Our full humanity is contingent on our hospitality; we can be complete only when we are giving something away; when we sit at the table and pass the peas to the person next to us we see that person in a whole new way.
Alice WatersRead
Food should be cheap, and labor should be cheap, and everything should be the same no matter where you go; whether it's a McDonald's in Germany or one in California, it should be the same. And this message is destroying cultures around the world. Needless to say, agriculture goes with it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the negative impact of globalization on local cultures and agricultural practices.
Alice Waters highlights the importance of cultural diversity and the detrimental effects of standardization in food and labor across the globe. She argues that the drive for uniformity, represented by fast-food chains and cheap labor, is eroding unique cultural identities and agricultural traditions, which are essential to the richness of human experience.
Themes
GlobalizationCultureAgricultureStandardizationIdentity
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a speech about preserving local traditions and food systems.
More from Alice Waters
All quotes →When you have the best and tastiest ingredients, you can cook very simply and the food will be extraordinary because it tastes like what it is.
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I believe there should be breakfast, lunch and afternoon snack, all for free and for every child that goes to school. And all food that is good, clean and fair.
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I am disappointed because nobody is talking about food and agriculture. They're talking about the diets of children, but they're talking about Band-Aids. We're not seeing a vision.
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I believe that every child in this world needs to have a relationship with the land...to know how to nourish themselves...and to know how to connect with the community around them.
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We eat every day, and if we do it in a way that doesn't recognize value, it's contributing to the destruction of our culture and of agriculture. But if it's done with a focus and care, it can be a wonderful thing. It changes the quality of your life.
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