Farmer in Chief

Michael Pollan is a writer, author and columnist at the New York Times. Chances are if you are reading this blog you are interested in the types of food issues that Pollan writes about. Keep in mind, he does write about the American Food Industry – but our problems are so similar, that the ideas can almost be directly applied to the Canadian market. In case some of you have not read Michael Pollan”s “Open Letter to President-Elect” I thought I would post it here to make it easier to find and spread the word. I have listed his 3 step solution to reforming the food system below, but it is in a very summarized form, and I would recommend reading the full article which can be found here: New York Times The picture above is of his latest book, In Defense of Food – An Eater”s Manifesto. He also wrote The Ominvore”s Dilemna about the American Meat Industry. Pollan”s three-step solution summarized from The New York Times: 1. Resolarizing the American Farm “For today’s agriculture to wean itself from fossil fuel and make optimal use of sunlight, crop plants and animals must once again be married on the farm — as in Wendell Berry’s elegant “solution.” Sunlight nourishes the grasses and grains, the plants nourish the animals, the animals then nourish the soil, which in turn nourishes the next season’s grasses and grains. Animals on pasture can also harvest their own feed and dispose of their own waste — all without our help or fossil fuel.” 2. Reregionalizing the Food System “Resolarizing the food system means building the infrastructure for a regional food economy — one that can support diversified farming and, by shortening the food chain,reduce the amount of fossil fuel in the American diet. A decentralized food system offers a great many other benefits as well. Food eaten closer to where it is grown will be fresher and require less processing,making it more nutritious.” 3. Rebuilding America’s Food Culture - “Changing the food culture must begin with our children, and it must begin in the schools. Nearly a half-century ago, President Kennedy announced a national initiative to improve the physical fitness of American children. He did it by elevating the importance of physical education, pressing states to make it a requirement in public schools. We need to bring the same commitment to “edible education” — in Alice Waters’s phrase — by making lunch, in all its dimensions, a mandatory part of the curriculum. On the premise that eating well is a critically important life skill, we need to teach all primary-school students the basics of growing and cooking food and then enjoying it at shared meals.”  Read More