I appreciated the clarification of what was considered Latin America in lecture – I was coming into the class a bit unsure about whether some countries or specific regions were excluded from Latin America. For example, the region of Bahia in Brazil was one that was a bit of a fuzzy ground for me, given that its history is directly linked to the Atlantic slave trade, and has a dense Black population.

Belasco’s introduction to the present food system was an interesting analysis on the development of peoples’ attitudes towards food over the years. I find it bizarre to look back on the very turning point of how food is made from farm to table, especially considering how, globally, people have been returning to their kitchens to learn basic cooking skills as of the last few months. Honestly, I unfairly hold a lot against all the people who played a part in the overhaul of the food system to the food-industrial complex, because of all the miscellaneous allergies, intolerances and mystery reactions to food that I and the majority of my friends have. It is no coincidence that we are all ill at a time where even the most basic of food has suffered so many changes, and even the savviest consumer can be duped at the grocery store. We have replaced slow cooking with fast shopping, and we don’t even have the time to check in with ourselves and see how what we are eating is affecting our bodies and mental states. I recently listened to Michael Pollan’s new audiobook Caffeine (which might be of interest to others who, like me, are blindly dependent on coffee) and what stuck with me the most was how much more aware he was of how caffeine affected him after drinking a coffee three months after completely quitting coffee. I know it’s idealistic, but I found myself fantasizing about being able to do an elimination diet with food that no longer exists: food that never saw endless chemical and genetic changes, Indigenous food, food that everyone lived off that didn’t make them sick.