Globalization of American Food

The globalization of American food refers to the massive export of American culinary products, practices, and ideas to the rest of the world. The notion of “American food” may seem problematic, because it is commonplace to observe that there is no stable, easily identified American food or cuisine. The influx of immigrants from all over the world has created a variegated and diverse range of foods in the United States. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan at least partially attributes what he calls our “national eating disorder,” our uncertainly about what to eat and the consequent ease with which Americans accept new food fads and diets, to our lack of a stable national food culture. He contrasts the United States to France, in that regard. Yet people around the world can identify what they see as American food. It is fast food or junk food. As food policy scholars Millstone and Lang point out in their invaluable Atlas of Food, it is the global spread of the products of big American fast food corporations that represents fast food for most of the world today. Those foods also represent American food to the world. In addition to the foods themselves, the sales and production methods of those American foods have global significance.