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Via Nathan, I see that George Will has written an excellent column discussing Michael Pollan’s work and the need for a better agricultural – er, food – policy than the one we’ve got now. Will’s tone is pretty dispassionate on the whole, but he does a very nice job synthesizing the different elements of Pollan’s [...]
Filed under: agriculture, food, politics
William writes: I’m with my dictionary on this one: grow should be transitive only in the context of hair and farm crops, e.g., “grow a beard” or “grow some corn.” And I’m a little bit iffy on the farming use. Claiming to “grow” the economy, or church membership, or a business’s profits, implies that one [...]
Filed under: agriculture, economics, government/law
The subsidy-lovin’ former Iowa governor is Obama’s choice for Ag Secretary. All those who criticized me for jumping the gun in this post can now eat corn. (H/T: David Gumpert.)
Filed under: agriculture, government/law, politics
by J.L. Wall When I was in Israel last December, my trip stopped off at some sort of “Biblical-farm” thing—it set out to follow all the rules for farming and life in pre-Diaspora Judaism. An intriguing—and, in its way, quite admirable goal—but it came across as more kitschy than anything else. (That’s as delicately as [...]
Filed under: agriculture, religion
Ezra Klein is disappointed to learn that the Obama transition team is reportedly considering offering the post of Agriculture Secretary to corn-loving Tom Vilsack, a possibility which Ezra pegs as evidence that Obama “will not upend the ag subsidy apple cart”. Well, yeah – and if you expected anything else, then I’ve got a few [...]
Filed under: agriculture, food, government/law
Ezra Klein has a great post on the role of stupid government subsidies in making bad food look cheaper than it really is. You should read it. His conclusion: It’s possible, of course, that if you removed those enabling factors, the resulting equilibrium would be far from a utopia. But at least it would be [...]
Filed under: agriculture, conservatism, food, government/law, libertarianism
Michael Pollan’s missive to the next President on the future of American food policy is well worth reading, and not just because it quotes me: Writing of the movement back to local food economies, traditional foods (and family meals) and more sustainable farming, The American Conservative magazine editorialized last summer that “this is a conservative [...]
Filed under: agriculture, energy, environment, food, government/law
My column this week at Culture11 is about an urban farming and gardening program at the Alameda Point Collaborative, a community on the grounds of an old naval base in Alameda, CA that provides support for the homeless. Here’s a snippet: Ultimately, [...] the goal lies less in the provision of fresh fruits and vegetables [...]
Filed under: agriculture, food, personal, urbanism
First installment here. Update from bloggers’ row (well, sort of) here. My take on a first pass through the main square here. And a quantitative rundown of the day here.
Filed under: agriculture, food
By way of this blog I stumbled upon a clip of Alice Waters speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival about her hopes for a food-conscious President Obama. (Sorry, but for some reason it won’t embed.) Most of this is, of course, not my sort of foodism-gone-political – I’m deeply fearful of the kind of nanny-stating [...]
Filed under: agriculture, food, politics