Vote with Your Forks! (Guest Blogger: Michael Pollan)

As this guest blog comes to an end this week, so does my book tour in support of In Defense of Food, so I thought I'd leave you with a few observations from the road. After speaking in places as different as New York and Indianapolis, Toronto and Louisville, Philadelphia and Iowa City, as well as LA, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle, I'm convinced that we're witnessing the rise of a new movement around food in this country--one of the most exciting and hopeful political developments in my lifetime.

Two years ago, when I was on the road for The Omnivore's Dilemma, the ferment around food issues was concentrated mostly in big cities and mostly on the West Coast. That was where people "got it" and seemed most excited about building local food economies, supporting small farmers doing good work, and reforming agricultural policies at the federal and local levels. But much has changed in the last two years. I found the same level of enthusiasm and sophistication in places like Indianapolis--cities in the farm belt where you would not expect criticism of the corn industrial complex, or the virtues of local food, to find much support. While I was on the road, we had the recall of 143 million pounds of beef from the slaughterhouse in Chino as well as the ethanol-induced spike in food prices, two issues I got many questions about. People are coming to recognize that food is a political and ecological issue--indeed, is becoming a national security issue. The mystery, to me, is why so few of our political leaders yet recognize the visceral power of this issue. They soon will.

Today's food movement has many faces, some of them more prominent in certain places than others. There is the movement to reform school lunch. There is the effort to regulate or ban the marketing of food to children. To teach children in schools how to grow food and then prepare it. There is the drive to rebuild local food economies, through farmer's markets, CSAs (community supported agriculture), and the development of municipal food policies encouraging institutions to buy produce locally. There is the meteoric rise of organic food in the marketplace and, not far behind, grass-fed animal protein. Every city now has a handful of chefs who are driving change and raising consciousness by connecting with farmers and shining the light of their glamour on the men and women doing the crucial work of raising our food with conviction. There is the movement to improve the lot of the animals in the food chain, holding producers to high standards of animal welfare. There is the drive to reform the farm bill, which shocked Capitol Hill this past year. There is the growing recognition on the part of the public health community that the farm bill is a public health issue. There is the movement to improve access to healthy whole foods in the inner-city food deserts where fast food is easier to find, and cheaper, than fresh produce. There is the effort to defend small producers from the burden of regulation that holds down local food production and drive up its cost. There is the movement to improve food labeling--calorie counts on fast food, for example--—and to ban transfats. There is the rise of the "Edible" magazines, which are popping up in cities from coast to coast to celebrate local foodways. There is the rise of Slow Food, the Italian-born organization devoted to rebuilding a food culture based on real food eaten communally. I met with Slow Food members in almost every city I visited, and all reported burgeoning memberships and activism.

So there is a lot going on. The movement as yet feels somewhat scattered and inchoate, which might explain why it hasn't been widely recognized by the media as a full-fledged movement. But make no mistake: That is what is rising in America today, a drive to repair our broken, dangerously unsustainable, brutal, and unhealthy food system, and replace it with a shorter, more legible food chain based on the principles of equity, sustainability, and health--but health in the broadest sense of the word, a conception of health that recognizes that our personal health is in fact indivisible from the health of the land, the plants, the animals, and the workers who together comprise the food chain that sustains us.

We're at the beginning of something big. Vote with your forks! --Michael Pollan

Comments

[Sabriya on March 04, 2008 at 11:01 AM]

I recently read portions of your book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and it truly was an eye opening experience. Some of the things you wrote and the statistics you gave were shocking. It's a shame that most people don't even know that they are digging their own grave with their forks; more people really need to know about these life threatening issues. This book forced me to stop and think about where my food was coming from and how it was being made. It's terrible what these companies are doing to the animals and something needs to be done about it. I hope your book continues to grow in popularity so that many more people can be enlightened as I was, these issues have been ignored for far to long.

[Danny Kim on March 04, 2008 at 01:09 PM]

Dear Mr. Michael Pollan…

First of all, I would like to thank you for writing this highly informative and profound piece of writing. Your book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, provided its readers with surfeit of information and enlightening facts that have been disguised and hidden by the media and farmers. Especially the whole argument about America’s overproduction and overconsumption of corn was just dumbfounding. The fact that our choices determine and lead to not only obesity but also diseases and illnesses made me reconsider about what I eat and drink. Moreover, it brought me back to one of my favorite author (Robin Cook)’s book, Toxin, which deals with an E-coli problem and its preeminence in slaughter houses. And when I read that “The United Nations reported that in 2000 the number of people suffering from overnutrition-a billion-had officially surpassed the number suffering from malnutrition-800 million”, I found it quite ironic that blessings turned out to be the epidemic that is now troubling the whole nation.
Not only with the whole revelation of clandestine facts of food industry was I enlightened, but your book also made me think about things I’ve never even taken a chance to look at before. The whole idea of “our inborn sense of disgust keep(ing) us from ingesting things that might infect us” and “our taste buds…predisposing us toward sweetness” was just amazing! After reading that, again, I found it ironic how our advantageous inborn senses are now hindering us from being on healthy food diet; I find myself in the middle of the night, devouring chocolate cake with vanilla ice-cream rather than butter-free popcorn or yogurt.
I was also shocked to find out that Americans are actually eating “healthier” food than people in Italy or France, and still, suffering far more obesity problems. In fact, it does give me gigs to see an overweight person eat a whole bag of baked potato chips, just because they are “low in fat.”
This piece of writing gave me renewed idea and angle on the issue that is becoming so hot around the whole world: diet. Raised in South Korea, when I first came to US to study, I noticed right away that Americans are prone to excessive use of salad dressing and desserts that are high in sugar. However, your writing widened my view; the issue is not only about the food we eat or the beverage we drink, but it is also about the food industry’s pursuit of “cheap calories”, which enables them to earn greater amount of money.
Again, I thank you for devoting your time to write this book-and also to raise a cow yourself-and I am thrilled to read another writing of yours.

Respectfully,

From Danny Yoon Kook Kim (a student from the Class 2008 of Tabernacle Christian Academy)

[mark-o on March 04, 2008 at 01:16 PM]

Ayyy...where to even start. The idea that the diet of the average American today is "unhealthy", compared to that our ancestors here or abroad, is simply a myth. Comparatively speaking, Americans today eat the most nutritious, variety-laden diet of any civilization in history. No society in history has had access to such a variety of foods throughout the year. (Do you really think that Europeans or Africans or Asians 100 years ago ate, or had access to, fresh produce year-round?) If so, then you are completely unacquainted with how modern farming, refrigeration and transportation have improved our diet choices. The idea that in the "good-old-days" people ate such wonderful, healthy, "unprocessed" foods, is certainly a pleasant enough sounding story. But it is completely inconsistent with historical fact. And then there's the idea that these ancestors were healthy and mostly disease-free as a result of their "natural" consumption lifestyle (another myth). The only way we are "killing ourselves with a fork" is by over-indulging in the wide variety of food available today.

[Ploughshare Farm on March 05, 2008 at 07:04 AM]

Michael,
I thought you might be interested that yesterday Gary Taubes was on midmorning with Carrie Miller. This is the same Minnesota Public Radio show that you were on just a few weeks ago. In the discussion, Carrie Miller brought up some of your critiques of Gary Taubes book. Gary then proceeded to makes some critiques of your work (funny he does this, since in the discussion he admits not even reading your book.)
Anyhow, the link to the discussion is:
http://www.publicradio.org/tools/media/player/news/midmorning/2008/03/04_midmorn2
--Gary Brever
P.S.--I thought Gary Taubes' oversimplified his arguments of diet too much. For instance, I thought he discredited himself in his discussion when he says that there are no links between obesity and not exercising because he says, "after you exercise you feel hungry." There are more things happening in the body than getting hungry when you exercise that will help people from getting fat (such as reducing depression, energizing hormones, sparking the brain's activity--all which will assist people in getting more active and make better choices (including food choices).

[simon hong on March 05, 2008 at 08:17 AM]

Hello, Michael Pollan
We read your book which is omnivores Dilemma. In our health class, we also discussed about what we read. There were lots of things that i did not know before. During i was reading healthy food price part, i thought we should buy them together to make it cheaper. In my mind, I thought the reason why the healthy food is expensive is the perfect nutrition balancing fact. You gave us lots of information and it will make us change. Thanks for lets us know the fact of foods and i would like to read more information about foods.

[David P. Morrow on March 05, 2008 at 03:13 PM]

Thanks for sharing your information and comments. Now, if we could just get rid of all of the fast food (I mean non-food) restaurants in the country. At least we are heading in the right direction. Sign my petition on my website, AmericasPersonalTrainer, demanding healthier foods be served in restaurants and school cafeterias.

[Peter J. Duffin on March 05, 2008 at 03:20 PM]

Michael....thank you for taking the time to fit Toronto into your latest book tour. I would have loved to have heard you speak at The 'ROM', but as you can well imagine tickets to this event sold out in a New York minute. Fortunately media coverage was excellent. I managed to see you on T.V., as well as hear you speak on a phone-in radio show.

You are completely right in remarking that there is a 'rise of a new movement around food'. Consumers are definitely beginning to get it. I wouldn't have thought this possible a couple of years ago prior to the release of 'The Omnivore's Dilemma'. But interest in grass-fed meats, where to find and how to prepare the various types, has virtually skyrocketed. This has been especially noticeable with not just beef, but bison and elk as well.

As you know prior to 1940 feedlot animal management and intensive grain feeding, although less expensive than grass feeding, was not nearly as widespread as it has been since. Still what most of the red meat buying public does not seem to realize is that for the sake of good animal and human health we should get back to the basics--100% grass feeding.

Regrettably, our rather skewed economic system has permitted the cost of urban housing and all forms of transportation to hit the stratosphere while the value of 'real' food to our society has been minimized and under appreciated. Perhaps the increasing prevalence of heart disease, obesity and diabetes will serve as a wake-up call for all. Cheap processed food isn't worth it. Buying a smaller car, house, exercising and eating properly is.

To better appreciate how history has changed our ideas about food and health people who have loved your books on this subject should also check out Harvey Levenstein's 'Revolution at the Table' and 'Paradox of Plenty'.

Please keep up the good work.

[Kathy Shayler on March 05, 2008 at 04:15 PM]

Your comments regarding smaller communities working towards sustainability rings true for me. I moved to Roseburg, Oregon, with a population of 20,000. A slow food group has formed here, enjoining local organic growers, including farmers, chicken, lamb and beef breeders, chefs and residents. Like mycellium, its running. Great work!

[Sarah on March 06, 2008 at 09:19 AM]

Mr. Pollan, I do wish I could have met you on your book tour. I recently read In Defense of Food and have been preaching from it ever since. My mother has ordered her own copy so we can discuss it together. You have played an important part in spreading this dialogue across the country and I want to thank you for it. (Barbara Kingsolver should be given her due as well).

I live out in the country, down in Georgia, and the renaissance has taken hold even here. Politicians always seem to be the last to notice what Americans really care about, and to be honest, I don't trust them with my food anyhow. We will have to be responsible for what we eat, and use our own soapboxes to spread the word. This movement has been going on for decades, and it took a while to hit the mainstream, but it can stay in the forefront if books like yours keep squatting so mightily on the bestseller lists.

[Ieneke van Houten on March 26, 2008 at 11:26 PM]

Dear Michael,

I enjoyed your book on gardening, "Second Nature", immensely.
Have not read your recent books yet, but look forward to them. Meanwhile I am glad to see they are being widely read and discussed.
As far as I can tell from the reviews and excerpts, the ideas are
quite familiar.
I grew up in post-WW2 Holland, eating mainly locally grown food in season, because that's what was available. Once we had moved to the country in the seventies and started to grow some of our own that old
way of eating what is here now quicky returned. It simply makes so much sense. Thanks for all your good work!