\u2014agreeing to supply food, two chefs (Chef Adam and Chef Ralph), and space at the Younts Center it wouldn\u2019t have been possible. The lab also opens students\u2019 eyes to where their food comes from.<\/p>\n
They haven\u2019t always liked the view.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t really changed my diet from taking this class, but I think it\u2019s made me more angry at some people than not. McDonald\u2019s and stuff\u2014they\u2019re not transparent. It\u2019s just mass-farmed and mass-produced,\u201d Yoder said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no accident that her students are mostly unaware of the origin of their food. \u201cWe don\u2019t know where our food comes from, and for the most part we don\u2019t care. And that\u2019s hidden carefully (by corporations),\u201d Worth says.<\/p>\n
Steel hasn\u2019t changed her eating habits, \u201cat least not yet,\u201d but she has started questioning many things she previously didn\u2019t\u2014in no small part because of conversations with her classmates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a vegan in our class, but it\u2019s no shouting, no throwing it upon anyone else. It\u2019s all civil discourse,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Worth has also been asking herself questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had been a vegetarian for 15\u201320 years . . . But it really seems like a kind of arbitrary choice, because you can eat vegetarian and get really low-quality stuff from mass conglomerate corporations that treat their employees really badly or it all comes from China,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat\u2019s super cool is what an awesome time in these kids\u2019 lives to think seriously about food as they are really about to become consumers. They are not really spending money significantly yet themselves, but these are lifetime choices.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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