philosophy of food

does one know the moral effects of food? is there a philosophy of nourishment?" fred neitzsche.______________________________________________ moral effects? well...control of food, and especially food surpluses, has conferred a considerable amount of political power since the neolithic revolution...and more than a few politically powerful people have used food as a weapon or a means of discipline ( think j. stalin here perhaps or mao...or a. hitler...you get my drift..and how many in pre-history? ) when nixon's agricultural puppet earl butz said "plant fence row to fence row" and "get big or get out" it was a prelude to creating a food surplus so large it would impact the way the rest of the world ate simply because it made food imports from america so cheap that it basically destroyed traditional agriculture world wide...so the moral effects of food can be devastating...well...the climate is changing in myriad ways and things are going to be a bit more local ( although how local is open to debate ...csa food miles versus centralized production and distribution is an argument that hasn't been settled yet )...as far as a philosophy of nourishment goes yesterday was world food day and part of that celebration was centered on the idea of food security...controlling your own culturally appropriate food source and making it ( once again ) as local as possible...i can relate to that...that is ( in my mind and [i'd wager] in the minds of those who started it ) a central tenet of the community garden and a basic reason for my desire to be involved...the more we grow to feed ourselves the more control we have over our lives and the less that is in the hands of bayer, monsanto, cargil, pioneer, or my good friends at archer daniels midland...i can't think of abetter argument for going out back and planting some potatoes or turnips or the relentless jerusalem artichokes...ethically sound and making a meal of produce you had a hand in growing is eminently satisfying...people have done this for thousands of years and i can recall that virtually everyone in my grandparents generation that i knew kept a kitchen garden...i wonder how so many have lost sight of this...perhaps my grandparents came from a slower time ( i can't recall them asking the time very often )...perhaps we should dwell on that a bit. top three northern tepehuan teosinte ears...next two their relative zea mays...and a hopi blue that is still blue.