I attended Frank Rossi’s talk on food. It was very enlightening and was primarily useful to me on giving another lens through which to analyze the effects of capitalism on our bodies. It is common to see capitalism’s stake in the body through the lens of labor and work, but Frank Rossi’s talk opened my eyes to the ways capitalism permeates the body through food.

He spoke heavily about the Western diet and how it is based on a lot of starch and calories. A main takeaway he left on this point was that the western diet is actually moving towards a place where it effectively has the same effects as malnutrition. I thought this was very jarring, and also disappointing, because it really showed a testament to how counterproductive greed can be.

On the note of greed, perhaps the main point Rossi tried to drive home was that we don’t need more food, but rather need to waste less food. He spoke about how the way to solve this problems we see with our food has to be through a change in the economy globally and through moving towards a more equitable economy. Though I am not an expert on food as Frank Rossi is, I believe that I agree with this sentiment. It is also not a surprise that this solution would probably work for, not just food, but for many of the other problems we face in the world today.