FERN’s Friday Feed: Does food actually unite us?
Welcome to FERN’s Friday Feed (#FFF), where we share the stories from this week that made us stop and think.
The limitations of ‘breaking bread’
Vice
“The language of ‘food unites us,’ as it’s sold in shows and stories like” Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, Dave Chang’s Ugly Delicious, Andrew Zimmern’s What’s Eating America, and most recently, Padma Lakshmi’s new Hulu series Taste the Nation, “suggests that because we eat similarly, our beliefs must be more similar than we think,” writes Bettina Makalintal. “Through food, we are all American — or at least, that’s the tale these shows want us to believe. But as nice as this idea is — as much as it inspires a wholesome image of a communal American table — who is this narrative meant for, and who does it ultimately serve?”
The secret ingredient to Louisiana’s Southeast Asian fishing industry
Gravy
“Vietnamese and Cambodian American fisherfolk make up almost forty percent of Louisiana’s shrimp fishery … From their arrival to Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, Southeast Asian American women have occupied complex roles as caretakers, earners, and partners, providing the bedrock for a rich communal relationship to place and industry,” writes Simi Kang. “‘You’ll seldom see a successful fisherman without a wife, because they are the true backbone of the industry,’” says Sandy Nguyen, who runs a nonprofit in southeast Louisiana devoted to helping commercial fishing businesses.
CSAs for the 1 percent
Eater
“[A]s dining rooms remain closed or under harsh restrictions, restaurants around the country have been trying to riff on [the CSA] model,” writes Jaya Saxena. “Restaurants of all price brackets have been engaging in this new business plan, but it’s hard to ignore the sex appeal of the markets and boxes coming at the more upscale restaurants. Republique in LA offered fruit and pastries; there’s bread and popcorn from Brooklyn’s Olmsted, and foraged mushrooms and natural California wine from San Francisco’s Verjus. There’s even a box from the legendary Chez Panisse.”
The pandemic revives Mexico City’s ancient floating gardens
Atlas Obscura
Since the days of the Aztecs, Indigenous farmers have tended floating gardens, called chinampas, in the southern part of Mexico City, where the metropolis gives way to a lake region via miles of murky canals, writes Amanda Gokee. Over time, the number of active chinampas dwindled. “But since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Mexico, interrupting the industrial food supply in important ways, small farmers have increased production and rehabilitated abandoned chinampas to fill demand for fresh, local food.”
The struggle to keep a neighborhood bar alive during the pandemic
The California Sunday Magazine
“We finally got out of the red in our seventh month: The bottom line of our July P&L statement revealed a whopping profit of $24,” writes Dan Stone. “A laughably small victory, but it signaled that this thing we’d been agonizing over might succeed. Month after month, we built on that growth, and by the end of the year, things were looking up. It felt satisfying to send an annual report to the investors and share our confidence: “All in all, it was a terrific first year. … We reached profitability much sooner than the industry norm, and our trends continue to be very positive. We’ll soon see how COVID-19 affects our business. Many establishments are suffering greatly, yet so far we’ve been OK.” Soon, though, they weren’t.