Have you noticed that dinner plate size is changing, again???
Food is one thing all of us share and how food changes over time determines many aspects of our life. It effects global economy, like wheat prices, soya production is not just for cows anymore, more and more vegans result in scientists creating more genetically altered vegetables and so on. It also affects the size of our dishes, what we eat off and how much we eat.
When farmers worked in the fields, before agri-farms took over the industry, family members ate huge meals 3 times a day and used huge bowls and plates. They needed a lot of energy to work outdoors, plowing, planting, harvesting and operating a farm. All family members participated in the economy of the farm and all family members required large meals to sustain them until sundown, when work ended and family's retired for the evening.
Farmers, of days gone by, did not care about the size of their plate other then making sure it would hold what they needed to eat to sustain themselves for the hard work that day. Rarely did you see an obese farmer. They did not care about fat content like eating bacon and eggs. They grew their own produce, had chickens, some kept a number of different farm animals for food, others kept farm animals for their livelihood, like cattle in Alberta.
When farming changed to large agricultural business' subsuming smaller farmers land of only a few thousand acres (my family heritage was farming & I studied the process at university), farmers were forced to find new jobs, unless they were part of the lucky few who accepted large settlements and could retire.
This is one of Canada's myths, that farmers received huge settlements to sell out. Most farmers knew no other kind of business, this was their life, not just their economic means of survival. When they were offered money and turned it down, agri-business' waited until farmers had no choice, because big business took over every aspect of farming and farmers could not compete with prices, so ended up settling for less then their farms were worth or starve to death if they remained.
Back to plates. this is a very simplified version of why plates change over time, and, in our society of more, more, more, will likely fluctuate as trends do. It started with plates downsizing for a number of years because people were eating from grocery stores, for the first time ever. The food offered was not as fresh, bread not as wholesome so not as filling, and people started filling up on empty calories. Macaroni and cheese, pastas of all sorts became a mainstay. Smaller plates accommodated the smaller amount required to fill you up.
As time progressed, decorating became big business along with suburban housing. Box lunches became the vogue, before restaurants made box lunches obsolete. It was a "keep up with the Jones" era, beginning and would grow to proportions that we now see in huge box stores, decorating shows by the numbers on TV, computer use and so on.
As part of this, immigration moved up it's pace in the 1970's and ethnic food became part of big business and started filling the shelves of supermarkets. TV dinners, of a different sort appeared on our SUPER-market shelves, and did not require large dinner plates. You could eat out of the packaged container. If this trend continued, we would not need plates, but that would affect the economy too much.
We started going back to our "roots" and eating healthier. Not the large plates of beef, potatoes and fresh garden vegetables, plucked that morning from the garden. Instead, organic food was introduced and a number of groups, such as communes (today there are 174 known communes that are 100% profit sharing, view web statistics) and introduced beans and legumes as part of a mainstay diet; healthy and low cost. This didn't last because, ultimately, we have a western society brought up on meat and potatoes. This is changing but meat is still a part of most people's diet and, in it's own way, determines plate size.
Then dining became an art. Chargers were introduced, place settings on tables, especially in famous decorating magazines, became a work of art as did food. The reintroduction of larger plates took over stores that the general public could afford to purchase dishes from; IKEA, warehouse and liquidation stores. Add to this the new trend of everyone owning a television set and then computers and we developed one of the most global problems we are addressing today; childhood obesity. Huge plates of food, sedentary life style, equals health problems that often start with obesity, like diabetes, sleep disorders and the list goes on.
The World Health Organization (WHO) found 2 major problems to address this decade and will continue next decade as well. Childhood obesity in the Western World and Childhood Poverty also in the Western World and around the globe. Altho, plates are now coming down in size so hopefully this helps a bit with obesity where too much tv and computer prevent children from going outdoors to actually "play".
I saw this with my daughter, who is 12 years younger then her brothers. She didn't go outside to play as much once she went to school. School projects were done on computers, kids chat thru email on computers, no one picks up a phone or walks down the street to talk to their friends anymore. With my older boys, the phone was their stay at home friend and the beginning of nintendo games. But, by then they loved sports too much to stop outdoor activity, because that was the main part of their life until these games controlled their attention
I have listed this in such simplistic terms that it doesn't follow the real life activities and economics of the true happenings that have determined the size of our plates. I would love to write a paper about it but as I am no longer in university, I would be writing it for me and I know the whole story in my head because I took Sociology of Change and we looked at food to study this (with a brilliant professor, Harriet Friedman). Please read at least one of her books to understand how local economy buying is crucial to keep our prices low and our foods fresh (http://blog.newint.org/editors/2009/12/01/torontos-food-grove/)
Now, we have WHO addressing the serious concern of child poverty, here at home and globally. A huge issue in our local election agenda is poverty. Poverty is one factor that leads to obesity, along with sedentary lifestyle. If you cannot afford fresh fruit and vegetables and lean meats, you need to feed your family with low cost pasta's, not the exotic pastas of the past, simply noodles. Parents are conscientious and want to feed their families well but cannot do so, even with 2 incomes in our community. They feed their kids carrots in season and what they can.
School programs are now necessary to pick up the slack. So, we have smaller plates so people will eat less and we have smaller plates so it doesn't look like nothing is on your plate. What size should our plates be? How can each of help? I don't have money to help myself, never mind contribute to the needs of other families. But, I can do my part.
My daughter and I, when she was about 3, started buying one thing every time we shopped and it was her job to put the item/s in the food bank bin. The goal was to make her socially aware. I had a job then but when I first moved on my own, with the children, I needed to use food banks. I deliberately used smaller plates back then.
I never forgot, and while I was grateful it was also a humbling experience. My belief that it is my responsibility to give back to those who gave freely to me. Now, as I age and my health deteriorates and my economic resources were cut by 3/4 because of my disability of fibromyalgia, I may need to start using the food bank again. But, when soup goes on sale, I make my donation. It just gets smaller now.
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