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Simon Phipps's personal commentary

You are what you eat

I've been meaning to mention that I finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma [UK] during December and really loved it. It had been jumping into view each time I went to a bookshop and I finally gave in during October.

It was a deliciously smooth read - even with my usual ADD I found it compelling. Michael Pollen digs into the American food system and finds that the mass-market food system has been ridiculously skewed by a policy decision made under the Nixon administration. Attempting to prevent the recurrence of a catastrophic price slump in the food system, the agriculture minister of the time created a price intervention system which controlled price without controlling supply. The result was the creation of eternally cheap corn, which has driven all American food production (and more) to artificially obsess on the stuff.

Pollen goes further though. He finds that the organic production sector has caught the same obsession and is mass-producing organic food in a manner increasingly resonant of the mass-market. Just as proprietary software companies want to steal the term "open source" because of its market power, so the food industry has already gamed the term "organic" and made sure they can use the term without adopting the lifestyle. I find Whole Foods Market a great place to shop, but this book was a real eye-opener to the consumer manipulation at work there.

Overall I'd say this was my book-of-the-year for 2007 and a must-read book. It has a strong US focus and speaks of a food system that doesn't yet exist in Europe (where EU intervention controls supply as well as price and has avoided the destructive corn system that's ruining American health). But it still explores the motivations and dynamics of our food and gives an important perspective as we sail into the future. It's already changed my health, not by being prescriptive but by helping me think.

Labels: Books, Food

posted at 11:57 PM (UK) | |