Communicating to
the Plate-centric Populace
Ask most people
where broccoli comes from and the filter in their heads
that makes sense of the world tells them that it came
from a store. We are well trained as food consumers
through culture, advertising and the media. The food
system is largely invisible and out of mind.
At the April 2006
Food and Society Networking Conference in Asheville,
N.C., presenter Meg Bostrom said that public perception
of the complex process behind putting food on a table
will change only when an individual’s personal lens
begin to change. Bostrom, president of Public Knowledge,
LLC, a collaborator with FrameWorks
Institute, reported on a Kellogg Foundation-commissioned
research project looking at how people think about the
food system.
The large body of research
showed that Americans regard the purchase and consumption
of food as an individual act. We buy, cook, and eat.
End of story. Tonight’s tomato came from the store,
not from Ecuador or Mexico. Our small frame of reference
never nags us to ask who grew the tomato in what kind
of soil or how far it traveled to get here. As consumers,
we’re “plate-centric,” Bostrom said, quoting research
by fellow FrameWorks collaborator, Cultural
Logic. We are pleased to have a variety of consumer
choices be it a redder tomato or the new super thick
bacon-covered hamburger. Cost matters, and easy access.
Past that, Americans give little thought to what’s thickening
their waistlines or polluting their drinking water.
In fact, most Americans see themselves first as consumers
who measure the price of an item against nearly every
other variable. The research showed that the study subjects
also hold firm views of “modern” farming methods that
replaced the family farms of yesteryear. When people
are socialized as individualized consumers who are solely
responsible for what they eat, their vision rarely broadens
to question practices or policies such as those governing
the use of pesticides or hormones in food production.
However, a public that begins to learn the impact of
certain practices on its children is a public that will
call for change, Bostrom said. The value of legacy matters
and starts to shift people from consumer mode to citizen
mode. She also said that people begin to feel betrayed
when they learn the nutritional losses to vegetables
that travel long distances to reach their destination.
The frames they use to see the world change when they
learn that the addition of that tomato or broccoli on
tonight’s dinner table ties into critical issues of
environment and the health of the next generation.
Bostrom concluded that when the discussions about food
move from consumerism/private choice to concerns about
the health of children and the health of the land, change
will occur. A belief holds that overall, the public
turns a blind eye to most social problems because they’re
selfish, small-minded and uncaring. Bostrom said it’s
more likely that apparent indifference to the bigger
picture about food production and consumption is a cognitive
rather than moral failure. In short, most of us simply
don’t understand what our responsibility could be. When
more people see another type of frame of food production
and its layered systems, they’ll begin to ask the right
questions. Ultimately, our frames, or the way we see
the world, will change allowing other information and
actions to emerge.
Bostrom cited comments from focus group participant
from Maryland whose frame of reference broadened after
he learned the breadth and depth of food production
and consumption. In short, his frame changed from consumer
to citizen.
“I think we all woke up tonight,” he said, adding
that perhaps all Americans will wake up and realize
what we’re doing to our land and to ourselves.
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