New Documentary- "Food, Inc."

Coming to an (independent) theatre near you, hopefully in June. Note the voiceover in the trailer is Michael Pollan.

Obama and Agriculture

(Take it back, people)

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In today's New York Times, Nicholas Kristof is calling for "bold reform" in the way we administrate our country's agriculture. From the piece, here's a quote from the master himself, Michael Pollan:

“We’re subsidizing the least healthy calories in the supermarket — high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oil, and we’re doing very little for farmers trying to grow real food,” notes Michael Pollan, author of such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.”

Major reform is unlikely to happen; Monsanto and their ilk will fight it tooth and nail, because there's no profit (for them anyway) in real food. There would also be considerably less profit for the medical and pharmaceutical industries if our population suddenly becomes healthy, since the vast majority of our modern illnesses are food-related. You can bet the multinationals who run our lives don't want any changes made to the current system. So, bold reform will likely not be coming from our government. Even if the government is led by Barack Obama.

But there's another way. Want "bold reform"? I got your bold reform right here. Opt out. Individual American households need to opt out of Big Ag. Plant a garden, grow what you can, preserve what you can. Keep a few chickens. Join or start a community garden. Ask your neighborhood mom and pop store to buy local, seasonal produce and regional foods. Stop going to the big box grocery store. Join a co-op. Buy a cow share. Go to your local farmer's market, and get to know your local farmers. Learn to eat seasonally, and learn to cook from real, whole ingredients, not pre-mixed boxes of corporate crap with who-knows-what mixed into them. Stop reading diet books; listen to your body and the traditions of your region, climate, and culture. Only eat food that your great-grandmother would recognize as food. Reprogram your brain to know this simple truth- cooking is not drudgery; cooking is health and love and life.

Reform will happen one tomato plant, one back yard, one community garden, and one local farmer at a time.

My new favorite quote

(just BEGGING for a big, messy vegetable garden)

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This zinger comes from Michael Pollan; he is referring to the American obsession with perfectly mowed, meticulously tended yards of nothing but grass:

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“Lawns are nature purged of sex and death. No wonder Americans like them so much.”

The Divine Michael Pollan

(Konnichiwa, Pollan-sama)

The Sensei of all 21st century kitchen gardeners, Michael Pollan, has written a new article in the NY Times Magazine, coming out tomorrow (but published on-line today). As there is no possible way I can improve on the man's writing, here are some excerpts:

"A great many things happen when you plant a vegetable garden, some of them directly related to climate change, others indirect but related nevertheless. Growing food, we forget, comprises the original solar technology: calories produced by means of photosynthesis. Years ago the cheap-energy mind discovered that more food could be produced with less effort by replacing sunlight with fossil-fuel fertilizers and pesticides, with a result that the typical calorie of food energy in your diet now requires about 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce. It’s estimated that the way we feed ourselves (or rather, allow ourselves to be fed) accounts for about a fifth of the greenhouse gas for which each of us is responsible."

And:

"And while we’re counting carbon, consider too your compost pile, which shrinks the heap of garbage your household needs trucked away even as it feeds your vegetables and sequesters carbon in your soil. What else? Well, you will probably notice that you’re getting a pretty good workout there in your garden, burning calories without having to get into the car to drive to the gym."

And:

"You begin to see that growing even a little of your own food is, as Wendell Berry pointed out 30 years ago, one of those solutions that, instead of begetting a new set of problems — the way “solutions” like ethanol or nuclear power inevitably do — actually beget other solutions, and not only of the kind that save carbon. Still more valuable are the habits of mind that growing a little of your own food can yield. You quickly learn that you need not be dependent on specialists to provide for yourself — that your body is still good for something and may actually be enlisted in its own support."

Full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5089&en=8ae5b668de8f11c9&ex=1366344000&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss

O how I love Michael Pollan. Common sense, wit, and total accessibility all in one package. And he's a gardener.