Michael Pollan is in town. He speaks Thursday at the Kohl Center and Saturday he will make an appearance at the Food For Thought Festival in downtown Madison, speaking about his book ""In Defense of Food"" for the Go Big Read program.
In recent years Pollan has become the spokesperson for the real food movement in this country. Much of his activism focuses on the food industry's effect on our health. Pollan attributes increased levels of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease to our diet, and he argues that health care reform in this country will fail if we do not change the way we eat. In order to change our diet as a nation, Pollan asserts that we need to change the way food is grown, processed and consumed in this country.
This food system overhaul, Pollan writes, is ""even more difficult than reforming the health-care system."" Difficult doesn't begin to describe the situation the government is in, ""subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.""
If Washington's hands are tied when it comes to food system reform, it is up to the voters to enact change. Arguably Pollan's greatest contribution to the American conversation about our food system is his advocacy for ""voting with your dollars.""
Every time you make a purchase you are essentially saying that you support everything that went into the production and distribution of whatever it is you are buying. When you fill your gas tank, you are supporting the oil industry. When you buy textbooks and notebooks, you are supporting the lumber industry. When you purchase a new pair of jeans, you are supporting the cotton industry.
What went into producing and bringing you, the consumer, a good is not always clear. It's difficult to know whether or not your gas money is supporting drilling in the Niger Delta by Shell and Chevron, whose presence in a region inhabited by some of the world's poorest people has lead to severe pollution, destruction of mangrove forests and depletion of fish stocks. It's not easy to find out if your clothes were sewn by Chinese workers making less than minimum wage, or if the paper in your notebook was harvested from old growth forests.
In the case of our food, we do not always know where it comes from, what chemicals and pesticides were used in the fields, whether genetically modified seeds were planted, how far the product has been transported, or what kinds of preservatives were added to increase the product's shelf life. These are things the average consumer does not know, mostly because the information is difficult to obtain. But as a consumer we should be more aware of what business practices our money helps sustain.
When Election Day roles around, do we vote for a politician whose platform we're not sure of? Do we vote for someone whose voting record is unclear? When you begin to look at spending your money as casting a ballot, a means by which to support or not support an industry and its practices, you take back control of your food chain. You have the power to spend your hard earned dollars supporting a food industry whose practices are friendly to both the environment and your health.
We have the opportunity every day to vote with our dollars. We can choose to support practices and companies that value workers, the land and our health. We can refuse to contribute to those which destroy the earth, poison our bodies, and do not provide living wages.
Put your money back into the community by supporting local growers and purveyors. When you purchase locally you decrease the distance your food travels, which in turn reduces the amount of gas burned in transportation and increases the freshness and healthfulness of your food. When you choose to spend your money locally you are contributing to your own health and wealth. The farmer you purchase from may patronize the coffee shop or restaurant where you work.
This kind of grower-consumer relationship has been largely lost in the United States. As a nation we have become disconnected with our food source. When you purchase tomatoes at the farmers' market you have the opportunity to see the person who planted, cared for and harvested those tomatoes. When you purchase a sandwich at Subway you have no way of knowing where those tomatoes came from or who was involved in their production.
The big oil companies use their money to lobby Washington D.C. and effect change to their benefit. We too can use money to change the way the food industry does business. By refusing to support unsustainable farming practices, unlivable wages and the production of processed non-food food products we can encourage the food industry to change. If we demand food that is both good for us and the environment, the food industry will be forced to change the way they do business.
Kathy Dittrich is a senior majoring in English and French. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
