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We are what we eat?

Apr 16

Wed 8:00 PM

Location: The Beanery

2925 College Ave
Berkeley, CA
Berkeley, CA 94705
(510) 665-1404

Who attended?: Estimated attendance: 6 people attended.

Meeting fee: $1.00 per person

This month we will discuss whether and to what degree society is shaped by consumption and/or production. Are we what we eat, or what we do? Readings by Naomi Klein to be posted by Dante and Peter. Ariella will post readings by Marx and Fromm. Look at the Messages tab for suggested readings.

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Posted Apr 15, 2008 7:01 PM

Eric Wasiolek

Okay. Now I read some of your comments related to the phrase "we are what we eat." If this is stated more broadly as "are we what we consume?" then I argue there still is no identity between a person and what they consume, the person qua consumer is just one role they play in an economy, as is the person qua producer. We may loosely identify americans as heftier consumers of resources per capita that for example the chinese, and to others inthe world our overconsumption may partofour identity
Posted Apr 15, 2008 3:35 PM

Eric Wasiolek

We are what we eat? This question was at the top of the meet up page. "We are what we eat" really makes no sense in English. There isn't any strong sense in which we are what we eat unless one wants to argue that what we ingest is part of us. This phrase comes from GERMAN where it is a play on words: "Mann ist was er isst." Since in german the word for "is" and the word for "eats" is the same. This is merely a play of words in german which doesn't work in English. Eric.