women, housework and healthy diet
Today, after decades of scientific research and questioning of the fast-food industry, we know that ultra-processed foods are major promoters of chronic non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as contributing to the destruction of nature, since they are based on monocultures of commodities such as soy, wheat, corn and sugar cane. We also know that home cooking with fresh or minimally processed ingredients is the best option for nourishing the body, strengthening regional cultures and respecting the environment. But, as Bela Gil asks in her new book, who is going to make this food? Based on this question, the chef, presenter and activist links healthy eating, feminism and domestic work, complexifying a debate ignored by cookbooks and cooking shows. Is it the housewife, the mother, the grandmother, the wife, the migrant domestic worker, the poor black woman from the periphery who will continue to have to man the stove? And who will make her food, her family's food? In Who's going to make this food?, Bela Gil criticizes the historical devaluation of the act of cooking, which has its roots in slavery, and calls for the payment of wages for domestic work, a theme of the work of thinkers such as Silvia Federici. “Is it right that, for a few to have fresh food and be healthy and free to pursue their dreams, many others have to make do with ultra-processed products that are bad for the body and the planet - and that's when they don't go hungry?”
