US Food Policy as National Security . . . .

Taking a short break in the "Learning Styles" posts; last Sunday, Dr. Michael Pollen published an open letter to the next U.S. President in the New York Times Magazine, outlining the case for a change in the US Food Policy.

He traces the development of cheap, abundant food during the Nixon administration, and its reliance upon cheap energy. But those policies "institutionalized" American food production, and has led to unhealthy foods and an obese population.

In addition, our current policy not only doesn't make sense, it leaves us actually vulnerable. And now is the time to change. Speaking to the next president:

This, in brief, is the bad news: the food and agriculture policies you’ve inherited — designed to maximize production at all costs and relying on cheap energy to do so — are in shambles, and the need to address the problems they have caused is acute. The good news is that the twinned crises in food and energy are creating a political environment in which real reform of the food system may actually be possible for the first time in a generation. The American people are paying more attention to food today than they have in decades, worrying not only about its price but about its safety, its provenance and its healthfulness. There is a gathering sense among the public that the industrial-food system is broken. Markets for alternative kinds of food — organic, local, pasture-based, humane — are thriving as never before. All this suggests that a political constituency for change is building and not only on the left: lately, conservative voices have also been raised in support of reform. Writing of the movement back to local food economies, traditional foods (and family meals) and more sustainable farming, The American Conservative magazine editorialized last summer that “this is a conservative cause if ever there was one.”

Dr. Pollen was also interviewed on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" program. Use this link to listen to the program.

Dr. Pollan has also published a book on the subject:

Purchase this book