Read the entire great article at the Grist:
In response to a question about whether we can really feed the world without industrialized ag (ah yes, a perennial), Pollan pointed out that we’re not feeding the world with it now. He said we wouldn’t be doing developing nations a favor by exporting a fossil fuel–dependent ag system to them when it’s clear that fossil fuels are only going to become more scarce and expensive. And overproducing government-subsidized food in the U.S. is certainly not the way to solve world hunger—it just exacerbates it by putting small-scale farmers in developing countries out of business. Give people in the developing world the tools to do sophisticated organic ag and it will help solve many problems, including undocumented immigration, Pollan argues. – from Grist
Also, via the New York Times, here’s Michael Pollan’s Favorite Food Rules:
Earlier this year, Michael Pollan posted a request for reader’s rules about eating on Well, Tara Parker Pope’s health blog. Within days, more than 2,500 responses were received. Here are 20 of Pollan’s favorites.
Every trip to the supermarket these days requires us to navigate what has become a truly treacherous food landscape. I mean, what are we to make of a wonder of food science like the new Splenda with fiber? (“The great sweet taste you want and a little boost of fiber.”) Should we call this progress? Is it even food? And then, at the far other end of the nutritional spectrum, how are we to process (much less digest) the new, exuberantly caloric Double Down sandwich that KFC has introduced? This shameless exaltation of dietary fat actually redefines the very concept of a sandwich by replacing the obligatory bread with two slabs of fried chicken kept some distance apart by strips of bacon, two kinds of cheese and a dollop of sauce.