Food Politics Taking Its Rightful Place In Mainstream Media
There were not one, not two, but three different food policy and food research articles in the Chicago Tribune’s Friday paper. Do you have a Mom that tells you about newspaper articles that are of interest to you? I do, and I think it’s great. Anyways, these articles she tells me were on the front pages, not the “lifetime” or “frilly stuff sections”.
First, there was an article about the food deserts in Chicago neighborhoods (link). Then there was an article about how agribusinesses are trying to trick unsuspecting consumers by using the meaningless term ‘natural’ (link). And the third one, well it wasn’t about human habits, but if you put monkeys on reduced calorie diets it keeps them pretty healthy (link). It could very well extrapolate to humans, given what overly increased calorie intake has done to society.
My Mom, so used to having me send her these types of articles via email and blog links, jokes about how these foodie issues are being “spotlighted in such an old fashioned medium as the printed newspaper”.
Indeed, I am really glad to see that food issues are finally getting their due in other mass media outlest.
Like Michelle Obama is trying to make abundantly clear, food concerns are heavily related to nearly every single problem we face right now. The epidemic levels of obesity and diabetes is directly linked to how the cheap food is the unhealthiest. The energy crisis is in no way helped by the the industrialized food industry reliance on oil for its pesticides and outdated machinery. Very closely followed is, of course, global warming and the environmental crisis in general. All that pesticide runoff and animal waste takes its toll on the land and the people living on and near it!
Again, I’m estatic that food policy and food research is getting more attention. With these articles and others like them coming off the AP wires, the new documentary Food Inc., and Michael Pollan being almost famous, I think the food movement is really getting on the move.
Huzzah!
July 13, 2009
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