Whole Foods Hypertension

December 30, 2009 - 22:33

Over the past few years, a tremendous amount of my non-fiction reading and media consumption has been focused on a recent popular set of materials about food and its origins. I'm speaking here about books by Michael Pollan and movies like Food, Inc.. I'm hoping that I didn't just happen upon these books and films due to some personal fascination. Rather, I want to have found them because they're popular and that everyone else is reading and seeing them too. If everyone read these and started (or continued) to think about where their food comes from it would help solve problems like global warming, oil dependence, obesity epidemics, and poverty.

I'm not talking about "hippie" sentiments concerning animal welfare like "how did that cow feel?" or "eating raw" (not that I can find much fault with such sentiments). I'm talking about ideas that any rational person should disagree with. Things like, "I'm fine if animals are covered in their own feces at slaughter" or "it's OK for workers to slaughter animals at a pace that causes food and workers to be unsafe". "Ketchup is a vegetable." "It's acceptable if eating ground meat puts you at risk for paralysis." "I'm OK with 60% of my calories coming from corn and soy."

I don't mean to preach and I don't pretend to be perfect. I don't spend the time and resources to know where everything that I eat comes from. But, thanks to the list below, I do flip over what I'm looking at to inspect the ingredients. I avoid meat most of the time as it seem like the easiest point of entry. Given the choice, I'll go to a restaurant that I know sources local produce or grinds their own local beef. And, in general, I try to vote with my wallet to change the system.

While off in Colorado visiting grandpa for xmas I finally finished In Defense of Food. I'm not going to call it the last straw, but it gave me the idea to list out the various materials that have caused me to start having these crises of conscience while standing at Whole Foods wondering what to buy for dinner. (I also listed most of this on anamazon listmania list and I'd appreciate any suggestions that you might have for additional food-related media.)

In any case, here we are, listed in the order that I experienced them (links are to wikipedia unless otherwise noted):

  1. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

    It would be unfair to list the set of popular books without listing their inspiration. I can't help but think that things have actually gotten worse since this book was written. The factories may look cleaner, but workers are in a bad way and, thanks to government regulations that encourage industrialization and our overuse of antibiotics, the food is full of bacteria more dangerous than those of the early 1900s. In short: food was dirty. Food's still dirty. Workers were mistreated. They're still mistreated. Yay!

  2. Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

    The book that got me to quit fast food. Big ups to whoever gave it to me for Christmas in '05 (jeff?); it's probably saved me a few pounds, cavities, and that pesky type-II diabetes that I'm still missing out on. I learned how I was being marketed to, that fast food isn't really food, that it's flavors are made elsewhere and injected, and

  3. Super Size Me

    One of the first popular films to "expose" the fast food industry by (get this) eating its products. Watching Spurlock throw up out of the side of his car after downing a big mac is a testament to the whacked out nonsense this processed crap does to your body.

  4. Swine of the times: The making of the modern pig by Nathanael Johnson (site)

    The best exposé of the pork industry I've ever read. It stopped me from eating it outright for a year and a half before I learned I could find non-industrial pork if I shopped around. Yes, that includes bacon.

  5. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

    Things start to get serious here. Pollan talks about four different meals: fast food, whole foods, farmer's market foods, and foods you hunt and kill yourself. The oil->corn connection is made and things really start to gel. If you have to start somewhere, please start here.

  6. This American Life - Pandora's Box (site)

    This episode of the TV show version of TAML was prompted by the aforementioned Harper's piece. A good reminder a year and a half later that industrial pork is disgusting.

  7. King Corn (site)

    Following corn from over-fertilized genetically modified plant to a sticky syrup that's in everything we eat (bread? really? damn it!)

  8. Fast Food Nation (the movie)

    The film version of Fast Food Nation adds a fictional plot to the concepts from the book - with particular emphasis on the life of workers in the fast food industry. Worth a watch, but I'd read the book first as it helps flesh out all the subtle details behind what's happening on screen.

  9. E. Coli Path Shows Flaws in Beef Inspection by Michael Moss

    A terrifying article in the times a few months ago that describes the lack of accountability in the US agriculture system when it comes to beef processing.

  10. Food, Inc.

    A well designed summary of a lot of the books listed here, feature Scholsser and Pollan. After reading all the books, it was frustrating to know the parts that were being skipped, but a great movie nonetheless.

  11. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan

    Pollan provides a book focused on rules that we can try to live by. "Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants." It's easier said than done, especially after you delve into what Pollan calls "food" compared to what the rest of the US calls "food", but still doable. Essentially, economies of scale and ensuing industrialization of our food supply has made our food nutrient-deficient, culturally deficient, and abundant.