Monday, May 11th, 2009...9:57 pm
Just Finished Reading: In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
I lovelovelove Michael Pollan. Botany of Desire was such a unique book, and Omnivore’s Dilemma might as well be my bible. In Defense of Food doesn’t live up to his other works–it reads more like an appendix to Omnivore’s Dilemma–but it was an engaging little philosophy of how to eat. As Pollan sums it up: Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants. He goes on to explain each of those sentences in the last third of the book and spends the first two-thirds delving into what he calls nutritionism and why it’s so bad for us eaters.
It all seems very straightforward, and it was, but one thing I was surprised to find here, in this manifesto from a Berkeley professor who’s friends with Alice Waters and shops at Berkeley Bowl, was a tone that struck me as deeply (politically) conservative:
One of the hallmarks of a traditional diet is its essential conservatism. Traditions in food ways reflect long experience and often embody a nutritional logic that we shouldn’t heedlessly overturn. So consider this subclause to the rule about eating a healthy diet: regard non-traditional foods with skepticism. Innovation is interesting but when it comes to something like food, it pays to approach novelties with caution.
Replace “food” and “nutrition” with “government” and “politics” and you’ve got something that could have come straight from William F. Buckley.
There’s been a lot made the last few months (years?) about the conservative movement needing to get back to principles. As a Cambridge-living, Obama-supporting, Whole Foods-shopping elitist, you might be surprised to know that I heartily support a resurgent conservative movement, mostly for the same reasons Pollan supports it when it comes to food: I think we should be a little bit more skeptical about innovation; there are things worth preserving in tradition, and we shouldn’t be pushing for change simply for the sake of change; and we should all be a little bit more skeptical and questioning of authority. If a conservative, Republican candidate ran with that platform (and was able to do it while eschewing the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Focus on the Family), he might have my vote and convince other “liberals” of my generation (the less ideological, more pragmatic stripe) to swing right as well. There are some candidates who just might be that guy: Charlie Crist, Jon Huntsman, I would have said John McCain before his disgraceful showing last fall. Ironically, the politician who most reflects those values might just be the guy in the White House right now.
3 Comments
May 13th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
A part of me feels like Obama is that refreshing return to a certain type of conservativism. (Will be interesting to see what his fiscal policies are like in his second term.) Unfortunately the traditions that the (current) GOP seems to care most about preserving are single-sex marriages and gun ownership.
I also hope that Pollan will focus on policy and the economics of both global and local agriculture in his next book. I’m still not sure how I feel about the local food movement. I’m down to eat tomatoes from my neighbor’s garden, but I also have no problem buying them from a farm in Mexico so long as I have the information about where they come from, how they are grown, and what the cost (environmental and otherwise) is of transporting them from Mexican farms to American supermarkets.
Food has always been at the frontline of globalization and today seems no different. Part of Pollan’s seemingly conservative tone might come from his nostalgia for America as a farming nation. (I just had a flash of Frank Sobotka flinching at the presentation of high-tech port technologies with little need for human employees.) I want to know if it is really in America’s best interest – and the world’s best interest – for us to re-invest in our agricultural industry. Globalization says that if Mexicans are better suited to grow tomatoes, then they should grow them. Pollan seems to disagree. I want to hear his argument spelled out in detail.
May 13th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
Yeah, that’s going to be a big question to answer: is moving towards locally-grown food going to help solve a worldwide hunger crisis? It’s a great idea for all of us who can afford it, but does it only serve to perpetuate the gap between rich/healthy and poor/unhealthy?
There are a bunch of other books (The End of Food) and movies on this subject (Food, Inc.) that I want to check out for their more policy-oriented angle, but I would love to see a follow-up from Pollan specifically (because I think he’s a great journalist) that’s something like a proposal for revamping the farm bill.
May 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
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