Michael Pollan at Mondavi Center (11-29-06)

Eating local has influenced areas of my life beyond food.  Take gifts.  I’m not a fan of acquiring more stuff, especially if the stuff was made a million miles away.  So my mom and I have a new tradition.  We take each other out to see plays, hear music and participate in cultural events.  This year for my birthday we heard Michael Pollan speak the Mondavi Center at UC Davis.  Awesome gift, Mom.

Did you know you are 10 times more likely to have a conversation at a farmers’ market than you are at a grocery store?  Or that Americans get 80% of their diet from 4 or 5 plants?  By the way, if you guess that two of them are corn and soy, you’re right.

He also noted that we ship sugar cookies to the Danes and the Danes ship sugar cookies to us, and asked wouldn’t it be cheaper if we just swapped recipes?

He was funny, the talk was riveting, and here’s a recap of some of what he said (based on notes I wrote on my program in the dark with a faulty pen).

Pollan focused on some of the themes of his book, such as the critical importance of a sustainable food system and the relationship between the industrial food system and environmental pollution.  He also discussed how our industrial food system is failing us and is not doing precisely what it should do:  i.e., provide nutritious food.  Kids in West Oakland, CA, near where he lives, are growing up on fast food and suffering from rickets.  Yes, you read that right.  Rickets.

He said that globalizers and economists tell us that it’s sentimental to protect local food systems.  That the future is global and, like any other commodity, we need to produce food where it’s cheapest and sell it at a high price where it’s most dear.  That to fight globalization is nostalgic and futile, and that our people should be doing something better than growing food (as if there was something more important).  But of course, what is more sentimental and dream-like than to give up something that offers real benefits, cements relationships, and exists today, for only the promise of something better, with significant drawbacks, and, as yet, unrealized?  Pollan asked us to consider the threat to our food security when we are dependant on foreign sources of food.

As many of you local foodies know, our current food system depends on ignorance:  when people know how the hamburger is made, they lose their appetite for it.  The wall surrounding the feedlot is critical to its operation, but we all know that walls don’t last. 

For those of us trying to eat better, industrial organic has its issues as well.  He also discussed how the “free range” grassy area of the Petaluma Poultry operation is a literary conceit for their packaging.  Like our front yards, it’s a symbolic space.

Speaking of industrial organic, when he started researching the book, organic foods were less then 1% of supermarket revenue and are now 3% and climbing.  That’s great.  But of course, this raises serious questions about its sustainability (there’s that word again).  Stonyfield Farm buys organic milk powder from New Zeland and fruits from China and Canada. 

The goal isn't to eat perfectly every day (I agree, viz. my Newman Os chocolate cookies).  It's to think about our food and make concious choices.

He also stressed the importance of the 2007 Farm Bill, which Julie Cummins and others have discussed on this site.  Learn more (c’mon, what’s more exciting than farm subsidies) and pester your elected official not to trade away their votes.  We didn’t get feedlots and cheap corn because of free market forces.  We got them because of the Farm Bill.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma was chosen for this year’s UC Davis's community book project.  During the past 6 months, people have been reading the book, discussing it in class, and attending a slew of local events exploring food system issues.   They directly affect Davis.  We have a Monsanto branch office (complete with test greenhouses) and professors promoting genetically engineered foods on one hand, and serious groups dedicated to composting, organic gardening, and supporting local businesses on the other.  We’re also in the middle of some of the best farmland in California – farmland that is threatened even though Yolo County’s farmers derive a significant amount of revenue from direct marketing and community-supported agriculture programs. 

In fact, UC Davis itself wants to turn a huge tract of land (which it acquired through eminent domain from a family farm) into housing. Oh, the irony.

Some good news.  The woman who introduced him, the head of the Plant Genomics Program at UCD, told us that 10 minutes earlier, Pollan leaned that the NY Times chose The Omnivore’s Dilemma has one of the top 10 books of 2006.  Congratulations and keep up the good work!

Comments

[Erika Rathje]

Wow, thank you for this exciting review! I bought Pollan's book probably 2 and a half months ago for research, but since I needed to attend to library books first, I left his on my shelf, waiting. Your post inspired me to open it up and find those details. I couldn't find the one about the 4 or 5 plants we eat, but I did find some very interesting facts on corn and soy. I was surprised about soy being in that list until I read what he said, and realised it has penetrated our diets as an additive possibly moreso than as a directly consumed food. My soup tonight had soy in one or two forms in it, in addition to potatoes, potato starch, corn starch, and wheat. That would make everyone in my family terribly ill, with the exception of my dad and myself. I'm happy not to see anything chemical on there except MSG (cleverly disguised in its spelled-out form), although I have to wonder... what was genetically-modified? What was treated with pesticides? What was imported? I also wonder whether I'll buy that soup anymore. It wouldn't be hard to make my own. My mother always did.

[Marc]

"Or that Americans get 80% of their diet from 4 or 5 plants? By the way, if you guess that two of them are corn and soy, you’re right."

Based on what Erika wrote above, I'm going to guess that the other two plants in the four which provide most American calories are potato and wheat. Could the fifth be sugar cane? Or sugar beet?

[Sarah (Mrs. Irani)]

It is not surprising then that soy, wheat and corn make up some of the top ten most allergenic foods, huh!?! And that excessive sugar consumption is linked with the growing numbers of people with type II diabetes.

Isn't our government suposed to protect us rather than kill us?

[ExPat Chef]

I swore off industrial farmed beef as I was just finishing the chapter on how it is raised. Then the doorbell rang. It was my mother-in-law, and we were invited to dinner ... potroast. Ugh. Definitely an important book. Am a bit disturbed by the foreign produce issue facing farmers. Never has it been so important to buy and choose local:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/business/03farm.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th

[SuzanneM]

I confess, I don't know the plants (other than corn and soy) that make up the bulk of our diet. My guess is that one is wheat. I'll spruce up my googling skills and see what I can find.

I left out all sorts of good tidbits from Michael Pollan's talk. Sarah's comment about diabetes reminded me of one. He mentioned how kids today have a lower expected lifespan than their parents -- due to diabetes.

Erika: I heard soap was challenging to make because it could literally blow up your house. I'm impressed you're considering making it.

Expat: It all comes down to the Farm Bill, huh? My head spun after reading the NY Times article. I wish economists could get beyond what I call "one-variable thinking." Do consumers benefit *only* with lower prices? Of course not. I would pay more for local, organic garlic (and do).

[Erika Rathje]

Marc, I mentioned sugar beet in my own post, but that most of the sugar is apparently corn syrup, in what we eat (not in a raw form).

Oh Suzanne, heavens no, I'm not making soap! I was quoting someone's stupid reply to that Wired article. I use vegetable glycerine soap, though, and I don't know whether that's a good thing or not, but as for dish soap, I use biodegradable :)

Thank you for your comment, as well! (And you can delete that second trackback... I didn't realise it disappears from my entry page when it's been sent, so I did it twice!) Do read my reply.

I'm about halfway through "The End of Food" now, and am just stunned at what I'm learning. This morning I showed my classmates (in my contemporary design class) snippets of Grocery Store Wars and The Meatrix, which they much enjoyed, and I hope they'll take the time to look at them. I have a lot more understanding of and appreciation for them now that I've learned so much about the topics.

Today, I refused a bag when I bought a CD; picked up a glass bottle that was lying in the snow and recycled it closer to home; and noticed that Starbucks is getting into post-consumer paper for their *one-time use* cups. On the weekend I refused a ride part way home, opting for a 2-hour transit commute instead of 1.5hr or less. I'm 10x as aware now as I was last year, and I'm literally going out of my way to make a cleaner city.