David Mas Masumoto in The Perfect Peach
If foods are not paired with stories, no one hears the farmer’s voice and the farmer is easily dismissed.
More context:
Without stories, peaches become a commodity and consumers are attracted by their cheap prices. Gone are the words that help commit experience to memory. When we lack a language of taste, we lose one of the main ingredients for creating lasting meaning. If foods are not paired with stories, no one hears the farmer’s voice and the farmer is easily dismissed.
— and so many of the stories we share involve scoring cheaply priced produce in season (and splurging out of season on that rare find) and we exchange stories about what to do with a glut — farmer stories are highly mediated often by marketing agencies in instances far from the food itself — “pairing” here signifies “connecting” and that doesn’t occur in “coupling” — the words aren’t gone … taste endures in its multiple forms … experiences are committed to memory and memories propagate into the future —
And so for day 2527
13.11.2013