A Bioshelter (Ecological Solar Greenhouse) At Three Sisters FarmIn Defense of Food An Eaters Manifesto by Michael Pollan is a book which challenges many of the ideas of modern nutrition. Michael Pollan writes about a different way to look at food, one which is more local, and more focused on eating fresh plants; fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Food additives, even vitamins are looked on as suspect in Michael Pollan's view. The idea that you can simply add a vitamin and it will make a food better for you is challenged. Whole foods are easier to digest than vitamins.
Processed foods like white flour, corn sweeteners, and margarine are viewed as a kind of false promise. They do not deliver any health benefits and everything that is good for you has been removed from them. The reason people eat them is that they taste better and are easier to store over long periods. They bring diseases, obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. According to Michael Pollan these are western dietary problems.
He points out that not everyones diet is universally the same. What is universal in healthy populations is that people eat locally produced fresh food whether it be meat, vegetables, milk, or sea food. Most people are not designed to eat a western diet. I certainly am not. I do not do well with milk, corn, pork, or fish. Many things like cheeseburgers and milkshakes don't make me feel that well.
The author even sees some problems with organic produce. Organic food often is shipped from California and China is not that fresh. I personally find the substitute foods in many organic markets just as disturbing as pumping things full of additives. Things like sesame butter, gluten hot dogs, tofu ice cream, carob and similar fair don't seem that healthy to me. There are also a proliferation of unhealthy health food fad diets which come out of organic markets.
In Michael Pollan's view the best diet comes from your local farmers market and your CSA-- community supported agriculture initiatives. You should eat locally from local grown produce. He suggests that you grow a garden or get involved in gardening to produce your own food. This is the healthiest food you can produce in his view. Try and find grain fed beef and chicken if you must eat dairy and meat.
The author further creates a philosophy of eating where one eats slowly with company, avoids eating fast food, sticks to three meals a day, doesn't eat from convenience stores and gas stations, and eats a variety of different fruits and vegetables in season.
This book is very much a book on how and why to eat locally. It is not just an organic book, it is a book about the philosophy and history of eating. If you like reading about food this book is quite interesting.
The thing missing from this book are photographs and diagrams. There are none. There are only two pages of information on Pp. 229-230 for resources on eathing slow and local food. This could have been more extensive.
This book is on the New York Times Bestseller list. I think it represents a shift in philosophy which is occurring in the background for many Americans. There really has been a greater focus on the idea of community involvement, energy independence, and self-reliance which has been shifting into the mainstream.
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I think the future of food is heading towards a disaster where there will simply be not enough land to grow food in an ecological sustainable way. We will end up with things like this. Giant vertical buildings filled with produce. To me this is somewhat of a nightmare. But, it is something which they are really considering doing. http://www.verticalfarm.com/ It is kind of funny, there was even a fake article put out claiming that Las Vegas was going to build a vertical farm in 2010. It really is not very likely. http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1275/
I think the original concept came out of the work of John Todd with his bioshelter farm concept. There are a number of bioshelter farms already in place. A bioshelter is a kind of solar greenhouse built on ecological principals. I think the vertical farm concept is taking a bioshelter and moving it from horizontal to vertical. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshelter
Food additives, even vitamins are looked on as suspect in Michael Pollan's view. The idea that you can simply add a vitamin and it will make a food better for you is challenged. Whole foods are easier to digest than vitamins.
Processed foods like white flour, corn sweeteners, and margarine are viewed as a kind of false promise. They do not deliver any health benefits and everything that is good for you has been removed from them. The reason people eat them is that they taste better and are easier to store over long periods. They bring diseases, obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay. According to Michael Pollan these are western dietary problems.
He points out that not everyones diet is universally the same. What is universal in healthy populations is that people eat locally produced fresh food whether it be meat, vegetables, milk, or sea food. Most people are not designed to eat a western diet. I certainly am not. I do not do well with milk, corn, pork, or fish. Many things like cheeseburgers and milkshakes don't make me feel that well.
The author even sees some problems with organic produce. Organic food often is shipped from California and China is not that fresh. I personally find the substitute foods in many organic markets just as disturbing as pumping things full of additives. Things like sesame butter, gluten hot dogs, tofu ice cream, carob and similar fair don't seem that healthy to me. There are also a proliferation of unhealthy health food fad diets which come out of organic markets.
In Michael Pollan's view the best diet comes from your local farmers market and your CSA-- community supported agriculture initiatives. You should eat locally from local grown produce. He suggests that you grow a garden or get involved in gardening to produce your own food. This is the healthiest food you can produce in his view. Try and find grain fed beef and chicken if you must eat dairy and meat.
The author further creates a philosophy of eating where one eats slowly with company, avoids eating fast food, sticks to three meals a day, doesn't eat from convenience stores and gas stations, and eats a variety of different fruits and vegetables in season.
This book is very much a book on how and why to eat locally. It is not just an organic book, it is a book about the philosophy and history of eating. If you like reading about food this book is quite interesting.
The thing missing from this book are photographs and diagrams. There are none. There are only two pages of information on Pp. 229-230 for resources on eathing slow and local food. This could have been more extensive.
This book is on the New York Times Bestseller list. I think it represents a shift in philosophy which is occurring in the background for many Americans. There really has been a greater focus on the idea of community involvement, energy independence, and self-reliance which has been shifting into the mainstream.
___________________________________________________________________________________
I think the future of food is heading towards a disaster where there will simply be not enough land to grow food in an ecological sustainable way. We will end up with things like this. Giant vertical buildings filled with produce. To me this is somewhat of a nightmare. But, it is something which they are really considering doing. http://www.verticalfarm.com/ It is kind of funny, there was even a fake article put out claiming that Las Vegas was going to build a vertical farm in 2010. It really is not very likely. http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1275/
I think the original concept came out of the work of John Todd with his bioshelter farm concept. There are a number of bioshelter farms already in place. A bioshelter is a kind of solar greenhouse built on ecological principals. I think the vertical farm concept is taking a bioshelter and moving it from horizontal to vertical. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioshelter
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