New administration: Secretary of food
Seattle PI Opinion Page
President-elect Barack Obama took a big step when he gave former Sen. Tom Daschle, his nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, a broader mandate to coordinate health reform. For whatever reasons, the incoming administration has shied away from such a sweeping, intelligent approach to food policy.
We liked the call of columnist Nicholas Kristof for a secretary of food. We need a reformer charged with transcending the 19th- and 20th-century idea of a Cabinet officer serving the needs of farmers. With that perspective, it would be possible to unite producers, consumers and government in delivering diets that are healthy for the people, the land and the economy.
Talking to NPR's Renee Montagne, Pollan summed up why it is so important to get out of the limited mind-set favoring promotion of big agricultural-related corporations: "The food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases. It is responsible for the catastrophic American diet that is leading 50 percent of us to suffer from chronic disease, and that drives up health care costs." Read More
There has been a lot of talk created by Kristof’s article calling for a Secretary of Food. This article quotes Michael Pollan and shows his true colors. He blames ag for producing a third of the greenhouse gasses and the chronic diseases. He is blaming you. His socialist tendencies also come out as he seems to want to scrap the idea of consumers being responsible for their food choices. People like Pollan and Kristof are telling the story of agriculture for you. If you disagree with them, you need to let consumers and politicians hear your views.
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