Week 8: The Moral Crusade Against Foodies

In the battle between foodies and author B.R. Myers, I suppose I'll just root for a fair fight. I find myself to be an easily persuaded reader at times; the most visceral arguments can rapidly sway me into agreeing with the author, no matter how absurd the topic at hand is. I am, in short, Myers' target audience with this article. "What?! How dare those rich, elitist fat-cat foodies talk down to us middle class folk! My local senator will hear about this!" I hypothetically could have been declaring, in between bites of fictional Doritos. Instead, using the trusted editorial method of "pummel the reader with your opinion until they're left confused and frightened," Myers overwhelmed me with large doses of opinion rather than stating the facts, and let the reader arrive at their own conclusion.

Throughout the article Myers makes no secret of his disdain for foodies everywhere. From the beginning, he portrays them in a light that suggests an elitist view on their end ("It has always been crucial to the gourmet’s pleasure that he eat in ways the mainstream cannot afford."). A reader unfamiliar with the work of Kim Severson, or Anthony Bourdain would almost undeniably encounter a somewhat pompous tone. This is the main flaw of Myers' piece. These things are so evident that listing egotistical quotes from foodies, and then leaving remarks such as "A vegetarian diet, in other words? Please." emits the tone of a disgruntled reader leaving an anonymous blog comment rather than an established editorial writer expressing his educated view.

Perhaps my primary gripe with this article is the "inside the box" mentality Myers writes with. It's easy to repeatedly state the opinion that foodie writers are condescending and arrogant. Myers never makes an effort, however, to explain or ask why foodie writers engage in this genre. I find this question to be far more relevant to the subject at hand than any addressed by Myers. There's clearly a market for this brand of literature and media; there's no use in bashing all who participate in it as "gluttons." Food is something vital to the lives of everyone, and Myers did a weak job arguing why he thinks releasing books or other program on that subject matter is morally wrong.

I would have really enjoyed being on Myers' side after reading this article. There are certainly elements to this piece I agree with. One should certainly feel a degree of moral emptiness after stating "I’ve eaten raw seal, guinea pig. I’ve eaten bat." This is far from the only example of wastefulness in the world, however. People spend more money than they have to attend or support sporting events when they could be donating to charities. People attend concerts and purchase music when that money could well have been used to give to a homeless shelter. Likewise, people spend money on exotic foods and review them for people's entertainment because there's a market for it. It doesn't make them, or the consumer bad people for showing an interest. Myers could have hooked me along his bandwagon with this article; instead I came away thinking he had a few good points, but was severely mis-guided.