Hungry For Change

If I were to nominate a farmer to help lead us towards a more sustainable food system, Joel Salatin would be on my campaign button.

The searingly smart and charismatically irreverent poster boy for the local food movement, Salatin began gaining national attention when he appeared in Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and more recently in the documentary Food, Inc. More

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  Michael Pollan is a busy guy these days.  You can catch him on Oprah tomorrow, where he'll talking up his latest book, Food Rules: An Eater's Manual, and spreading the good word about the importance of making smart, sustainable food choices. Pollan was also recently interviewed for Time Magazine, where he answered questions about food sent in by readers, just as Food Rules was developed from advice on healthy eating habits sent in by readers. 

I'm always hesitant to praise someone as a guru–which some certainly believe Pollan to be–because no one is infallible, and we each need to think critically about the choices we make, especially when it comes to the food we eat. That's why I'm happy to see Mr. Pollan use his latest book to turn the focus on all of us, and asks us to engage with one another about making smarter, healthier food choices. I think we'll all be surprised to learn how much we know intrinsically and collectively about which foods are good for us, which aren't, and how we can make wiser decisions about our diet without consulting a guru, fad or textbook.

You can watch Mr. Pollan's Time interview below, but first, here are two of my favorite responses: More

Eating a healthy lunch at school used to mean bringing a brown bag from home. Thankfully, we're beginning to see a groundswell of support for healthier school lunches—the kind actually served at school. And one company, Revolution Foods, has joined those efforts by delivering nutritious and delicious meals to school cafeterias across the country. Placing a special emphasis on local and organic ingredients, Revolution provides ready-to-eat meals and snacks to schools whose lunch options are otherwise confined to the baseline requirements of the federal nutrition guidelines. More

Whoever thought cupcakes could be so political?

In the wake of the earthquake that has ravaged Port-Au-Prince, diet-conscious New York City has decided to temporarily lift its ban on bake sales to allow students to raise money for relief efforts in Haiti. More

When you think of preserving traditional farming practices, I'm guessing that frozen embryos aren't the type of preservation you have in mind. But that may change when you learn about the SFV Foundation, an organization and research facility dedicated to conserving rare heritage livestock breeds by freezing their semen and embryos through process known as cryopreservation.

Welcome to Sustainable Farming 2.0. 

Just as groups like The Seed Savers Exchange are encouraging people to plant rare varieties of vegetables to protect and preserve biodiversity, the SFV Foundation is creating a "frozen library of genetic material from farm animals in danger of being lost to extinction." Industrial agriculture relies heavily upon high-yield monocultures of crops and animals, focusing on a very limited range of traits for efficiency and reliability. But just as an over-dependency on a single variety of potato made Ireland susceptible to famine when blight struck, Big Ag's reliance on very few varieties, weakened by inbreeding, poses a serious risk to food supplies when health issues arise.  More

I've never been big on making New Year's resolutions, favoring gradual changes over the cold turkey approach, but the New York Health Department is pushing hard to encourage residents of the Big Apple to cut down on soda and other sugary beverages in 2010.

Having been unable to pass a tax on sugary drinks earlier this year, the city has decided to take a more visceral approach with their "Are You Putting On the Pounds" campaign, which includes subway posters and a video that takes soda's fat-inducing capabilities literally (watch below).  More

Just the other day I was thinking how lucky we are here in LA that we can buy a fresh head of lettuce at the farmer's market in late December, while the East coast is covered in snow and most of the market's have closed until springtime.  Fortunately, the White House is helping show farmers and home-gardeners learn how they can grow fresh produce year-round, no matter where they live.  The White House garden has extended their growing season by building hoop houses: