Food

Today's NYT provides readers with two quality pieces on food in the US, and the shifting conceptions of what constitutes "food." Mark Bittman's "Eating Food that's Better For You, Organic Or Not" and the Sunday Business section's "Is A Food Revolution Now in Season?" tap into the consensus that the traditional American industrial food chain--the one that I grew up with--is bankrupt, in a nutritional and qualitative sense. Bittman's point is realistic, an argument that Michael Pollan hedges in his praise of everything organic: it's more important to consume conventional fruits and vegetables to live healthy. He also comments on the lofty ambitions emanating from the "food movement": "With all due respect to people in the 'food movement,' the food need not be 'slow,' either."

In the 60 Minutes segment with Alice Waters posted below, Waters praises slow food as the correspondent noted the absence of a microwave. Then she whips up a scrumptious breakfast in what seems like no time at all, thus revealing how easy it is to participate in crafting and eating slow food. Give me a break. Most average Americans are lucky if they have the time and energy to whip up a homemade meal five out of seven nights, and I think that estimate could be too high. The simplicity and accessibility of slow food is illusory.

The Sunday Business piece is a bit more insight into how foodies are attempting to work with Obama, Sec of Ag Vilsack, and members of Congress to reverse the course of industrial food. It's not bad insight into the status of the food movement and the business side, which has forced Wal-Mart, Heinz, and a long list of producers to bend to new consumer consciousness on food.

Finally, on-line NYT round table "Food, Glorious Food Myths" with six authors, pundits, nutritionists attempting to dispel widely held conceptions of eating, such as the lack of nutrition in fruit drinks, misplaced praise of kosher foods, the tasteless nature of grass-fed beef, and other pertinent topics.