omnivore's dilemma, 20 years later

The New Food Movement - The Atlantic

michael pollan on the state of things 20 years since the omnivore’s dilemma. definitely worth a read, not much has changed, a lot’s gotten worse, there are some hopeful developments.

King Corn still rules the American heartland, where 95 million acres are dedicated to that single crop, up from 78 million acres when the book was first published. Chemically intensive monoculture farming remains the rule, encouraged by lavish federal subsidies that discourage farmers from trying anything else. The American taxpayer continues to subsidize the least healthy calories in the supermarket. Our government is backing both sides in the war against type 2 diabetes and obesity, spending billions to treat these chronic diseases while subsidizing the crop that gives us high­-fructose corn syrup.

that we can’t seem to pull our heads out of our collective asses on this front is i suppose, not surprising. still it’s frustrating and it clearly contributes to a lot of problems.

How big a problem is ultra-processed food? Today it is the source of 55 percent of the calories in the American diet, and that figure is even higher for children–62 percent.

ho-lee-shit. we haven’t learned anything in the last 20 years, have we?

The prospect that MAHA will get very far with an administration that regards all regulation as anathema seems doubtful. The Trump EPA is bent on deregulating agricultural chemicals, much to MAHA’s frustration, and the Trump USDA has been gutting support for small farms and local food systems. (It’s also worth pointing out that a diet of real food is not going to save children from the measles; what the Trump administration is doing to public health in America needs to be viewed in its totality.)

the ironies keep stacking up.