On Thursday I met Michael Pollan - author of In Defense of Food, the Omnivore's Dilemma and other works analyzing the evolving food philosophy in America. He spoke at the Unity church in Boulder, Colorado as part of the Boulder book store's speaker series. His entire talk was a large paraphrase of his most recent book in Defense of Food. Reiterating his dietary advice he makes the following three suggestions. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." It is a very worthy read I highly recommend.
I had been thinking for weeks about what question might prove the most novel and useful in continuing my efforts to support his cause of reforming our collective American mentality on food. I thought about my own high school home economics class and how paltry the education was on growing your own food or how to shop for healthful food. I also thought about my father and his idea that we ought to have gardening and cooking classes taught in every grade starting in kindergarten. As Michael signed my books I asked him who he foresaw becoming the "Jamie Oliver" of the United States. He had a very prompt answer - Ann Cooperthe renegade chef. And thus I share this revelation with you in hopes that you might watch the following video and perhaps write or call your local congress person to see if we can fuel the flames of food revolution in these United States. Big thinkers have big ideas and one of Ann Cooper's big ideas is this - to have the national lunch program oversight reallocated to the CDC rather than USDA where it currently lies. If we collectively think of the food our children eat as a health issue then this shift carries with it some clean logic.
The following clip from the Daily Show demonstrates with a hefty side of sarcasm the serious industrial forces we are up against in the food revolution.
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