Kim Severson has a terrific story about the mayor of New York City's food initiatives in today's New York Times. Severson laid out all the issues well, and clearly did a ton of reporting, and yet there wasn't one quote from Mayor Michael Bloomberg himself. According to the story, "The mayor declined an interview with the New York Times on this subject and has never presented an overarching view on food policy." I sent Kim an e-mail asking her why she thought Bloomberg wouldn't be interviewed on the subject of food. Her response? "Hard to say. Even getting time with Mr. Thomases (a NYC official charged with co-ordinating the city's policies on food) was difficult. I assume it is because they really don't know what they think about food policy yet."

Perhaps my favorite quote in the piece came from a former NYC mayor, Ed Koch. Severson paraphrases Koch: "Don't forget that eating is about pleasure, and food is supposed to taste good." The piece ends with a direct quote from Koch: "You don't want to leave food policy to a doctor. Because a doctor cuts out everything."