food blogging

Whats the difference between a 'food blog' and just blogging about food?
I reckon its a recipe posting ratio of anything more than 5:10

My sister in law casually dropped a message on my 'wall' (Facebook term for page) last week saying she 'really liked my blog but it was very foodie'. (waving at YOU Jen!)

Now being essentially someone who is a little insecure; lacking in self assurity, it threw me into a spin being labelled as very anything. I have reflected on my tendency toward very food related posting in the past so it got me thinking and articulating (justifying) to myself about my interest in food and its place in my activism. Was i realy just randomly blogging about what we had for dinner? So i was really pleased today to find a passage in my current read, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (the irony is not escaping me folks) a wonderful passage that summed up my feeling about the important role of food, not just from a direct nuritional point of view or its role in shaping culture and family, but the big picture of food, the one that i strive to address by my choices and practices in my everyday life, the concept that drives me to include it in my blogging.

Eaters must understand that eating take place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and that what we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used

It's what i try and teach my children.

I think food activism is a particularly very feminine approach to the current issues we face as a global community; it embodies feminist conceptualisations of the personal being political and while we may strive to have equity in our homes and in our child rearing practices, contemporary evidence still shows that women do the majority of the feeding tasks of the family; the decision making of the purchasing and the making and providing. My husband may choose to climb coal fired chimney stacks, head off the Japanese whaling boats in a small rubber dingy and organise pickets against GMOs, I do the day to day monitoring and purchasing of food and all that it involves when you are an ethical, sustainable loca vore consumer and facilitate and manage the planting and maintainance of the vegetables. Both are acts of defiance and intent, both are radical in their own way. Besides the fact, i really love it, food has always been my 'thing'. (If you have any issues with a feminist embracing the traditionally feminine, just head on over to bluemilk and start at the first post). So if what we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used, making good food choices; side stepping and opting out of supporting monolithic, polluting and unethical agribusiness, is choosing to use the worlds resources in a more considered way.