Food has the power to draw people together like no other human activity — think Thanksgiving. But food can also divide. In the past presidential campaign opponents frequently used food to divide voters down party lines — think “those arugula eating liberals.” In this installment of Edible Idaho, correspondent Guy Hand looks at eating as partisan politics. For more on this story or to listen to past Edible Idaho programs, go to northwest food news dot com.
(NPR Commentator) So Jim, let's start off with the number one hottest political question: What kind of lettuce do you like?
(Jim) Ah, me, I like good ol' crips iceberg lettuce.
(Commentator) Yes! You're a real American.
(Jim) Unlike that fancy arugula.
(Hand) Ah-ruh-GAH-la or ah-ruh-GYOU-la — that peppery Mediterranean green — is just the latest innocent edible we've thrown to the jaws of partisanship.
(Commentator) Did you say arugula? Is that a country in Africa?
(Hand) Back on the campaign trail, Barak Obama asked Iowans “Anybody gone into Whole Foods lately? See what they charge for arugula?" (Rush Limbaugh music) The right dove into that statement like corndogs into mustard.
(Limbaugh) Does a guy who worries about the price of arugula really want to have a debate about who's in touch with regular Americans?
(Hand) Rush Limbaugh probably remembers when granola divided the left from the right. Then quiche, brie, latte and that reoccurring favorite: chablis.
(Obama) It's not like I've been winning in states that only have chablis drinking limousine liberals. I mean we've been winning in places like Idaho.
(Hand) Well, on election day that Idaho thing didn't exactly pan out, but since I'm here in Idaho — one of reddest, and if the logic holds, one of the most arugula-allergic states in the union — I thought I'd put to the test the notion that liberals and conservatives eat differently.
(Ringing phone)
(Hand) First I thought I'd go to the source. Like that bastion of conservative consumerism: Walmart.
(Walmart Employee) Produce.
(Hand) Do you guys sell arugula?
(Employee) Huh?
(Hand) Do you guys sell arugula?
(Employee) Arugula, uhh, yes we do. It's baby ‘rugula or something like that.
(Hand) Do you have any idea if it's popular there?
(Employee) Uhm. No, not really, not here . . .
(Ringing phone)
(Hand) Next I tried that alleged Idaho island of edible liberalism, the Boise Coop.
(Coop Employee) Boise Coop Produce.
(Hand) Do you guys sell arugula?
(Employee) We do.
(Hand) Is it popular at the Coop?
(Employee) It is popular. Yes.
(Street sounds)
(Hand) Next I tried the food carts near the state capitol building. Chris Olsen runs the Salad Man van. But when Idaho's right-dominated legislature eats lunch, its not mainly salads he sells.
(Olson): I would say that when the legislators are in session that I do sell a lot of hamburgers and a lot of cheese steak, my beef steak sandwiches . . .
(Hand): Olsen says when he rolls into those few liberal-leaning parts of Boise he sells more salads, more arugula.
(Sound in restaurant)
(Hand): Still, my leafy green measure of partisanship wilts a little when I talk to self-described conservative and restauranteur Mike Grant.
(Grant): Arugula is delicious, a little spicy, great on pizzas, great on salads. It's lovely.
(Hand): See, Grant runs what he calls a blue collar restaurant, but it's an Italian blue collar restaurant.
(Grant): Ask any Italian if arugula is a rich man's herb and it just grows everywhere.
(Hand): Arugula doesn't hold up as political measure when I talk to liberal columnist Bill Cope either.
(Cope): I'm a red-stater when it comes to arugula.
(Hand): Cope may be an arugula-phob, but back in 1996 he did use food to try and tease out a politician's true nature.
(Cope): At that time the big food joke that the Republicans were always telling on liberals is that we were wine and brie eaters. Arugula evidently hadn't been invented yet.
(Hand): So prior to interviewing this politically ambiguous politician, Cope decided to bait him with food.
(Cope): I put on the right a can of Coors beer and a bowl of pork rinds. And on the left I put a glass of white wine, I can't remember what it was, and brie. My point was to have the photographer catch him in the act of going for one or the other.
(Hand): Unfortunately for Cope, said politician Walt Minnick was too savvy. He declined both right and left choices.
(Cope): So we just dropped the whole thing and I ended up eating it all.
(Hand): Now, conservative Idaho blogger Adam Graham isn't ambiguous about his taste in partisan foods.
(Hand): Do you eat arugula? (Graham): No, I do not!
(Hand): Graham admits that arugula probably isn't an accurate measure of political belief. But, he says, using food as a weapon is good politics.
(Graham): Of course, I think probably some of the rich conservatives, they're smart enough as politicians not to mention, oh, I like arugula. The liberals, it's kind of a badge of honor that they have just got to share so that their liberal friends know he's one of us. He had arugula!
(Swetnam): Food has always been a way of people marking who they are . . .
(Hand): Susan Swetnam is a food scholar and professor at Idaho State University.
(Swetnam): And as such, it's pretty much as long as there's been food, people have had food fights about I eat this and you eat that and never the twain shall meet.
(Hand): Swetnam says food has been used as a cultural divider not only in politics, but class, religion and ethnicity for as long as humans have gnashing teeth.
(Swetnam): I bet everybody who is listening to this program has peaked in somebody else's refrigerator while you're at their house to see what's there and then the act of sitting down with people or in restaurants looking at what the next table is having. It becomes a demonstration to other people of who you are.
(Sounds of cooking)
(Hand): So, this Thanksgiving, be very, very careful. You are what you eat — as least in the eyes of others. That's why I'm having a fair and balanced holiday meal. I'm using the Fox News menu they call “A Red Meat Thanksgiving.” Their menu includes arugula salad.
(Hand) In Boise Idaho, I'm Guy Hand
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