Logan Carmichael
Bio
Political Science grad. Aspiring diplomat.
There's hidden politics behind the food you eat, and I'm here to tell you about it.
Stories (8)
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Corn Is Dominating What You Eat
Would you believe me if I told you that you are 80 to 90 percent corn? Probably not, right? While this statement is not entirely true, it is worth clarifying that corn is a component of 80 to 90 percent of the foods we eat—whether it is labelled on the ingredients list or not. This was the main premise of King Corn, a 2007 indie documentary in which two Bostonian college grads learn this astonishing fact and set out for Iowa with the goal of growing their very own acre of corn. Their corn-planting experiment, which made for a very humourous, yet enlightening documentary, revealed how little these two guys from Boston (and likely most of us) know about the foods we eat every day. They also shed light on the extensive eventual destinations of the corn they grew. I’ve explored just a few of these revelations in greater depth: these are some of the many foods we regularly consume—that you may not have considered—containing corn.
By Logan Carmichael8 years ago in Feast
Canada Has a Major Bread Scandal. Top Story - December 2017.
Canada is currently experiencing a major bread scandal. I know that may sound absurd and slightly dramatic, but hear me out; recent revelations have exposed collusion amongst the country’s supermarket giants that have cost Canadians millions. At the centre of the scandal is Canadian grocery giant Loblaw and one of its subsidiaries, George Weston, which reportedly engaged in price-fixing between 2001 and 2015 on brands such as Dempster’s, Wonder, Villagio, Weston, Stonemill, and D’Italiano. Statistics Canada, cited by CBC, noted that during this timeframe, the consumer price index on bread products in Canada rose 96 percent, compared to an 45 percent for all other foods. Loblaw says they fired all involved employees and turned themselves in to the Competition Bureau in 2015, but in being the first to come forward and cooperating with the bureau, are immune from criminal charges. This is convenient given that price-fixing can be met with punishment as severe as $25 million in fines and 14 years in prison.
By Logan Carmichael8 years ago in The Swamp
The "Champagnes" of the Food World
Most of us are familiar with Champagne, along with other drinks like Bourbon and Scotch, whose very existence and identity is defined by geographical origins. If your sparkling wine does not come from France’s Champagne region, then it is not Champagne; it is merely sparkling wine. There’s a vast array of alcoholic beverages that are identifiable strictly by their provenance, the importance of their place of origin. But what you might not know is that the food world is very much the same. Much like alcoholic beverages, there are both international and regional legal mechanisms that have been put in place to protect the provenance of various foods. This ranges from cheeses (the kingpin of global food provenance and geography-based protections), to tea, to potatoes, and across all corners of the globe, from Roquefort-sur-Souizon, France, to Yunnan in China, to Idaho in the United States. This list is by no means exhaustive, but rather it is merely a glimpse into the extremely important role that geography and politics play in the foods we eat every day. These are some of the "Champagnes" of the food world.
By Logan Carmichael8 years ago in Feast
5 Ways the Cold War Shaped Today's Global Food Landscape
Unless you're over the age of 30, you probably haven't lived through, or don't remember, the Cold War, a decades-long ideological battle between the American-led West and Soviet-led East. But regardless of whether you recall the Cold War or not, its legacy lives on in some unexpected ways, including in the way we eat food across this planet. Here are just a few of the ways that the Cold War shaped our foods today.
By Logan Carmichael8 years ago in Feast
US-Mexico Relations & the Avocado. Top Story - December 2017.
If you’re a millennial, chances are you love avocado and will never be able to afford a house. I can’t take credit for this idea — it came from Tim Gurner, an Australian millionaire who, earlier this year, claimed that millennials will be unable to ever buy a house because they buy “smashed avocado for nineteen bucks.” But I digress. The moral of the story is that avocado everything (from the world’s first "avocado bar" in New York City, to the all-avocado restaurant "The Avocado Show" in Amsterdam) has become a phenomenon, and at a price. If you’re an avocado lover like me, you were probably disappointed to see avocado prices skyrocket this summer. Thankfully this has calmed down somewhat, but at the very root of this issue — and many other avocado-related incidents over the past century — there is a deep-seated linkage to the historic relationship between the United States and Mexico. This relationship has returned to the forefront of public consciousness under the leadership of Donald Trump, but is by no means new. How is it that everyone’s favourite green fruit (yes, it’s actually classified as a berry) is so highly politicized, and so closely linked to US-Mexico relations? Allow me to explain.
By Logan Carmichael8 years ago in The Swamp
A Trip Around the World with Nutella
A few years ago, a map—created by the OECD—made the rounds on the Internet, showing the sites of Nutella’s headquarters, sales offices, factories, and sources of all the popular chocolate hazelnut spread’s ingredients. The map was quite impressive; Nutella had quite literally spread itself to all ends of the earth. The advancements of globalization, and improvements in technology and transportation in recent decades, have made it possible for the food on your table to come from practically anywhere. But it also got me thinking: if the food I eat can come from almost anywhere on this earth, how far is it really travelling to get to me? And what kind of impact does this vast distance have on the planet?
By Logan Carmichael8 years ago in Feast
Peeling Back the Banana Industry
I’ve got beef with the banana industry. Why? It’s hard to believe that peeling back the familiar yellow facade reveals such a dark and abusive industry. Bananas are the favourite fruit of a number of the world’s developed countries, including — but certainly not limited to — the United States, Britain, and Canada, with 7.1 billion, 2.5 billion, and 3 billion banana consumed annually, respectively, in 2015. With over 107 million tonnes produced per year, bananas comprise a massive industry, one that is highly, highly concentrated in the hands of three major corporations: Dole, Del Monte, and Chiquita.
By Logan Carmichael8 years ago in Feast
5 Supermarket Secrets You Probably Didn't Know About
Supermarkets: they’re everywhere, and unless you’re some sort of robot that doesn’t need to eat, you can’t really avoid shopping there. The reality is that human beings need food and — let’s be real — most of us aren’t growing our own wheat or milking our own cows, so the supermarket remains the preeminent point of interaction between us, the consumer, and the vast, faceless food industry. While the source of our foods seems increasingly distant nowadays, the dominance of supermarkets in delivering food products to customers has not always been the case.
By Logan Carmichael8 years ago in Feast
