Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Michael Pollan
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism
121 North Gate Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
http://us1.campaign-archive.com/?u=7fccf730f9f0eb11247da57db&id=ffc006c75b&e=53b07e9d7e

Friends:

Last year I published Food Rules, a short book offering 64 rules for eating 
well. Food Rules struck a chord with many people, who found that it helped 
them navigate what has become a treacherous food environment, whether in the 
supermarket or restaurant. Many of the rules were submitted by readers, and 
since publication I have received a number of excellent new ones. So I’ve 
decided to publish an expanded edition, with additional rules and also 
illustrations, which the painter Maira Kalman has agreed to create.

The premise of Food Rules is that culture has much to teach us about how to 
choose, prepare, and eat food and that this wisdom is worth collecting and 
preserving before it disappears. In recent years, we’ve deferred to the 
voices of science and industry when it comes to eating, yet often their 
advice has served us poorly, or has merely confirmed the wisdom of our 
grandmothers after the fact. “Eat your colors,” an Australian reader’s 
grandmother used to tell her; now we hear the same advice from nutritionists, 
citing the value of including in the diet as many different phytochemicals as 
possible.

I’ve also found that many ethnic traditions have their own memorable 
expressions for what amounts to the same recommendation. Many cultures, for 
examples, have grappled with the problem of food abundance and come up with 
different ways of proposing we stop eating before we’re completely full: the 
Japanese say “hara hachi bu” (“Eat until you are 4/5 full”); Germans advise 
eaters to “tie off the sack before it’s full.” And the prophet Mohammed 
recommended that a full belly should contain one-third food, one-third drink, 
and one-third air. My own Russian-Jewish grandfather used to say at the end 
of every meal, “I always like to leave the table a little bit hungry.”

Many rules reach across cultures and also time, but some of the ones readers 
have submitted are specifically about navigating the modern food landscape: 
“It’s not food if it comes to you through the window of a car.” “Don’t eat at 
any restaurant of which there is more than just one.” “A snack is not the 
same thing as treat.” “If a bug won’t eat it, why would you?” and so on.

Will you send me a food rule you have found memorable and useful? Perhaps one 
passed down by your parents or grandparents? Or something you’ve come up with 
to tell your children – or your self?

Please send your suggestions to pollan.foodrules@gmail.com

I will include the best ones in the next edition of Food Rules, which will be 
published next fall and will be pleased to acknowledge your contribution if
you so wish.

Thanks in advance for your attention and help.

Yours very truly,
Michael