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Farmer In Chief -Michael Pollan

Ben H

Well-known member
I'm posting this here because it's connected to the USDA.

Here is an article by Michael Pollan that is written as a letter to the next president talking about the end to America's cheap food policy and ending the subsidies that create it, but more importantly, an alternative. It's a bit lenghty, but worth the read.
I would also recomend reading The Omnivore's Dillemma and seeing his debate with John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods. He also is interviewed in the documentary King Corn.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html

Here's the first paragraph

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.
 
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