Michael Pollan's new book, is out, just in time for Spring Break reading.
The Omnivore's Dilemma, follows industrial food, organic food, and food that consumers procure or hunt for themselves, from the source to the dinner plate. It also examines the importance of corn in all of our food products.
Pollan, a professor of science and environmental journalism at UC Berkeley, is also the author of The Botany of Desire and A Place of My Own.
Yesterday, the fascinating Pollan appeared on NPR's Fresh Air. Click here to listen.
This podcast is SO interesting... Especially the bit about eating locally produced food in season. I hope we get to see more of this in The Apartment Therapy Kitchen.
Amanda,
That's our goal! And the easiest season for eating-in-season is upon us!
I heard part of this yesterday too and really enjoyed it. I liked his exploration of the organic/local debate - it reminds me of some of the discussions here about Whole Foods, recently. He was helping to confirm my cynical suspicion that the "organic" label is getting coopted into just one more marketing tool. It seems to mean very little - especially when things like grass-fed beef don't fall into that category.
Also, I really, really liked it when he admitted that all of this healthy food is still a province of the privileged - it's far more economical to stack up on canned beans and packaged cookies. The economic reasons behind that seem to be the ones that need to be addressed.
I think the proposition that healthy, local organic food is a province of the privileged is generally true. However, in my community, the local farmers have 1) started moving farmer's markets into low income neighborhoods, 2) accept WIC and food stamps and 3) have relatively cheap prices. I think with more concerted efforts like this we may begin to change the way everyone eats not just the elite.
Also there are some really cool programs aimed at teaching lower income kids about food, nutrition and cooking. One great example is Brain Food in DC. It is an after-school program centered on food and cooking.
http://www.brain-food.org/
Michael Pollen also talked with Ruth Reichl and Leonard Lopate on WNYC yesterday:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2006/04/11
Luke - that's awesome! Yeah, when I heard about Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard program in SF I pretty much fell over in a state of pure adulation. ( http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/ ) Not only getting kids to eat healthier but to cook and grow their food as well - all incorporated into their everyday curriculum. Genius. Also - it's amazing what kind of otherwise "yucky" vegetables kids will eat if they grow them themselves.
Jimmy
thx for posting the Lopate link !
I heard a little of the Fresh Air interview
(Pollan is great)
but having Ruth Reichl in on the conversation
was just that much more informative
and then there's Bouloud on the box wine
on the same show . . .
The washington Post has an interesting article on a program in DC schools where kids are learning how to garden.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/12/AR2006041201189.html