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  • From: "Jeanne Driese" <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
  • Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2008 18:32:51 -0500

Hi Gene,
Well my book is in the mail, I even met the mailperson at the box thinking
it would be in today's mail! I feel just as you do about trusting Michael
Pollen. After I finish the book I will comment on your review, but having
read his other books, it seems you are on the mark.
Jeanne
tnhillwoman
North East TN zone 6
----- Original Message -----
From: Gene GeRue
To: Homestead
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 5:53 PM
Subject: [Homestead] In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan


This is the review I have written for Amazon.com:

Want health?

“. . . no people on earth worry more about the health consequences of
their food choices than we American do—and no people suffer from as
many diet-related health problems.”

What to do? Like so much today, food truth is hard to find. We can’t
trust government to tell us the truth because it is influenced by the
industrial agriculture giants that produce most food. We certainly
can’t trust labels using “natural” to describe chemical
agglomerations. And, frankly, we can’t trust doctors because they are
simply not educated about food. Nutritionists? Many are educated, but
how do we learn their bias? And, can they overcome “the pitfalls of
reductionism and overconfidence?”

I trust Michael Pollan. He has now written enough books regarding food
that we know who and how he is. If he has a bias, it seems to be that
he really gives a damn about we American consumers.

Pollan shows how, starting in 1977, government dietary decrees began
to speak in terms of nutrients rather than specific foods. This was
due to the pushback from the meat industry against the Senate Select
Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs. Senator George McGovern’s
committee had made the fatal mistake of suggesting that Americans
should eat less red meat and fewer dairy products. Enter agribusiness
lobbyists. And that changed the whole story of the Western Diet. “The
Age of Nutritionism had arrived.” No longer would certain foods be
extolled; now we would be sold nutrients. No matter that these
mysterious and unpronounceable ingredients might be manufactured
rather than grown.

At the end of the day, and near the end of this most valuable book, is
the suggestion: “Cook and, If You Can, Plant a Garden.” I relate well
to that. I was lucky--I grew up poor in a family that raised most of
our food. The proof of the eating is that my parents long outlived
their eight younger “buy it at the store” siblings; Dad died at 93 and
Mother is still avidly gardening at 94.

If we can’t raise food we can buy from small producers as close to us
as possible--we can be locavores. The more we know about the people
who produce what we put in our body the more we can trust our food-
buying decisions. And when we buy food we vote our values. The shorter
the distance from field to plate, the less oil is consumed. Win-win.

So buy from nearby growers. Buy from farmer’s markets and CSAs. Spend
more money on best-quality food and spend less money on health
insurance. It’s an essential choice.

I won’t be a spoiler and tell you about the new and contradictory
information about fats, cholesterol and heart disease. I won’t bore
you with the stories of how our present unhealthful dietary condition
came to be and the many businesses and agencies who have created it.
And I won’t tell you what you should do, beyond this: read this book
and act on the uncommon commonsense knowledge it gives you.
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