Counter cultural movements can be told through their stomachs

Food provided during Occupy Wall Street, oct 16th 2011

The history of counter cultural movements can be told through their stomachs. Sustenance is an oppressed group’s most basic demand, and protesters have often employed it to help voice their beef with the mainstream. The rising cost of bread and salt helped set off the French Revolution. Salt was a key element in Gandhi’s nonviolent protest against the British. Sixties-era communards gathered around recipes like “Heart in Surprising Sauce” or “Brotherhood Spirit in Flesh Soup.” Even Coca-Cola took on a symbolic role during the lunch counter sit-ins of the 1960s. Before it was reclaimed by the modern-day Republican fringe, the Tea Party was, of course, an 18th century protest against tea taxes.

Source:
http://www.good.is/post/watch-your-mouth-the-protest-food-of-occupy-wall-street/
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2011/10/the-long-marriage-of-vegetarianism-and-social-activism/