Food and Politics -- it seems they're getting closer

[Victoria]

In case you haven't seen it yet, you'll like this, from a just-posted
Joe Klein interview with Obama:

Obama Response to Pollan Article!

"I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen
about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built
on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is
contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And
in the mean time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to
national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices
or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are
partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because
they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease,
obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in
healthcare costs. That's just one sector of the economy. You think
about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true
on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.
For us to say we are just going to completely revamp how we use energy
in a way that deals with climate change, deals with national security
and drives our economy, that's going to be my number one priority when
I get into office, assuming, obviously, that we have done enough to
just stabilize the immediate economic situation."

entire Pollan article, i.e. "Farmer in Chief," at the Growing Power
Platform

http://www.milwaukeerenaissance.com/GrowingPower/HomePage

[Joel Dalton]

Here are two excellent videos on the problem... preaching to the choir, certainly, but worth a look and great eye candy for explaining the food issues to newbie friends.

No doubt, some of these ideas may raise the hairs on some peoples' necks (a jab at localvores?) - - - great discussions, though:

Mark Bittman on food: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html
Ann Cooper on school lunches: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ann_cooper_talks_school_lunches.html

JD

"I rejoice to live in such a splendidly disturbing time!" - Helen Keller