Michael Pollan: Growing your own
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-pollan/a-food-revolution-in-the_b_190089.html
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Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food" recently wrote an article for the Huff Post on inspiring more Americans to grow their own food. He cites First Lady Michelle Obama's move to plant a kitchen garden at the White House serves as an example not seen since the days of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Pollan, who has written extensively about food cultivation from modern industrial agriculture to organic farms to modern hunting and gathering, says that more and more people are interested in growing their own food. However, many of the skills and local knowledge about food production have been lost or "bred out of modern life" and rediscovering them is the real task at hand. He outlines specific policy moves that could encourage people to grow their own food such as :
* Provide grants to towns and cities to build year-round indoor farmers' markets.
* Make food-safety regulations sensitive to scale and marketplace, so that small producers selling direct off the farm or at a farmers' market are not regulated as onerously as a multinational food manufacturer.
* Urge The U.S.D.A. to establish a Local Meat-Inspectors Corps to serve and support the local food processors that remain.
* Establish a Strategic Grain Reserve to prevent huge swings in commodity prices.
* Create incentives for hospitals and universities receiving federal funds to buy fresh local produce which would vastly expand regional agriculture and improve the diet of the millions of people these institutions feed.
I'm a big fan of Pollan. His chapter on mushroom gathering has inspired me to eat more fungi and become a mushroom hunter in my spare time. Food is so in right now.
Pollan, who has written extensively about food cultivation from modern industrial agriculture to organic farms to modern hunting and gathering, says that more and more people are interested in growing their own food. However, many of the skills and local knowledge about food production have been lost or "bred out of modern life" and rediscovering them is the real task at hand. He outlines specific policy moves that could encourage people to grow their own food such as :
* Provide grants to towns and cities to build year-round indoor farmers' markets.
* Make food-safety regulations sensitive to scale and marketplace, so that small producers selling direct off the farm or at a farmers' market are not regulated as onerously as a multinational food manufacturer.
* Urge The U.S.D.A. to establish a Local Meat-Inspectors Corps to serve and support the local food processors that remain.
* Establish a Strategic Grain Reserve to prevent huge swings in commodity prices.
* Create incentives for hospitals and universities receiving federal funds to buy fresh local produce which would vastly expand regional agriculture and improve the diet of the millions of people these institutions feed.
I'm a big fan of Pollan. His chapter on mushroom gathering has inspired me to eat more fungi and become a mushroom hunter in my spare time. Food is so in right now.
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