How our food is grown and by whom could affect our emotions and the meaning we take from food, new research from the University of Canberra has found.
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Assistant professor in nutrition and dietetics at UC, Gabrielle O'Kane, has revealed that food enthusiasts who get their food from local community gardens, community supported agriculture (CSA) – where people are regularly supplied with seasonal produce by a local farmer – and farmers' markets, tend to develop a strong emotional connection to their food and where it comes from.
She said those in her focus groups spoke of the importance of spending time over growing, shopping and preparing food and they embraced a food culture that produced deep emotional attachments.
"They spent additional time to take in the sensory experience of food while gathering or shopping, preparing or eating it," she said.
The people in Dr O'Kane's research all expressed emotional attachments to food, noting that they were all connected to where their food was grown and by whom.
Dr O'Kane speculated that if it was possible to get people more involved in their food, it could lead to better health outcomes.
"People like the French and the Japanese have a strong food culture and it's interesting that with that strong food culture, they're not as overweight or as obese as Australians or Americans ... so there's quite a possibility that a strong connection to a food culture may have better dietary patterns and better health outcomes just because people are interested and involved in their food and spend time over their food so they make it a priority," she said.
Dr O'Kane's research found CSA subscribers felt connected to the farmers and how their food was grown while people who frequented farmers' markets also tended to form a connection with the growers.
She said people who tended to shop at farmers' markets were prepared to give up the convenience of supermarket shopping, in exchange for fresh, local and seasonal food and they felt the food tasted better.
"Overall our study showed that this particular food culture creates and enforces a deep connection with people and place, memories and emotions. It recognises and rewards the dedication and time required to growing or procuring food, preparing and eating it," Dr O'Kane said.
The emotional connection people felt to food should not be discounted, she said.
"What this message is about is about emotional connections to food as well and so it's a felt sensation that people have around food that makes them feel so connected to it," she said.
"I think that's part of the take-home message that people can connect to food on so many different levels and not to discount those things.
"Those emotional connections come from the physical connection too, and the connection to other people so the connection to the farmers that grow your food, helps build that emotional connection to your food whereas just going into a supermarket and just picking things off the shelf, it doesn't connect you to where it's grown in the same way so I think people are looking for that deeper connection with their food."
