Let's Chow Down on the Food System

Open letter to prez candidates calls for overhaul—now

By Wesley Oliver, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 12, 2008 5:05 PM CDT

(Newser) – Americans touch it everyday and it’s a matter of national security, but John McCain and Barack Obama haven’t raised the issue while campaigning: America’s food system is in dire need of an overhaul, Michael Pollan writes in an open letter to the candidates in the New York Times. The system is critical to energy, health care, and environmental reform, he writes: “Food is about to demand your attention.”

But reform “may actually be possible for the first time in a generation,” declares Pollan, who advocates grants for farmers’ markets and migrating animals away from pollution-friendly feedlots. Reform won’t be easy, but “we need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (3)]

To make local foods more acceptable and cheaper, Michael Pollan suggests the next president provide grants to towns and cities to build year-round indoor farmers' markets. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

The migration of America's animals from farm to feedlot has increased pollution and decreased nutrition, Michael Pollan says. (Shutter Stock)

After World War II, Washington began subsidizing commodity crops like wheat, encouraging farmers to to plant "fence row to fence row" and to '"get big or get out," Michael Pollan explains. (Shutter Stock)

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When we eat from the industrial-food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases. - Michael Pollan, New York Times

The health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security.
- Michael Pollan, New York Times

Changing the food culture must begin with our children. We’ll need to plant gardens in every primary school and train a new generation of lunchroom ladies (and gentlemen) who can cook and teach cooking to children. - Michael Pollan, New York Times

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Let's Chow Down on the Food System