In Defense of Food

In Defense of Food

The threat of colliding storms couldn't keep me away from Michael Pollan's premiere author's event last night to promote his new book, In Defense of Food. The holidays were events to get through for this evening. My star was on stage. His book was in my hands. The message: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants., half a haiku, already memorized from the front cover.

He came out, all legs and laced up boots. He talked about shopping and eating from the outer edges of the grocery store to find Food. To avoid the food science products of the middle aisles.

He talked about the satisfaction of eating Food. That you don't need as much of it to be satisfied. Patricia Unterman interviewing him disagreed and I'm more in her court on that point then in his too. I know that if a little is good, more is better.

And he talked about the huge toll on the environment by methane belching cows. I tried to picture that, a nice brown jersey cow belching, but couldn't. Apparently it takes a giant toll on our air quality though.

And then we parted ways. Michael Pollan, my rock star of the eat local, protect the environment, reduce my carbon bite movement hit on bananas. He said he wasn't a purist about eating local. Fine. I was with him. We do the best we can. But then he condoned eating bananas. In fact, he said, we should enjoy them now in the last days of cheap oil because it isn't going to last.

I agree with the enjoy part. Especially when food is imported. It's getting to us at a high cost. But I also believe that eating closer to home is better for the environment and is a way everyone can participate to one degree or another to make a difference. And it felt like Mr. Michael Pollan backed off on his previous point to raise awareness of the high cost of consuming cheap imported foods. I'm disappointed.

He still has great points and layers of useful information in just the first five pages of his new book. And I want to believe that he is simply sculpting his message to be accessible to a larger audience rather than the local food zealot I've become as a result of his previous book, Omnivore's Dilemma. Time will tell as he's speaking all over the country in the next few months.

In any event, I'm reading the new book and sticking with local foods as much as I can. It's one thing I can do.