Civil Eats

Today on The Brian Lehrer Show, Michael Pollan spoke about the change in food policy he’d like to see under the next administration.  Although there has been a move to nominate him for Secretary of Agriculture, Pollan stated that while he is flattered, he thinks he wouldn’t make the vetting process (See The Botany of Desire, Chapter 3: Marijuana.  But then again, our new president has a past of his own).  He did however say that he felt that President-elect Obama is one of the most synthesis-oriented presidents we’ve had in a long time, and he feels that while he might not implement all of the ideas Mr. Pollan put forth in his recent letter in the New York Times Magazine, he feels confident that we will begin to see change in the right direction.  Perhaps an ode to Thomas Jefferson by adding an organic garden on the White House lawn? Read More

In an interview with Joe Klein of Time Magazine today, Sen. Barack Obama acknowledged the brilliant letter to the next president by Michael Pollan and said that agriculture is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, is a national security risk, and is built on cheap oil: Read More

Yesterday, Michael Pollan spoke on The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio about his New York Times Magazine article, Farmer in Chief: What the Next President Can and Should do to Remake the Way We Grow and Eat Our Food.  He argues that we should “re-solarize” the food system, an essential step to the energy independence both candidates are talking about because bringing food from farm to plate is responsible for 20% of our oil consumption.  His plan touches on the cultural elements of food: a re-valuation of farming, changing the federal definition of food, the future president’s role in re-engaging us about what we eat.  He also suggests a new view of policy, which currently has us mired in corporate welfare and poor land stewardship.  For this all to work, he says, we need more farmers, and those farmers need to have access to land, resources and education.  And we need a President who is willing to look at the long term effects our current practices are having (like factory farm operations, shown in the photo above, and the multiple waste lagoons we as taxpayers probably helped pay for), and be willing to make a definitive change.  Listen to the program here. Read More

In fifteen days, Americans will make an important decision: who will take the reigns and get us out of this mess.  One topic the candidates have mostly left out of their speeches on the campaign trail thus far is food.  Whether they realize it or not, when either John McCain or Barack Obama sit down next January to begin the task of fixing our economy, to promote green energy in order to produce the jobs they’ve both promised, and to deal with the climate crisis and health care, food will be the unavoidable issue that keeps cropping up. Read More