Today Grist had the somewhat surreal experience of hosting Michael Pollan, the nation’s premier food writer, for lunch. And just to make it more stressful, we decided to do a potluck—each of us brought in a dish.
Cooking for Pollan! Yikes!
Happily, he enjoyed the food, and we had a nice conversation. We’ll have video of it soon, but three things he said struck me as particularly interesting, so I thought I’d briefly share them here.
First, after conversation turned from Obama and Vilsack, I asked him how the situation for food policy could be improved in Congress. He said two things in particular would help:
1. Make the House agriculture committee exclusive. The most important committees in the House—Energy, Finance, etc.—are "exclusive," which means their membership has to be drawn from diverse geographical and ideological sources. Ag isn’t exclusive, which means it can be (and is) packed with representatives of Big Ag. It’s where decent ag legislation goes to die.
2. Restructure the farm bill. Right now there are two big pieces, the nutrition parts (mostly food stamps) and the subsidy part. The macabre-ly named "hunger lobby," particularly the Black Congressional Caucus, believes that food stamps can’t stand on their own and are protected by being attached to subsidies; the Big Ag subsidy suckers agree not to meddle with nutrition in exchange for support. But, says Pollan, nutrition is building a substantial lobby of its own and could stand alone at this point. Subsidies, if they had to stand on their own, would find much less support.
Also, Pollan was asked about GMOs, which used to be the subject of intense debate but seem to have dropped off the map lately. His answer was quite interesting, but it basically boiled down to:
3. Monocrops are the primary problem; right now GMOs are just another band-aid on that problem.
Pollan didn’t say he supported GMOs, but his attitude was that they’re not really a pressing problem in and of themselves. The grand promises of a decade ago haven’t panned out. Gene theory turns out to be much more complicated than it was thought when GMOs were first hot. Plenty of agricultural perversions designed to support monocrops—and many new strains of plants designed for drought resistance and whatnot—are coming from old-fashioned breeding. And finally, GMOs do offer some intriguing possibilities around ethanol.
I guess I’d noticed the GMO debate fading to the periphery, but this was a nice compact explanation of why.
And finally: I asked Pollan how he came up with the greatest lead ever for a piece of long-form journalism: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He said he messed around with it quite a bit. First it was just "eat food." Then "eat plants." Once he hit the final version, though, he had a sense it would be iconic. I’ll say.
Oh, and for all you writers out there, who read Pollan’s smooth, conversational, absorbing prose and despair, I asked him if writing is still difficult, painstaking, anxious work for him. You’ll be happy to hear that it is.
For more Pollan, see my interview from 2006, Tom’s interview from 2007, and, oh, all this stuff.
George Voinovich (R-Ohio) [UPDATED]
Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
Comments
View as Flat
LPS Posted 9:23 am
12 Jan 2009
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JMG Posted 11:08 am
12 Jan 2009
BT maize and other crops tampered to express BT are a direct and conscious effort to create BT resistant pests and, therefore, destroy one of the only agents available to organic farmers.
Every day, Monsanto and a handful of smaller companies work to obtain total control of all food crops and to obliterate farmers who resist gene tampering. They do this by 'accidentally' losing control of the tampered genes as they spread through pollen dispersion, capturing the USDA and Congress to ensure that only ineffectual regulation is put on the books, if any.
The 5% Project
Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay.
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Wolverine Posted 4:30 pm
12 Jan 2009
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Pangolin Posted 6:19 pm
12 Jan 2009
I regularly send my kids to school with what they report to me is "weird food;" things like fuyu persimmons and dried mango slices, dried figs, sandwiches with identifiable meat in them. It helps me realize that for many, many people normal foods consist of a very short list of products.
Here's what I'm suggesting. Every time you make a major grocery run at the supermarket or farmers market buy one item, a fruit, vegetable or grain that you normally don't eat. Research it, look it up, find out what normal preparations are and try it out. If you don't like it right away, no biggie, you just might find yourself buying it again later and liking it as you brain gets used to the idea.
Now all you foodies; getting something truly new might mean a detour to the local ethnic market. Just speak right up and ask and people are usually glad to explain what's what to somebody truly interested in their food culture.
Weird food; live a little.
Put the Carbon Back
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mihan Posted 12:10 am
13 Jan 2009
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cheflovesbeer Posted 1:28 am
13 Jan 2009
Just for food,
Not cars.
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Bud Dingler Posted 1:34 am
13 Jan 2009
I admire Pollan for not subscribing to this fear based nonsense. most of the so called peer reviewed claims trotted out by the opponents of GMO are typically misstatements from papers that are twisted to fit their own agenda. the latest example is greenpeace and others trying to make hay about GMO corn leading to sterility in mice. that paper was thoroughly debunked by a peer review as being weak on the statistical confidence and needed more work. never no mind that greenpeace has a web site article titled no need for condoms eat GMO's
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VegHead Posted 1:56 am
13 Jan 2009
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David Roberts Posted 2:44 am
13 Jan 2009
grist.org
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Holly Richmond Posted 3:55 am
13 Jan 2009
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paz Posted 11:06 am
13 Jan 2009
Remember children playing behind trucks spraying DDT? There was no proof of its effects on birds. Oops.
Remember thalidomide prescribed to pregnant women? There was no proof of its link to birth defects. Oops.
Allowing these products to enter people's bodies without their knowledge or consent, and permitting them to pollute the environment (and suing neighboring organic farmers as a result? how weird is that?), is not "free market". It is not "progress". It is a DISGRACE.
Label me an extremist. Once the horse has escaped the barn, there is little sense in shutting the door. (Of course, I think Monsanto's banking on this.)
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