An increasing number of Americans are abandoning processed foods and taking control of their own food supply chain—planting backyard gardens and sourcing meat, eggs, dairy, and pantry staples directly from local markets and farms. The trend, which is gaining momentum under the "Make America Healthy Again" movement—and even noted by Goldman—reflects a broader push for food independence and a return to community-based sourcing.
Not everyone is on board with MAHA — especially not the feminist journalists at SELF (owned by the corporate media company Condé Nast), who recently penned an article that reads like a hit piece against MAHA.
Erica Sloan's critique of MAHA is that food independence is unrealistic and burdensome for women in the modern progressive world.
In her article titled "How the MAHA Food Agenda Threatens to Set Women Back Decades," Sloan writes...
But it's what MAHA isn't saying that's most important: Stoking so much fear around these vital industries implies that Americans—more specifically, the mothers of America—need to find a different way to feed their families.
"Women do a disproportionate share of the kind of work that the MAHA movement is asking people to do, which is to grow their own food, to prepare all of their food from scratch, and to avoid processed food and even packaged foods," Norah MacKendrick, PhD, associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University and author of Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics, tells SELF. Even today, with approximately 60% of women working outside the home, women still spend about two hours more on housework daily and cook more than twice as many meals a week as men do. The implication that our current food system is inherently unsafe just stands to pile on the labor.
"In order for a family to eat a diet of mostly homegrown or even just homemade meals… that's going to be a lot more work for women and mothers especially," Dr. MacKendrick says. It's an ideal that the MAHA moms have already embodied—and that would be not only unrealistic but unfair to expect from all American families.
Decades?
The angle that Sloan uses to bash MAHA via a quote from some woman in acemedia is entirely flawed, that's because MAHA doesn't force anyone to grow their own food or make everything from scratch—it simply raises awareness about the systemic failures of Big Food and Big Pharma and empowers families to reclaim control where possible. Some folks plant gardens, while others buy from local ranchers and farmers. The movement calls for informed choices and better public policy—not a return to the primitive 1800s—or is asking women to live like the modern-day Amish.
My wife’s sous vide with reverse sear tenderloin. I married well. pic.twitter.com/4TU6pizHyK
— Paul Charchian (@PaulCharchian) September 17, 2024
Heaven forbid women to cook from scratch for their families! More nonsense from the PR journalist ...
MAHA's villainization of food processing just adds the burden of cooking from scratch to women's plates.
The journalist concluded the article with this: "Processed and ultraprocessed items are also functional necessities for many, and can spark joy. And again, some of them have positive nutritional value."
Meanwhile...
At the end of the article, SELF advises readers to...
Why SELF is targeting MAHA remains a mystery, though the answer may lie in who their mega-corporate advertisers are.