On Sun, 23 Aug 2009 11:47:55 -0600, Gloria P >
wrote:

>modom (palindrome guy) wrote:
>> http://www.time.com/time/health/arti...917458,00.html
>>
>> Fun facts about our food ystem:
>>
>> 1. "our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels,
>> more than any other sector of the economy."
>>
>> 2. "According to the USDA, Americans spend less than 10% of their
>> incomes on food, down from 18% in 1966." Which sounds good except fo:
>>
>> 3. "A study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a
>> dollar could buy 1,200 calories of potato chips or 875 calories of
>> soda but just 250 calories of vegetables or 170 calories of fresh
>> fruit."
>>
>> 4. "When runoff from the fields of the Midwest reaches the Gulf of
>> Mexico, it contributes to what's known as a dead zone, a seasonal,
>> approximately 6,000-sq.-mi. area that has almost no oxygen and
>> therefore almost no sea life."
>>
>> 5. "The USDA estimates that Americans throw out 14% of the food we
>> buy, which means that much of our record-breaking harvests ends up in
>> the garbage."
>>
>> Recommended reading.
>
>
>I'd add "The Omnivore's Dilemma" to the suggested reading
>if the Time article interested you.
>
Yes, I read and enjoyed it. Pollan is a good writer and an excellent
researcher. I haven't read his "In Defense of Food" yet. Pollan may be
preaching to the choir more than winning converts, though. I can't
really say, but that's soetimes what it looks and feels like. I liked
the book, but then I was disposed to like it going in.

What interested me about the article I linked to was that it was in
Time -- as mainstream as it comes in American media. I wonder if we
are at a tipping point in the economics and culture of food? I wonder
if we can expect changes in corn subsidies, for example that will
alter the price ratio of junk foods to fresh fruit?
--

modom