Food Trucks

I have been reading a collection of essays titled Food Trucks, Cultural Identity, and Social Justice: From Loncheras to Lobsta Love. Although there's a bit of history of lunch wagons at factories during World War II, and of earlier mobile ethnic food vendors, the majority of the material is about the 21st century. Several new developments in the world of food trucks in a number of cities in the US and Canada are discussed in articles by various authors focusing on specific places and their problems.

The New York Police Department towing the food truck of Patty's Tacos,
which was singled out for rigorous enforcement and eventually driven out
of business a few years ago. (Illustration from p. 95)

A major theme is the conflict and contrast of two trends: immigrants who are barely able to make a living selling their ethnic cuisine and modern foodies inventing upscale food-truck dining, including fusion cooking, local and organic foods, and other popular dining modes. Uneven and often unfair enforcement of laws often make the immigrant experience more difficult than that of Anglo foodies.

Quite a few organizations have been formed to promote and protect food trucks and their role in street culture. Also, in some cities, food trucks have been viewed as having the potential to supply "food deserts" with better quality produce or other food -- though this has not succeeded in any of the reported areas.

In sum:

"The sale of food in the streets has a long, contentious history in the United States and abroad. Street vendors regularly inflame 'quality of life' concerns among brick-and-mortar business owners large and small, as well as among concerned residents, who press municipal officials to remove vendors from 'their' corner or block, a NIMBYism that invariably requires police intervention to be achieved." (p. 47). 

Almost every food fad and fashion has been represented in food-truck culture. In one city, for example, would-be sellers have to show the attraction and value of their offerings, which seem to be pretty typical throughout the places mentioned:

"Successful applicants advertise that their food trucks serve 'traditional' ethnic foods (including traditional Belgian waffles, authentic Salvadoran pupusas and pasteles, traditional Korean bulgogi and bibimbap, authentic Japanese gyozas, classic Aussie pies, and traditional UK tandoori) or that they serve modern 'fusion' cuisine (along the lines of kimchi tacos, butter chicken schnitzel, Filipino sliders, pizza perogies, yam tempura burritos, and, of course, Japadog’s famed hot dogs topped with pickled ginger and wasabi mayonnaise)." (p. 246). 

The central focus of Food Trucks, Cultural Identity, and Social Justice -- as the title suggests -- is very issue-driven. Central conflicts exist over rights, responsibilities, privileges, and prejudices concerning mobile food sales. Laws about food trucks have always emphasized food safety, traffic safety, and control of location of the trucks, including control of litter and control of crowds. Some of the main conflicts and issues:

• Immigrants with limited capital and limited English skills have traditionally made a living by making and selling cheap food to people in their community. In recent history, they have often owned food trucks, and prejudice against their groups has caused authorities to treat them harshly, especially being very zealous in enforcement of food safety laws, traffic laws (like where they can park) and other laws.
• Questions of authenticity and cultural appropriation come up all the time, as actual natives present the cuisine of their own countries (such as Mexico) but Americans who know the laws better and have more money to invest can out-compete them.
• Restaurant owners and other business owners, in efforts to suppress competition, have traditionally used their influence to restrict food trucks -- whether owned by immigrants or not. 

Unfortunately there is a lot of very unpleasant academic jargon used excessively in the essays. Some of the individual authors are especially outrageous in this respect. For example: "urban life involves constant and shifting tension between acts of performative agency and restrictive policy." (p. 190). Or this sentence:

"Stepping outside the logic of the market in defining these spaces, it becomes clear that the spaces food trucks occupy are momentarily transformed, turned into a temporary social space where everyday life expands and contracts before allowing the space to resume its normative function." (p. 195).

Inevitably, there is a certain amount of repetition among the descriptions of the issues for the various places. However, it's pretty interesting. The editors offer this summary:

"The question is who gets to define these new identities: Is it the immigrant and working-class vendors themselves, or is it the privileged foodies who are, perhaps unwittingly, participants in cultural appropriation?" (p. 314).

The editors of this collection are Julian Agyeman, Caitlin Matthews, and Hannah Sobel. Each essay describes the experience of a different municipality with food trucks, including New York City; New Orleans; Columbus, Ohio; Montreal and Vancouver, Canada; Chicago; Los Angeles; Durham, NC; Portland, OR; Atlanta, GA; and a couple of others.