Ben Stewart
The Performance of Produce

Conference presentation

Slides: Three sites (Dean & Deluca, Gourmet Garage, West Side Market)

	We all know that capitalism has to expand, to diversify, in order
to stay afloat. And In this I don't think these three sites are any
different: they're all engaged in the same project. Certainly Dean &
Deluca is the master signifier of this exotic spect acle -- and this is
perhaps even more the case in reality than in the photographs -- but aside
from that they are the same: all expressions of the same system. 
	So, what then do these three sites perform of the agricultural
system that produced them? Actually, not much. Aside from "Look Mom
California carrots!", we are generally given little information about the
origins of our produce. As far as apples go, the only example of this I
observed in the last month a sign at the Gourmet Garage asserting that
their McIntosh originated from New York. Perhaps this lack of information
is not so strange, but it becomes more curious in light of how hard it is
to get such i nformation when one actively seeks it. Aside from the
varieties that are grown locally, none of the stores seem to know anything
about the origins of their apples. In fact, the only information Dean &
Deluca gave me was that they don't reveal anything abo ut their suppliers.
. . . What does this mean? What are we to make of this information gap
between the system of production and the site of consumption? And since
these sites don't perform much of their origins, what exactly do they
perform? We'll start w ith performance: 
	These sites enact a fantasy: one that is nothing other than the
seemingly endless pleasure promised by the display of commodities. This is
most clear in Dean & Deluca where the fantasy is precisely one of no
limit, no bar on desire. Utopia to be had for a mere three dollars a
pound. Granted, the apples at Dean & Deluca are slightly better than
elsewhere, but I would argue that most of what one is paying for there is
the quality of the fantasy. And certainly the high price also serves to
add to the fantas y. Now, psychoanalysis teaches us that fantasy is that
thing which covers over disturbances: trauma, elisions, gaps; as such,
fantasy is itself a signification that covers a failure to signify. While
it stands-in for elisions, and while it therefore has a
 relation to them, it is radically distinct from them. Thus the relation
of production to consumption is precisely that of elision to fantasy. So,
if our fantasy in this case is something along the lines of civilization
without the discontents -- i.e. no limit on pleasure -- if this is the
case, then what are the disturbances that are being covered over?
	For starters there is the problem I mentioned earlier: that of
where these apples come from. Even if one wants to know, it's often
difficult or impossible to find out. And much of this is not even due to
someone trying to hide the information. It's large ly a result of the
complexity of the structure of our economy: the form of capitalism itself
hides it.
	There are several other issues here, but I will only focus on one,
namely the contradiction within diversity. Six years ago I picked apples
at Gould Hill orchard in New Hampshire. When I was there, they were
working on their own apple variety, the Hampsh ire, which they have now
patented. They had also just built a large controlled atmosphere storage
facility in order to be able to sell apples more profitably in the off
season. For the last two years however, the orchard has lost money. To
quote the owner : "Our whole industry is going through quite a change.
There is now essentially a world-wide apple market. . . . The southern
hemisphere is producing a lot of fruit. . . . And that comes in fresh at
about the time when controlled atmosphere storages here would be getting a
premium price. These are subsidized growing situations, so the price is
significantly lower than what I would hope to get [for what I've had
stored] for five, six, seven months." This influx of production from the
Southern Hemisphere ha s brought with it a stability that capitalism
likes: fresh apples all year around, and at low cost. It has also been a
source of new varieties -- e.g. the Gala's and the Fuji's -- which as we
can see from the chart are fetching the highest prices. But thi s
appearance of diversity simultaneously signifies a consolidation that
potentially reduces diversity. Part of the problem here is that the fads
of the market move within a different time frame than do the demands of
running an orchard. Even if Fuji's and
 Gala's are planted now there is no guarantee they will still be
profitable by the time they mature.  How then, in this situation, is an
orchard to stay afloat long enough to have a chance to offer its own
contribution? Diversity is rarely, if ever, trans parently so. It is
usually foreclosing some other possibility. This then is precisely the
disturbance that we need the fantasy to cover over -- namely, that
capitalism's inner workings work against itself; especially in this highly
complex version of capi talism to which we are currently subject.