Michel Foucault was a theorist from France who grew in popularity in late twentieth century, his ideas on power and knowledge, discipline and punishment have been studied in various fields. Of his many theories and ideas his work on power, knowledge, and discourse especially resonated with me. Foucault was fond of looking at history and sought a way to understand how those ideas have carried to shape our present. Throughout history, power has often been viewed with negative meaning, but not to Foucault. Power he explained is productive and relational. Power can produce obedience and discipline, and it is situational, as in we do not hold the same amount of power in every situation. In addition power directly shapes our knowledge. Knowledge simply can be put as what we know, and how we know it. Thus knowledge creates discourse which can be defined as is who speaks, how he/she says it, in what context he/she says it, and what reactions does it make. In addition power can also suppress knowledge, therefore power controls knowledge and thus it creates our societies large ideologies.
Relating Foucault’s theories of power to today’s society, an easy comparison is the relationship of Americans love affair with the dairy industry and the USDA. The USDA is the United States Department of agriculture, who are a part of the federal government. Their responsibilities include following policies for our agriculture, farming, forestry and what I will be focusing on; food. Their aim is to take care of the interest of farmers but also safety and food security of Americans and abroad. They also create a guideline of what the suggested American diet should be, for example the food pyramid in grade school might ring a bell. Therefore the USDA creates our ideologies of food in our institution of schools from a very young age. Thus creating our knowledge, and how most people will eat for the rest of their lives.
Institutional epistemology explains the process of trying to understand what we know based upon the institution, thus how knowledge is created. In my example, it all begins in the institution of school, for 25 cents students grab a carton of milk, they learn the food pyramid instructed by the USDA, and are taught that milk creates strong bones. Information is accumulated from a young age, and we tend to keep information, and in this case that “dairy is good for us” as a discourse throughout our lives. Yet who gives us knowledge? Those in power of course. Our knowledge of food and dairy in is part heavily created by the USDA, the government, and lobbyist.
Foucault believed one of the rules of power, was tactical polyvalence, which means power and discourse are strategic, as in we create knowledge to control people. In studies across the world such as the “China study”, and from the PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) we are seeing years of scientific evidence that dairy and meat are directly associated to disease and bad health. These are also known as an archeology of knowledge, stories untold. So why is the USDA continually pushing dairy upon Americans? There’s no money behind healthy people, and powerful people understand that concept very well. In December 1999 and again in 2011, the PCRM filed suit against the USDA, claiming "the department unfairly promotes the special interests of the meat and dairy industries through its official dietary guidelines and the Food Pyramid. Six of the eleven members assigned to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee were demonstrated to have financial ties to meat, dairy, and egg interests” (PCRM). In both cases the PCRM won, and the USDA had refused to disclose such conflicts of interest to the general public, therefore suppressing our knowledge. Our knowledge is comprised because the USDA is tasked with encouraging Americans to eat healthfully, but the agency must also promote agricultural profits. Foucault calls this production of knowledge “discursive formation” this knowledge is then used to justify the actions of social institutions.
In conclusion, we do not see knowledge of dairy changing because the USDA creates power in our institutions, and is the most widely accepted learning mechanism for how we eat. An important point to remember is that Foucault points out that power is not an institution, rather power is everywhere! The USDA holds power, which creates our knowledge of food and dairy, thus creating a discourse that dairy is good for Americans. So will our love for cheese ever subside? Perhaps not but Foucault would agree, power is not possible without knowledge, and power is not permanent rather it’s relational, hence in my eyes there will always be room throughout history for power and our knowledge to shift.