The Revolution Starts Now
If you follow the Whole Food movement in this country—- which includes Slow food, organics, sustainable agriculture and more—- you know that Michael Pollan is at the head of the class when it comes to articulate, reasonable arguments for improving what we eat in this country.
Maybe it was inevitable, but a movement now has begun to get Pollan chosen as the new Secretary of Agriculture in President-elect Obama’s administration.
It may sound crazy, in that Pollan is by no means a politician or the typical candidate for such a job. He certainly doesn’t have the kind of experience that an agricultural secretary normally has.
But check out www.pollanforsecretaryofagriculture.org and the idea starts to sound credible.
A while back, Pollan published a “Farmer in Chief” opinion piece in The New York Times where he logically connected the dots between a healthy, reformed food system and such big-ticket issues as oil dependence, health care, national security, foreign trade, the economy and the environment.
As of the morning of Dec. 15, pollanforsecretaryofagriculture.org had collected 8,277 signatures on a petition to push Pollan’s nomination.
Now, Pollan apparently is not on Obama’s list. Also as of Dec. 15, that list is said to Rep. Bishop Sanford Bishop of Georgia, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Rep. John Salazar of Colorado.
So Pollan is a longshot at best, but if Obama were to choose him, it could mean a big change in the way government deals with food. In fact, if Pollan actually were able to get things done, it would mean a veritable food revolution. (Of course, resigning in disgust at Washington bureaucracy is a real, maybe more likely, possibility, too.)
If you are not familiar with Pollan, check out the petition’s Web site or www.michaelpollan.com, or read one of his books, such as The Omniovre’s Dilemma or In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.
