'Food' Book Will Leave Readers Hungry for a Balanced Message
9/11/2009    Contact: Casey Langan (608) 828-5711    

A column by WFBF President Bill Bruins

 

The average American is disconnected from the food they eat every day. That is one of the few statements from Michael Pollan that doesn’t give me heartburn.

 

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has served up Pollan’s recent book ‘In Defense of Food’ as the main course for its ‘Go Big Read’ campus-wide book discussion this year. UW Chancellor Biddy Martin says its selection was meant to generate discussion about an important topic, and not an endorsement of the book, Pollan or his adopted food system ideology.

 

The farm organization I lead works hard to teach youth that milk comes from cows on farms like mine. We inform consumers about the realities of what it takes to bringAmerica’s safe, nutritious and abundant food supply from our farm gates to your food plates. Pollan has narrow and elitist ideas about how you should eat and how farmers should (or shouldn’t) feed a hungry and growing world. To make these claims you would think he’s a food scientist instead of a creative writer with an agenda.

 

I hope readers will realize that Wisconsin’s diversity of farms look nothing like the picture Pollan paints of modern agriculture. Things like cattle, cranberries, cabbage and cheese helped generate $59 billion for Wisconsin in 2007. Agriculture and food production employs one out of 12 Wisconsinites; a fact not to be discounted during a recession.

 

A nostalgic part of Pollan’s message is he wishes life would slow down; we’d all grow a garden and cook meals like his great-grandmother. Fine, but I’m not going to farm the same way my great-grandfather did. Technology has improved many aspects of the way we live, including how we farm. I wonder if he’d ask the medical profession to go back in time, or if he’s coming to Madison in a horse and buggy?    

 

Today’s farmer feeds 143 other people, while caring for their animals and being a good steward of the land, water and air. Despite providing affordable, nutritious food, farmers face attacks from the media, courts and government. To defend themselves they must explain not just what they do, but why they do it. That gets harder when the Pollans of the world see an evil empire behind every item in your refrigerator.

 

Not to be a spoiler, but the big lie in Pollan’s book is exposed near its end. If we all just ate and grew food as he advocates, then eating would be a more enjoyable experience. It’s a simplistic, preachy and unscientific answer to an issue that is immensely complex. Simply put, Pollan’s plan would starve much of the world and require the rest to spend more time and money in pursuit of food. In a book littered with unsupportable claims, its conclusion is downright disturbing and immoral. 

 

As Pollan grabs the bully pulpit on the Madison campus to promote his book, will researchers and food scientists stand with us in defense of modern agriculture or stand mute while Pollan attempts to tear down the food system the UW helped build?

 

‘In Defense of Food’ is indefensible and certainly leaves a bad aftertaste.

 

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