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["Jeanne Driese" <jeanne13 AT earthlink.net>]

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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3:52 PM