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<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'> Kozer4@aol.com
[mailto:Kozer4@aol.com] <br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, June 28, 2006
8:45 AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> comfood@elist.tufts.edu<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Today's <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:State> Post Front-page Food Section</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><strong><b><font size=5 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Q& A | Michael
Pollan</span></font></b></strong><b><font size=5 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;font-weight:bold'><br>
</span></font></b><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Think Global, Eat Local<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>Wednesday, June 28, 2006; F01<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>You're standing in the supermarket contemplating
a nice warm-weather meal -- maybe grilled fish or chicken and salad. But you
worry: Is there any local or organic produce, or does that even matter? Is the
salmon wild, or does it come from those fish farms that you hear might not be
clean? Were the chickens raised in crowded cages and fed yellow dye? And what
about the margarines, cookies and crackers that used to have all those trans
fats, but you're not totally sure what trans fats are and why they're bad for
you.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>In <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> these days, deciding what
to eat is a real problem, says writer Michael Pollan. An abundance of foods
tempts us. Multimillion-dollar food marketing and the latest scientific finds
(or fads) muddle our thinking. And we don't have centuries of traditional
eating patterns to help guide our choices. In the midst of that confusion,
we've become heavier and less healthy every year.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>To figure out guidelines for what we should eat,
Pollan set out on a five-year journey to learn more about where the foods we
eat come from and just how safe they are. The result is his new "The
Omnivore's Dilemma" (Penguin Press, $26.95). Staff writer Judith Weinraub
recently asked Pollan to interpret some of his findings.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>Your initial question was
"what should we eat?" How did you go about your research?</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>Before I could figure that out, I had to know
what I was eating. So I did the food detective work to trace what was on my
plate.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>You went all over the country</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'> <i><span style='font-style:italic'>tracking American food -- to a
cornfield in <st1:State w:st="on">Iowa</st1:State>, a feedlot in <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Kansas</st1:place></st1:State>, organic farms,
McDonald's. You even hunted, gathered and grew food for a single meal. Was
there anything in particular that surprised you?</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>All that food, that seeming cornucopia of
variety, kept taking me back to the cornfield in <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Iowa</st1:place></st1:State>. So I followed a bushel of corn to see
what you can make from it. I had no idea how much of our industrial system was
based on corn, and turning corn into meat and processed food.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>What are the implications of
having such a corn-based diet?</span></font></i><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>Environmentally, it's dangerous to eat so much
of one thing. Nature teaches us not to put all our eggs in one basket. Think of
the Irish and the potato famine [in the 1840s]. One day a blight attacked their
potato crop, and a million people died. The only way to keep a food monoculture
going is with lots of chemicals -- they need more pesticides and fertilizer
than mixed-cropped farms.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>The other side of it is our health. We need a
great variety of food. If we don't get it, we're not getting what we need.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>You're very critical of the
foods made from corn, and processed foods in general. Why?</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>Corn products are not fresh food. To make them,
you're using corn as an industrial raw material.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>Did researching the book make
you reevaluate your diet?</span></font></i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>I avoid foods with more than five ingredients on
the label, and I eat as few processed foods as I can -- in particular, anything
made with high-fructose corn syrup. It's not evil, but it's a marker of a
highly processed food.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>You don't eat fast foods now.
Did you ever?</span></font></i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>I had a kid who liked to go to McDonald's. What
turned me off was visiting a feedlot and spending time with a steer through his
life. I saw how they live and how we make them into meat. Once you've seen
that, it changes the way you eat. And my talking about it turned my son off
fast foods.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>Do you eat any meat now?</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>I don't eat any industrial meat. I only eat beef
that's been fed grass from start to finish.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>What about chickens?</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>I do tend to buy organic chickens, but they
don't do a lot of free-ranging. And when I can, I buy pasteurized chickens and
eggs.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>What about farmed fish?</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>Salmon are not sustainable. But shellfish are
fine. Generally they purify water rather than making it filthy.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>Which is more important:
buying locally made or grown foods or organic foods?</span></font></i><font
size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>Given the choice, buy local over organic. Often
local food is organic, but farmers may not have the capital to deal with all
the paperwork involved.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>But I do buy organic chickens because they
aren't fed antibiotics or growth hormones. And I buy organic milk -- but I look
for milk from cows that have been grass-fed. Sometimes you can find that
information on the label.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>Doesn't organic food often
cost more?</span></font></i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>It's a crime that only the fairly affluent in
this country can afford to eat healthy food. But the problem is not that that
food is so expensive. It's that industrial food is so cheap. And the real cost
is being charged to the public health. If we spent more on healthier food, my guess
is we could spend a lot less on health care.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>So what's an ordinary
supermarket shopper to do?</span></font></i><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>Shop somewhere else. Get out of the supermarket
and go to farmers markets, where the food is fresh, tastes better, is more
nutritious, and you know it hasn't been processed. It forces you to be a
non-industrial eater, and your children learn that carrots are not industrially
lathed little bullets.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black;font-style:italic'>But buying everything at
farmers markets isn't realistic for most people. So what specific advice can
you give supermarket shoppers?</span></font></i><font size=2 color=black
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>Read the labels.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial;color:black'>And don't eat anything your great-grandmother
wouldn't recognize as food.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=2
color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:black'>© 2006 The Washington Post Company<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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