Tofu Curtain
{{Short description|Cultural or socioeconomic divide in Western Massachusetts}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}}
Image:Hampshire and Hamden Counties.jpg
Tofu Curtain is a nickname for a cultural or socioeconomic divide between two geographic regions and the people who reside in them, with the concept of tofu symbolizing certain lifestyles and political leanings. The term was coined in Massachusetts to identify trends on either side of a county line in the Pioneer Valley along the Connecticut River, and has also been widely used similarly with regards to gentrifying neighborhoods in Melbourne, Australia.{{cite book|last1=Toensmeier|first1=Eric|last2=Bates|first2=Jonathan|title=Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre, and the Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City|date=2013|publisher=Chelsea Green Publishing|location=White River Junction, Vt.|page=24|isbn=9781603583992|language=en}} While the Tofu Curtain most often refers to these specific regions of Victoria and Western Massachusetts, other tofu curtains have been named along similar socioeconomic, educational, ideological, political and/or ethno-racial divides in various locations around the globe.{{cite book|last1=Dávila|first1=Arlene|last2=Rivero|first2=Yeidy M.|title=Contemporary Latina/o Media: Production, Circulation, Politics|date=2014|publisher=New York University Press|location=New York|isbn=9781479848119|language=en}}
The term derives from the political and ideological Iron Curtain that separated communist Eastern Bloc countries from Western Europe during the Cold War. The insertion of "tofu" into the phrase asserts that a high proportion of vegetarians reside on one side of the divide, and associates left wing politics with vegetarianism.
Locations
=Western Massachusetts=
File:Bare Mountain - Mount Holyoke Range.jpg from Bare Mountain]]
The line of the Tofu Curtain in Western Massachusetts runs roughly east–west along the Holyoke Range.{{cite book|last1=Breitbart|first1=Myrna Margulies|title=Creative Economies in Post-Industrial Cities: Manufacturing a (Different) Scene|date=2016|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=9781317158325|language=en}}{{cite news|last1=Matthews|first1=Luke|title=Parting the Tofu Curtain|url=http://whmp.com/podcasts/shows/tofu|accessdate=March 1, 2017|work=WHMP|date=May 21, 2013|format=Radio|archive-date=March 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170303053204/http://whmp.com/podcasts/shows/tofu|url-status=dead}} To the north is wealthier Hampshire County, home to the Five College Consortium of Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts.{{cite news|last1=Peters|first1=Bill|title=The latest 'worst of' list to involve Springfield|url=http://www.masslive.com/localbuzz/index.ssf/2009/10/the_latest_worst_of_list_to_in_1.html|accessdate=March 1, 2017|work=masslive.com|date=October 8, 2009}} To the south is Hampden County, comprising the mostly working class cities of Holyoke and Springfield, and their surrounding towns.{{cite news|last1=Nathan|first1=Marty|title=A bus commuter hopes for change|url=http://www.gazettenet.com/Archives/2014/03/nathanGUEST-hg-032514|accessdate=March 1, 2017|work=Daily Hampshire Gazette|date=March 25, 2014}} While this southern part of the Massachusetts' Pioneer Valley is the second largest metropolitan region in the state, areas of it are economically depressed, with a deficit of available jobs and significantly lower household incomes.{{cite news|last1=Meraji|first1=Shereen Marisol|title=In Search of Puerto Rican Identity in Small-Town America|url=http://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=516620923:517823430|accessdate=March 1, 2017|work=NPR|date=March 1, 2017|language=en|format=Radio}} Meanwhile, the more rural and collegiate areas to the north are home to a preponderance of worker cooperatives and small businesses that often manufacture and sell natural products (such as tofu) to a more affluent population.{{cite news|last1=Cassano|first1=Jay|title=A Worker Cooperative That Proves Alternative Economic Systems Aren't Only For The Privileged|url=https://www.fastcoexist.com/3028432/a-worker-cooperative-that-proves-alternative-economic-systems-arent-only-for-the-privileged|accessdate=March 1, 2017|work=Co.Exist|date=April 18, 2014}}{{cite news|title=Five Things to Love About Hadley|url=http://valleyadvocate.com/2016/09/19/five-things-to-love-about-hadley/|accessdate=March 2, 2017|work=Valley Advocate|date=September 19, 2016}} The term was applied to this region of Massachusetts as early as 2006.
File:The "Tofu Curtain" of the Pioneer Valley - MA Public High School District SAT by town (cropped).png and the Greater Springfield area, illustrating disparate educational outcomes]]
While the Tofu Curtain's distinction is based on U.S. Census data and the repute of the two counties on either side of the Holyoke Range, their demographics are not absolute. Hampshire County being framed as "more collegiate" than Hampden either ignores the presence of the nine additional colleges and universities in the Springfield metropolitan area's Knowledge Corridor,{{cite news|last1=Siefer|first1=Ted|title=A Springfield revival? – CommonWealth Magazine|url=http://commonwealthmagazine.org/economy/a-springfield-revival/|accessdate=March 2, 2017|work=CommonWealth Magazine|date=October 7, 2016}} or regards these educational institutions as inferior to those of the Five College Consortium.{{cite web|title=Impacts|url=https://www.fivecolleges.edu/community/impacts|website=Five College Consortium|accessdate=March 2, 2017|language=en|archive-date=August 20, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170820115440/https://www.fivecolleges.edu/community/impacts|url-status=dead}} In addition to being populated by some more affluent residents and college students, economic disparities exist within Northampton, resulting in neighborhood rifts on that side of the Tofu Curtain. Despite the presence of a wealthy college and huge university, an estimated 30-40% of students in the Amherst-Pelham school district qualified for free or reduced lunches in 2017 due to living in low-income households.{{cite news |last1=Lederman |first1=Diane |title=Amherst schools nix 'punitive' lunches for students with unpaid bills |url=https://www.masslive.com/news/2017/06/amherst_school_committee_amend.html |access-date=January 3, 2023 |work=MassLive |date=June 15, 2017}}
Likewise, Hampden County's large working-class and Puerto Rican populations have been active in community organizing and progressive politics, activities often associated with the culture of the college towns to the north.{{cite news|last1=Szafranski|first1=Matt|title=Progressive Moves To the Left and a Bit to the West... – Western Mass Politics & Insight|url=http://www.wmasspi.com/2017/02/progressive-moves-left-bit-west.html|accessdate=March 1, 2017|work=Western Mass Politics & Insight|date=February 12, 2017}} The assertion that there is a Tofu Curtain has also been a rallying point for people living and working on both sides of the county line to create equitable systems of food sovereignty, workplace democracy, and environmental justice as means to destratify the region economically while uniting it politically.{{cite news|last1=Drane|first1=Amanda|title=What Are You Going to Do About It? Monte's March and people fighting for food access|url=http://valleyadvocate.com/2015/11/30/what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it/|accessdate=March 1, 2017|work=Valley Advocate|date=November 30, 2015}}{{cite news|last1=O’Rourke|first1=Dineen|title=Climate Justice a Spotlight on Springfield TV|url=https://climateactionnowma.org/category/springfield/|accessdate=March 2, 2017|work=Climate Action Now Western Massachusetts|date=June 5, 2016|archive-date=June 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617061842/http://climateactionnowma.org/category/springfield/|url-status=dead}} In a 2022 interview with WRSI radio, Emily Brewster of Merriam-Webster called the Tofu Curtain "an imagined line" that can be "problematic" and "over-simplifying" in its attempts to define a region and its people.{{cite news |last1=Belmonte |first1=Monte |title=The Etymology of The Tofu Curtain: WORD NERD |url=https://wrsi.com/monte/the-etymology-of-the-tofu-curtain-word-nerd/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231031170138/https://wrsi.com/monte/the-etymology-of-the-tofu-curtain-word-nerd/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 31, 2023 |access-date=October 31, 2023 |work=93.9 & 101.5 The River |agency=WRSI |date=March 9, 2022 }}
=Elsewhere in the United States=
People use the term "tofu curtain" to describe a similar sociopolitical phenomenon outside of Western Massachusetts. Those residing in other politically or ecologically progressive regions of New England, such as Cambridge, Massachusetts, or the entire state of Vermont, are sometimes said to be living "behind the Tofu Curtain." Likewise, the term is used pejoratively by those opposed to a liberal political position.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}} The term "tofu curtain" can also be used to describe an ideological situation, as opposed to a specific geographic area. In a 2003 essay, Paul Gilroy described a political speak-out on a university campus and used the term "tofu curtain" as a metaphor for petty factionalizations among different strains of student activism:
As peace rallies proliferate, the campus left will have to tear down the tofu curtain and dig itself out from underneath the wreckage of identity politics so narcissistic and short-sighted that it reproduces the political solipsism and imperialistic indifference that are usually associated with power and privilege.{{cite book|last1=Moore|first1=Donald S.|last2=Kosek|first2=Jake|last3=Pandian|first3=Anand|last4=Gilroy|first4=Paul|title=Race, Nature, and the Politics of Difference|date=2003|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham|isbn=978-0822330912|language=en|chapter=1. After the Great White Error}}
Similarly, the Inter-Cooperative Council at the University of Michigan has used the term "tofu curtain" to refer to a dietary split between vegetarians and meat-eaters among its members. At one point an agreement among the co-ops made the split geographical, marked by a particular corner in Ann Arbor with all co-op houses on one side having "veggie" and on the other side "carnie" kitchens. The Ann Arbor co-ops were using the term as early as 1984.{{cite news|last1=Campeau|first1=Lisa|title=Remembering the Tofu Curtain|url=http://www.icc.coop/story/alumni/cooperator/AlumCooperator2010Final.pdf|accessdate=March 2, 2017|work=The Alumni Cooperator|publisher=Inter-Cooperative Council|date=2010–2011|page=19|archive-date=March 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170303051027/http://www.icc.coop/story/alumni/cooperator/AlumCooperator2010Final.pdf|url-status=dead}}
=Australia=
In Australia's 2016 federal election, voters south of Bell Street in Melbourne's northern suburb of Brunswick voted overwhelmingly for the Green Party and those to the north went for the Labor Party. While the neighborhoods that voted Labor still lean left politically, they tend to be more working class, and the gentrified neighborhoods of Brunswick and North Melbourne went Green. The split helped nickname Bell Street as Melbourne's own Tofu Curtain. In 2018 Australia's fossil fuel industry took advantage of the nickname by volleying the term pejoratively in attempts to divide Green Party and Labor activists from organizing together against expansion of coal mining and gas drilling.{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Chris |title=Greenies behind 'tofu curtain' blamed for suffocating mining industry |url=https://www.2gb.com/greenies-behind-tofu-curtain-blamed-for-suffocating-mining-industry/ |accessdate=July 15, 2018 |work=2GB 873AM |language=en}}{{cite news |title='Lying' greenies accused of killing Queensland mining industry |url=https://www.couriermail.com.au/business/lying-greenies-accused-of-killing-queensland-mining-industry/news-story/c8bada0682d13acf636c07afc28b8bb9 |accessdate=July 15, 2018 |work=Courier Mail |date=June 14, 2018 |language=en}} Other nicknames for Bell Street and the sociopolitical split it represents have proliferated in Melbourne, including "The Corduroy Line," "The Latte Line," "The Great Wall of Quinoa," and "The Hipster-Proof Fence", evoking Australia's famed "rabbit-proof fence" of the early 20th century.{{cite news|last1=Johnston|first1=Chris|title=Bell tolls for Greens beyond hipster proof fence|url=http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2016/federal-election-results-2016-bell-tolls-for-greens-beyond-hipster-proof-fence-20160706-gpzzi6.html|accessdate=March 1, 2017|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=July 7, 2016}}{{cite news|last1=Gordon|first1=Josh|title=Greens struggling to cross Melbourne's hipster-proof fence|url=http://www.smh.com.au/comment/greens-struggling-to-cross-melbournes-hipsterproof-fence-20160803-gqjxup.html|accessdate=March 11, 2017|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=August 3, 2016}}{{cite news|last1=Donelly|first1=Beau|title=The Greens march across Melbourne|url=http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/the-greens-march-across-melbourne-20160708-gq1e6j.html|accessdate=March 11, 2017|work=The Age|date=July 8, 2016}}{{cite news |last1=Potter |first1=Ben |title=South of Tofu Curtain, Shorten has to take a stand on the Adani mine |url=https://www.afr.com/news/politics/election/south-of-tofu-curtain-shorten-has-to-take-a-stand-on-the-adani-mine-20180201-h0sd4f |accessdate=July 15, 2018 |work=Financial Review |date=February 2, 2018}}{{cite news |last1=Hutchinson |first1=Samantha |title=Greens confident of Batman win, rubbishing talk of 'Tofu Curtain' |url=https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/greens-confident-of-batman-win-rubbishing-talk-of-tofu-curtain/news-story/58c9ebb99b85aff438cd5c48a26db397 |accessdate=July 15, 2018 |work=www.theaustralian.com.au |date=March 17, 2018 |language=en}}
=Asia=
File:Tufo and potatoes grilled.jpg
Because tofu originated in China, Japan, Korea, and other regions of East Asia, the term "tofu curtain" has also described differences between Eastern and Western culture.{{cite journal|last1=Krummert|first1=Bob|title=Lifting The Tofu Curtain|journal=Restaurant Hospitality|date=May 2004|volume=88|issue=5|page=22|url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/15950704/lifting-tofu-curtain|language=en}}{{dead link|date=November 2020|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} A 2007 study conducted by the United Nations's Food and Agriculture Organization showed that in one year China consumed nearly 100 times more soybeans per person than the United States, while the Japan-to-U.S. per capita rate of soybean consumption was more than 200-to-1.{{cite web |title=Soybean consumption {{!}} Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. |url=https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/nutraceutical/about/soylution/encyclopedia/consumption.html |website=Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. |accessdate=November 13, 2018}} That same year, the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database revealed that South Korea's soy consumption rate fell about midway between Japan's and China's. 2013 data showed these proportions to be about the same, with Taiwan consuming the highest amount of soy foods per capita, at a rate 15% higher than that of Japan's.{{cite web |title=FAOSTAT |url=http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/CC |website=www.fao.org |publisher=The United Nations |accessdate=November 13, 2018}} Unlike in the United States and Australia, tofu in East Asia is a dietary staple and is not associated with particular political parties, movements, or factions.{{cite book|last1=Shurtleff|first1=William|last2=Aoyagi|first2=Akiko|title=History of Tofu and Tofu Products (965 CE to 2013)|date=2013|publisher=Soyinfo Center|location=Lafayette, CA|isbn=9781928914556|language=en}}
In other media
In September 2016 Western Massachusetts residents launched TofuCurtain.com, a site for "Satire and Commentary in the Pioneer Valley." Among the site's earliest stories were "Recent Graduate Will Shave, Cut Hair After Finding Job," "WikiLeaks Release Reveals Town of Hadley Extremely Boring," "Hampshire College Replaces American Flag with 'For Sale' Sign," and "New Privilege Checkpoint at Coolidge Bridge raises Traffic Concerns." By the end of 2018, the website no longer existed.{{cite web|title=Tofu Curtain|url=http://www.tofucurtain.com/|website=Tofu Curtain|accessdate=March 2, 2017}}
References
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Category:Urban studies and planning terminology
Category:Springfield metropolitan area, Massachusetts
Category:Cooperatives at the University of Michigan
Category:Student housing cooperatives in the United States
{{Local Government Areas of Victoria}}
{{Capital cities of Australia}}