Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Michael Pollan Knows How To Say It

Rob and I, perhaps contrary to popular belief, are no saints when it comes to environmentalism. The air cleaner is on and sucking up the energy as we speak and is certainly only necessary because we don't dust and clean the house frequently enough. The computer is on right now and way too much. We leave lights on. We whimsically drive ourselves all over town for love of badminton, Waldorf education for Lucy, Nia (dance) or yoga for me, multiple grocery shopping trips per week. We have quite a lot of land here at 15220 5th Ave NE, and we've failed to plant trees or food on much of it.

Rob is reading Omnivore's Dilemma now, so we frequently talk the politics of food and Michael Pollan in our household. It was so refreshing to read that book and to now have Rob reading it because Pollan so thoughtfully and convincingly explains why it is important to cough up the extra dough for environmentally friendly products, local food and organic everything - the smaller and more artisan the producer or grower, the better. Intuitively, it seemed right to me and Rob went along with it too, but Pollan spells it out, dispelling any remaining doubt we might have had. If that means we are spending most of our money on food, good. That keeps us from spending it on a bunch of other carbon-producing, petroleum-reliant items that we don't need. Eating organic food, local when possible, joining CSA's (community supported agriculture - getting a "share" of produce from a local farm), eating many vegetarian meals, not too heavy on the beef, and if we must, make it grass-fed (pasture-finished) and local.

Just now I was browsing at Soule Mama's website and saw this link to a fantastic Pollan article called "Why bother?" It inspired me. Check it out and maybe it will inspire you too.

1 comment:

Annie Addington said...

Thank you for this April. I've had Pollan's book on my want-to-read list but now it just got bumped up to the top of it (which means I might read it by the end of the year??? Oh life....) Anyway, it's funny because just today I was telling Will, who got to plant our tiny garden this year with Rob, while I toiled at some mundane household task with Owen (who is such a grass-and-acorn eater at this point that I don't know how to garden with him), that next year we will all work together to plant a family garden. And now, after reading the Pollan article, I'm thinking that that garden will be much bigger than we've done before (with even the tomatoes from seed perhaps). Definitely inspiring. I may use it on the old mother-load. Got to try for that "viral social change."