Pollan finally answers the question What's for Dinner?

[Guest guest]

MICHAEL POLLAN at and Noble Bookstore LAST NIGHT...

The author of the new book about eating, " The Omnivore's Dilemma " has been

described

as perhaps the most articulate food writer in the country. Turns out he's one

heck of a

speaker as well!

He started the talk by stating that the driving question that started the book

was " so,

what shall we eat for dinner? " and it took him 450 pages to even begin to answer

it. His

book tracks four different meals from a meal at Mc's all the way to a meal

he raised

and harvested himself. He describes himself as a FOOD DETECTIVE. He sees his job

as not

to tell you what to eat but " to get people to think more about their choices " .

A FEW TOPICS HE COVERED....

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There has been more change in eating habits and agriculture in the last 50

years than the

previous 1000 years combined. If you took your great grandmother to the

supermarket

she wouldn't know what to do with most of the " food " there. A big change

occurred in

eating habits in the fall of 2002 when the " Atkins insanity " took over and

people began

eating irrationally. There were others

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North Americans have become PEOPLE OF THE CORN. ( " Corn has conquered the

conquerers! " )

Government subsidies and the tricky Farm Bill has subsidized the growing of GMO

corn

such that it is in almost all food. He calls this " the plague of cheap corn " and

it's

destroying the planet. Corn production has taken over many corporations

including

Cargill and ADM, and even the USDA as become a " corn disposal " organization, the

latest

disposal being ethanol making (a completely inefficient and doomed industry!).

When you go into a supermarket, over 25% of the 45,000+ items in the store have

significant amounts of corn in them! This is even true of the non-food products

as well.

(this from pages 15-19 " A Naturalist goes the the Supermarket " - well worth the

price of

the book alone!!)

We " waste " about 90% of the energy of corn by giving it to animals.

Corn production is not really " food production " it's a raw material, it's

energy.

Almost everything said here about corn applies to it's companion SOYBEANS as

well. For

clarity and brevity, he focused on corn.

Americans consume 66# of hi fructose corn syrup per person per year now! A

substance

that did not exist prior to 1980. Plus it's going up. Government subsidies are

the only

thing that makes this industry, the one making people SICK, possible.

You can take a MASS SPECTROMETER and measure how much of carbon of a human being

is from corn and it's MAJOR! The Carbon 13 from corn is now higher in Americans

than

any other people now or in history. Mexicans (and some Native Americans) are

traditionally

considered the " corn people " but C13 doesn't lie. Mexicans eat more things (some

grass

even) and they think feeding corn to animals is a sacrilege. Research scientists

say that on

the spectrometer, North Americans " look like a corn chip with legs " !

When he analyzed Mc's food---- just as one example of this corn

infiltration--- he

finds the following: carbon% from corn Coke=100% (hi fructose corn syrup),

Milk shake

78%, salad dressing 65%, chicken nuggets 76%, Big Mac 56%, and french fries

23%. It

took over 6 pounds of corn to create the meal he ate, but he said if you tracked

it further,

the corn to create this " moveable feast " (automobile drive-up and eating) the

quantity of

corn would more than fill his trunk and spill down the highway!

America has over 125,000 square miles of corn each year, that's two Kansas's and

one

Iowa all in corn! Agriculture is the #1 source of POLLUTION in the US (all

from FEEDLOTS

and ROW CROPS)

The proof that this form of industrial agriculture is UNSUSTAINABLE is that the

whole

system depends totally upon the maintenance of ignorance of knowing how our food

is

made (example: Cargill and ADM refused to allow a journalist to witness how hi

fructose

corn syrup is even made).

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GRASS FARMING

Is the exact opposite of the industrial model. It's free food from mother

nature. Everything

about it fits the model of nature. He discussed how Bison fit the picture of a

grazing herd

and how sustainable " grass farmers " like Saladin mimic the movement of the

herd.

Heres an example he witnessed at Polyface Farm where the Saladins produce beef,

pork,

chicken, turkeys and more:

1) Graze a paddock heavily for one day with a herd of cattle

2) Move the cattle to a new paddock that night (using lightweight electric

fence- you can

carry enough for 1/4 acre on your shoulder)

3) Cattle get the new grass at it's highest level of sugar in the leaves and

they can't wait to

get to it (no yelling or arm-waving needed)

4) After 3 days post-grazing, move the " chicken mobile " into the used paddock

and

release about 400 egg-laying chickens

5) The chickens dig up the cow pies to get the worms and grubs. This prevents

flies,

parasites (no wormers!) and other problems

6) The chickens get excellent nutrition and exercise, plus the spread the

patties which

helps the grass grow

7) When grass is grazed hard and quick it causes a basic die-back of the roots

(the plant

" knows " it needs to maintain a 1:1 ratio

of roots to shoots. This die-back releases tremendous quantities of

nitrogen from the

bacteria and fungi that eats the roots

8) The rapid infusion of nitrogen causes the grass to grow like crazy once again

9) Using this system hundreds of thousands of pounds of eggs, milk and meat can

be

taken off the land and it is not a zero-sum

equation, e.g. the land is BETTER for having raised all that food than it

would have been

if left alone undisturbed.

10) This, in a nutshell, is sustainable agriculture!

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ORGANIC AGRICULTURE

Particularly what he calls " INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC " is even more precarious. They

are

basically using all the protocol of industrial ag but W/O antibiotics. When he

visited the

so-called " free-range, natural, organic " Petaluma Poultry " in California (the

source of the

chicken he ate in his second meal in the book which came entirely from Whole

Foods), he

had to don a head to toe HASMET suit to enter the " germ-free " environment.

Needless to

say, these chickens were NOT free-range!

Earthrise Organic in Salinas Valley produces 70% of the lettuce in the US. One

company

(which is the only kind of vendor Big Organic will deal with. Places like Whole

Food, and

now Wal Mart (yipes!!), require huge and therefore unsustainable vendors to

meet their

enormous needs as well as their desire for cheap, cheap food. A bit of math

revealed that

it requires over 56 calories of energy expenditure to create and deliver each

and every

calorie of food from the lettuce from Earthrise! This is not sustainable.

These big " farms " are not sustainable because they are by necessity MONOCULTURE

farms.

If the farm is a POLYCULTURE farm, it is just naturally more healthy. Nature

works with a

polyculture, hates and disrupts a monoculture.

These organic businesses would not withstand what he calls the " 60 Minutes Test "

which

would be a revealing visit by Mike Wallace!

Organic Label = A substitute for actually talking with the farmer, seeing the

farm

The big problem with organic ag as it's being done = They have as a GOAL to

reduce

pesticides, antibiotics and hormones. When it is your goal you are approaching

the

equation from the wrong angle. That's why those Confinement Livestock Facilities

have

such a paranoia of germs, they have the wrong model. Reduction of pesticides

and

chemicals will be a RESULT of good, sustainable, polyculture farming.

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SUMMARY

1) Stay out of SUPERMARKETS if you can avoid them

Supermarkets have created THE INDUSTRIAL EATER- This is a person who wants

strawberries (and all else) 12 months a year,

Wants everything microwaveable, wants everything convenient, pre-cooked,

pre-

sliced, pre-peeled, EASY, no-brainer food.

The " inner shelves " of canned and processed foods in a supermarket are the

cheapest.

It's GOV. SUBSIDIZED. $1 will buy 1200 calories. Or it will buy 875 calories of

soda. Fresh

food will only give you 250 calories for your dollar because it's less

subsidized.

2) Don't just read labels (they lie!) Talk to farmers if you can. Go direct

(if you can go unannounced to a farm and look at the farmer's library, you

will discover

EVERYTHING!)

3) Go to FARMER'S MARKET'S

~There is much more going on!

~Country meets city!

~These farmers are by necessity polyculture farmers (for year-round income)

~These farmers teach land conservation

~Kids who go with you actually learn about their food

~Virtually nothing there is microwaveable, in other words, it helps you cook

again!

~This food is in keeping with the seasons which is good

4) Check out the American Farmland Trust website www.farmland.org This is

the most

important organization in the work of saving the farm, farm land and agriculture

itself.

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So, there it is! Quite a feast for one night, eh? Incidentally, this lecture

was

PACKED and there were hundreds of people present for an event at a bookstore

" author tour " which usually attracts 20-30 people. The audience was about 1/2

college-

aged young people and the questions afterwards were excellent. The lecture was

filled

with life, hope and positive energy!

What are you waiting for? Go get that book and find a nice cozy spot to read

it!

Will Winter