the rule of comparative advantage. America and Europe, rich in capital, are producing capital-intensive grains and other commercial crops; developing countries, rich in labor, are producing labor-intensive fruits and vegetables.” Conse- quently industrial nations are increasingly dependent on imports for their produce, while the developing world must import its grain. Neither group can control how cleanly its imports are farmed. “The rampant use of fertilizers and pes- ticides in some countries is a serious health concern,” Ode - kon says, which makes “sustainable farming, urban and rural, more important than ever.” In his view, though, small ag can’t develop enough without “new institutional and legal frameworks—for example, new forms of collective ownership for urban agricultural cooperatives.” Cooperative arrangements also apply to meal-making. Attending Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexico, Rangil more than once witnessed people with small incomes lay-
ing out enormous feasts for up to 500 visitors. In the Unit- ed States, she points out, “we more often provide charity, giving away resources that are in excess of our needs, but this was genuine sharing, the breaking in half of our only piece of bread to give to someone else.” In her study com- munities, she says, “the money for such lavish holiday generosity sometimes comes from remittances sent home by a family member who left to find work in the States, perhaps even in agriculture.” Such foodways serve as familiar cultural resources that can mean a lot to immigrants. As Rangil says, taste is a feeling, and in fact smell and taste are often the strongest senses for triggering memory and other associations, so “food is about the past and present, the bodily and the symbolic.” Curating its traditions, cultivating it, and shar- ing it “can bring people closer together and help us under- stand each other.”
SPRING 2013 SCOPE 23
BRUCIE ROSCH
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