Not long ago I went with my wife and our two-year-old daughter for a holiday in the Caribbean. The family resort was rather large and there were families from all over the world. We ate at times in the big buffet-style dining room, and while chasing my daughter around the tables, the student of food culture that I am tried to guess the origins of the other families, based on the food they had on their plates. Sometimes it was fairly obvious, especially at breakfast, but I noticed a troubling pattern. The adults would eat diverse food, depending on their origins and cultures, but all of the kids, from no matter what country, would eat something from the unholy trinity of burger, hot dog, or pizza (with a side of fries or pasta). The buffet always offered a wide variety of fresh foods, but the kids didn't seem interested, and their parents did not guide them to the different foods. We sometimes had fights with our little one to try fish and other, more healthful food, instead of the tempting fries. It was important to us, so even the looks from other tables did not change our strict behavior.

The hotel is not really to blame: they provide for the public's choices, as well as giving alternatives. It is the responsibility of the parents to guide, choose, and even insist. It is these situations that make us think about our society and the cultural and physical consequences of our choices. People may argue that on holiday you should allow the kids to do what they want, but why is it that what they want is to eat burgers and fries, and not fresh tropical fruits? Is the industrial food culture so strong that we do not even realize that there is an alternative? Have we alienated ourselves so much from our food and its sources? Most important, what can we really do about it?

Here at UNISG, we study many different aspects of our food culture. We raise a lot of questions and sometimes struggle to find the answers. The answers may not be complete, easy, or absolute and some may sound cliché, but the change has to start in our personal life. The fundamental base is our system of values, and in today's western society we can choose our values and follow them (and even change other people's opinions). In the food world of mass production the products are distanced from their sources, and the people who makes them from us, what marketing people call “consumers.” The first step may be to view us as humans, with collective needs but with individual ones as well. We put our trust in brands because we don't know the people who made the product. Buying directly from local is a good start; interacting with them and learning about their products can help us make choices based on human values, rather than on advertising campaigns that focus on everything but the product. We can improve our ability to recognize quality and inform ourselves about what we buy through conversations and learning facts. These are just the first steps in reclaiming our food sources.

Another important aspect of this reclamation process is home. You don't need to be a skilled chef to cook at home and enjoy food; good products often need minimal work to become wonderful meals. We have forgotten how simple it is to make things at home: marmalade, white cheese, and bread are easy to make, and the time involved easily serves as family fun time or even an educational experience for the kids. Convert the eating time to a social time, not just the time to reload energy, and it will improve both our eating and social habits.