One of the strengths of the Pollan article I linked to yesterday, “Farmer in Chief,” is how Pollan clearly underlines that caring about where your food comes from is not just a luxury reserved for yuppies with too much time on their hands and more money than they know what to do with. On the contrary, reforming how we think about, produce, and distribute food is a cause that ordinary citizens from a variety of backgrounds can get behind. To illustrate his point, he traces the intersection of food reform with climate change, energy independence, terrorist threats, and health care. Heard those terms lately? You have if you’ve been following the race to the White House. All those issues are central to the platforms of both the major candidates and the third party candidates. One topic that doesn’t come up much, however, is the one Pollan has raised here, the one that cuts through all three: food. Do the candidates have a stance on food and agriculture? Where do they see the need for reform, and who best fits your perspective on food and agriculture issues? Find out after the jump.

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Farmer in Chief By MICHAEL POLLAN

Dear Mr. President-Elect,

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

Complicating matters is the fact that the price and abundance of food are not the only problems we face; if they were, you could simply follow Nixon’s example, appoint a latter-day Earl Butz as your secretary of agriculture and instruct him or her to do whatever it takes to boost production. But there are reasons to think that the old approach won’t work this time around; for one thing, it depends on cheap energy that we can no longer count on. For another, expanding production of industrial agriculture today would require you to sacrifice important values on which you did campaign. Which brings me to the deeper reason you will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on — but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them. Let me explain.

This is the beginning to journalist Michael Pollan’s New York Times piece, “Farmer in Chief.” It’s an eleven-page explanation of how many of the greatest problems facing our nation relate to how our food is produced, and it is also a challenge to the new president to make reforming food production and distribution a top priority. At the NYT site, you can read the entire “Farmer in Chief” article. As the election approaches, there is no better time to think about the issues Pollan raises.

Discussion to follow.

How’s that for a mouthful?

The centerpiece of yesterday’s marjoram-themed lunch was a thick, creamy bean soup featuring herbs from our patio garden. This is a high-protein soup ideal for cold days and hungry bellies, and it was made even better by grilled focaccia with garlic and marjoram.

The soup starts with a pound of Colorado River beans which I had soaked and pressure-cooked the day before and then stored in the fridge. I found these beans at Native Seeds in Tucson some time ago, and I was curious about them They’re pretty–small and pale with purplish markings. It turns out that they’re mild and keep their shape well when cooked. It also turns out they make for very tasty soup.

The bisque was also a way for me to use up some leftover rice I had in the fridge from an earlier meal. It is a blend of several different varieties of rice, including some wild rice. The combination lends a nutty, earth flavor, which balances the soup well and adds a pleasing texture. Finally, it allowed me to experiment with the shallot I had bought for the French Dijon vinaigrette. Not a bad deal. That’s another key element of keeping things simple–become comfortable planning your recipes based on what you have on hand. Like, let’s say, just hypothetically…marjoram and leftover rice.

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Remember this little plantling?

Due to some inconclusive results on the Marjoram Management Survey, I have decided to tackle the glut of marjoram head-on with every weapon in my arsenal. To kick things off today, the Unicyclist and I enjoyed a marjoram-themed lunch: grilled garlic focaccia with marjoram; Colorado River bean soup with mushrooms, herbs, and sundried tomatoes; and a salad of autumn greens, Asian pears, and toasted walnuts tossed with a French Dijon vinaigrette.

Oh, baby.

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Everyone has favorites, right? One of my family favorites is my cousin Nathan. Besides the fact that he’s kind and fun and talented, he was also trained as a chef at L’Ecole La Varenne in Paris, France. (This makes for delicious family gatherings, by the way.)

Which is why, when the marjoram takes over an entire jumbo-sized pot in my container garden, I immediately go running to the expert: Nathan.

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It’s game day here at the Simple Spoonful! Woot! Here’s how to play: Print out a blackline world map with all the countries. Now, truck yourself over to your nearest large chain grocery and take a good look at the produce section. Pay special attention to the stickers on the produce or the information on the plastic clamshells in which the berries or tomatoes come. Every time you can identify where the produce is coming from, you get to color in that country (or state, in the U.S.) on your map. You might have to ask a produce worker where certain things are coming from if you can’t tell–try it! It’s fun.

Oh–just to boost the fun factor, let’s say every time you find something grown in your home state, you get an extra 500 bonus points.

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It’s the weekend, which means it’s probably a good time to cook up something delicious for the coming week. To help you in your endeavors toward deliciousness, I offer you the very first of an ongoing series of recipes. Here, to kick off the recipe portion of the Simple Spoonful, I present you with…Mighty Morning Granola!

Take a look–ain’t she purty?

Granola has become a staple here in our household. Either the Unicyclist or I cook up a batch on a biweekly basis, and it’s almost never the same. Granola is a very forgiving dish, not to mention a wonderful platform for experimentation. You want coconut? Toss it in! Hate cashews? Use peanuts! Want to find out what happens when you swap almond butter for some of the oil? Yee-ha! Want dried apples, raisins, and cardamom in this batch? Go for it! It is inevitably delicious.

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I can pretty much guarantee you that this is the single question most heard by vegetarians across the country. As a group, that is. I am sure if some individual vegetarian has a tattoo of the London Underground in a conspicuous place or a wonky name like Hoover McFiddlewarts, questions regarding such will probably trump the protein issue. But I digress.

We Americans love protein. It takes a starring role at the dinner table, and most people believe it is the primary source of the American talent of growing so big and strong. We worship protein as the driving force behind Olympic athletes, NFL linebackers, and The Rock’s bulging biceps.

Speaking of which…can you smell what The Rock is cooking for dinner?

Here’s a hint: it’s probably not grilled tofu with a side of spinach. To the best of my knowledge, the Rock’s massive physique is a product of an omnivorous diet. When most people think of famous vegetarians, they think of waify Natalie Portman or whip-thin Tobey MaGuire as a jockey in Seabiscuit.

However, Angela Basset is also the product of a vegetarian diet. Hello, muscles.

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Looking at the details of the meat-packing industry, the importance of consuming meat from naturally raised, antibiotic-free animals with space to move around becomes obvious. However, raising animals this way means it takes longer to grow them to the desired size for slaughter and you need a lot more space for them to feed on grass. For that reason, buying organic, grass-fed beef or organically raised pork or poultry in the grocery store can be prohibitively expensive for people on a budget. Plus, the “organic” label is far from perfect where meats are concerned. After all, hopefully you’ve surmised by now that feeding a cow organic corn doesn’t improve its health much.

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A lot of vegetarians have chosen their diets because of a belief that killing animals for food is wrong. While the Unicyclist and I respect that belief, we are aware that tilling fields and clearing them kills a lot of rabbits, mice, pheasants, and the like. Basically, modern agriculture isn’t animal-friendly any way you slice it. Even so, ethics are a part of why we are vegetarians.

In the past couple days, I covered some of the impacts of industrial ranching and CAFOs (Confined or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, depending on whom you ask) on your health and the health of the environment. For anyone wanting to have a realistic understanding of the wider implications of the way they eat, looking at the conditions in CAFOs is essential.

In about fourteen months, a steer in a CAFO will go from 80 to 1100 pounds and to slaughter, raised on a diet of corn, protein and fat supplements, and drugs. Animals in a CAFO are packed into a confined space, be that a pen crowded with other animals, or, in the case of many pregnant pigs, in a tiny enclosure where they likely can’t turn around.

Original image courtesy of the EPA

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