Hopeless liberal Michael Pollan wrote a big feature in this weekend’s New York Times magazine: “An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief.” It’s nine pages, but worth the whole read. By the end, you might be a hopeful liberal.
As usual, Pollan is calm, and thorough yet succinct in his arguments. His plan for overhauling food policy is overall rational. He makes the excellent point that “while there are alternatives to oil, there are no alternatives to food.”
And he calls for establishing a School Lunch Corps, a volunteer program for post-college students to work in schools and teach people about food. Pick me! Pick me! I wonder if I’m the only person in America who has “high school home ec teacher” on her short list of careers I’d switch to whenever the current one loses steam…except I don’t think home ec teachers exist anymore.
The only element I wish he’d addressed is: How to deal with Monsanto and all those other Big Ag types who have a vested interest in keeping the status quo? To get even a smidge of Pollan’s proposal in place, the new president will have to take on these guys–there has to be some persuasive way to deal with them…and I can’t imagine what the bargaining chips would be. Obama may be anti-lobbyist, but many people in Congress aren’t.
I mean, Pollan’s idea to redefine “food” so it doesn’t include soda is a brilliant one, but I can think of several multinationals that could put on the pressure to stop that. And then the knee-jerk anti-arugula camp would probably leap to the defense of Coca-Cola as an inherently American drink–and criticize anyone against it as unpatriotic.
In that same NYT mag issue, there’s an interview with documentary filmmaker Robert Kenner. He has the best suggestion for what we can do while the government dithers:
Consumers have a lot of power. We get to vote three times a day when we go food shopping. So go vote for fair food!
Best part is: You’re already registered! And my polling stations are open 24 hours a day.