Is The Food Revolution Upon Us?
Andrew Martin in the New York Times tries to assess the state of the food revolution in this country in the age of Obama. As Martin notes, there are undeniably promising signs:
Michelle Obama's beetless organic vegetable garden on the White House lawn and her statements in support of, in Martin's words, "fresh, unprocessed, locally grown food."
Agriculture secretary Vilsack, a former ethanol champion, seems to have found sustainable-and-local-if-possible food-supply religion. His top deputy, Kathleen Kerrigan, is a "longtime champion of sustainable agriculture and healthy food."
But as Martin notes, this revolution is just getting under way. The recently passed farm bill had some baby steps in the right direction, but they were just that, baby steps.
And in the middle of this economic tsunami the idea of paying more for local, sustainable food is a tough sell to strapped consumers worried about keeping their homes and jobs.
But the country has to walk before it can run food-wise, and clearly the Obama administration has at the very least picked up the pace and begun a proper dialogue about our food supply. This food revolution, like all revolutions, is a marathon, not a sprint, and you have to be in it to win it.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
2 Comments:
I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused. Human beings have been farming for many many years. Isn't "sustainable agriculture" a given? (Hint: whenever it wasn't sustainable, people starved.)
mrslucas at 9:55AM on 03/23/09
While I think it's great that this particular fad has reached the White House I still think the "food revolution" has major strides to make in terms of accessibility; advocates for farmers markets and fresh food largely seem to come from a particular class. I agree with Pollan in that for the change in eating habits to be more than a fleeting trend there needs to be a lot more grassroots legwork done.
Tombolo at 10:12AM on 03/23/09