The Flavor of the New Food Debate
Christopher Shea, writing in the Columbia Journalism Review, encapsulates, quite brilliantly, the new face of food writing in his article New Grub Street.
In it, he identifies some of the loudest voices in the scene (i.e., everyone's current fav, Michael Pollan), discusses how all news outlets are starting to get a piece of the pie (i.e., the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Vanity Fair, and the New York Times are all reporting regularly on the food debate), and he starts to tease out some of the issues floating to the surface, such as eating organic or eating local.
He asks important questions just begging to be answered, such as:
"So which is more energy-efficient... a few large farms supplying a network of well-positioned supermarkets, or a new localized network of small farms?"
and
"Are... these debates about the ethics and politics of food largely a pastime of a tiny elite–grist for editors’ dinner parties but of tiny relevance to most consumers, who rush to the nearest market and grab what they need? "
A very interesting read. Find it here.
Comments
A good read indeed! Thanks for posting.
Posted by: emily | May 25, 2007 11:55 AM