The Geographies of: Food

The geographies of food is a well recognised area of human geography and can be defined as 'the patterns of food production and consumption on a local to global scale'. I am particularly interested in this topic and am keen to explore it further, discovering how it links to other fields of study and seeing its evolution over time.

Eating a meal in the 1950s was quite a different event to what it may be now. The woman of the household would spend approximately two hours producing a meal and pudding from scratch in addition to laying the table, taking care of the children, making herself look 'presentable' and preparing for her husband to return from work. The dinner must then be served as soon as he walked through the door, and tidied away by the woman quickly after whilst the man retired to read the evening paper. In those times this was seen as acceptable, mainly due to the status of women within the country. A woman's job was to look after and manage the household due to a lack of education and sexism, with the husband working full time in order to provide for his family. Nowadays these are what we consider to be 'traditional' values and is upheld in very few households today in the United Kingdom.

Representative of a 1950's house wife

The education of women has increased dramatically and the way in which they are viewed has also taken a turn for the better. In October 2012, it was estimated that 56% of women in the country work full time compared to 87% of men. Due to the current economic climate, many mothers have been forced to return to work and not be the stay at home wives they once were at large, and many women these days put their career first which never would have been seen in the 1950s. Consequently, as often both the people in a relationship are working full time, creating meals has become much more of a team effort between the man and the woman, but has also become a necessity rather than a large event as it used to be. In addition, very few families eat around a traditional dining table and discuss the days events or debate on current events as it previously was done, with 70% of families in the UK admitting to eating their main meal on the sofa or in front of a television.

It's not only how we eat that has changed, what we eat has too. Increasing amounts of fast food and convenience meals has resulted in people having a diet high in calories and lacking in nutrients, which is often due to limited time in which to prepare food unlike in our 1950s scenario. Back then fresh produce would have been bought from independent shops each day, and waste was minimal. Therefore it makes sense why obesity levels are exponentially rising.

It may not be immediately thought that food and geography link, but they do! And that is one of the reasons why I love the subject as much as I do.

If you are interested to read further, click on this link.

My next 'The Geographies of..' will be on..........   BONFIRE NIGHT

¿Por qué?

Recently I went to Barcelona, and as my first time to mainland Spain I was not sure what to expect. I experienced authentic Spanish musicians playing in the street, ate real Spanish paella and even swam in Spanish sea but it was things that weren't so 'Spanish' which surprised me. When walking down Las Ramblas, the main shopping street in the city, I was shocked to see several H&M, Zara, Footlocker and MAC shops around every corner. I did not go into many of these chains as they are available here in England and seem to me to be 'English', but of course they are not. It's only since I've been home that I thought properly about it and asked myself: why is it considered a bad thing to have those shops in Spain?

Las Ramblas

Afterall, H&M is a Swedish multinational retail clothing company and Zara originated in Spain itself. So, why then do people consider it to be a negative thing that chains like this are present in a place such as Barcelona? H&M is a staple part of the UK high street and has been for years, but in theory it has branched overseas to us in just the same way as it has in Spain, and yet it is not seen so negatively in Britain. I therefore concluded that the source of this anger is due to a loss of culture in the country as these TNCs 'invade and take over'.

I, however, do not believe this is the issue. When walking back from the beach I got lost and walked through the back streets and alleyways of the city to get back to where I was staying and I am so glad to have found myself in this situation. By doing this I got to see the real Barcelona, small charming churches, cafes where community meetings take place, quintessential bars and most importantly individual local shops which are not present like this on Las Ramblas. 

To me, it is more of an issue of your typical tourists. All holiday makers flock to the same areas, and soon these develop more tacky souvenir shops and high street chains appear to take advantage of the large footfall and make money. And visitors seem to thrive off this?! If only people would go out of their way to visit the small back roads, walk to where they wish to go instead of ride in a taxi and care to learn a few words of the native language, they would discover that the Spanish culture is very much still alive in Barcelona. You just need to know where to look.

Barcelona

And on a final note, if you haven't been to Barcelona: you should. I loved it :) 

The Geographies of: Football

When on the BBC News website I came across an article about Gareth Bale, the football player who has just been signed to Real Madrid, and the debate which has erupted over what his new salary will be. It was the world's most expensive transfer at £85m and Bale will earn £300,000 each week. I was both shocked and horrified when I heard this because personally I can see no justification in how a footballer player earns more in a week than a doctor or fire fighter ever will. I understand this is a point which is constantly raised and arguments can be fought for both sides but I cannot accept it as right. The point to this is that it got me thinking about how modern society has developed and how the general public are very accepting of things which to me are personally out of control.

Gareth Bale 

I believe that globalisation has had a huge impact on society today. As time moves forward, the amount of leisure time people have an increased quality of life and a decent stable income. It can be seen in many examples that activities people once did for enjoyment during leisure time have escalated and become major sectors and co-operations in developed countries and modern societies. For example, eating in a restaurant was once a rare treat in which people indulged however we now see them everywhere and using their services is of the norm. It has developed that McDonaldisation is actually a term and McDonalds is the basis for a development measurement index which is used by professionals in the business world. Once again with the example of football, as people had more free time and became more skilled at their hobbies, it allowed for the development of professional teams which gained extreme popularity, were followed by a large audience and allowed the opportunity to become an enormous part of modern economies.

A graph to show a footballer's salary in relative terms

To conclude, it is the development of a country which allows certain 'leisurely' activities to boom into massive districts which generate a vast amount of money. Though I will never agree with the extortionate amount of money men kicking a ball round a field earn, I must admit that it is impressive how what used to be a simple sport has become a global empire.

My next 'The Geographies of..' will be on..........   FOOD