A (food) chain of problems

In watching an interview with Bill Moyers following the 2008 Presidential election, it was quite apparent that author Michael Pollan feels that the state of the U.S. food industry should be a central focus for President Obama when attempting to create change in our country. This was another reminder for me in how massive this issue of food safety is. While the problems might start at the top, they definitely infiltrate across every mouth in the nation.

Within the brief 20 minute interview, the many issues with food in our country were discussed, proving that the way food is managed by our government and the few major companies involved, affects each and every individual. Because of the decisions being made in agribusiness there are now 32 million Americans who are struggling to put food on their tables. Unfortunately, a lack of food is not the only problem. The decreasing quality of the food we eat is equally detrimental to society.

The sad fact is that although cheap food is readily available in our country, according to Pollan, it is actually extremely expensive. The costs of cheap food include farm subsidies, pollution effects and quality of water, all of which lead to public health consequences of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Pollan includes costs to the atmosphere in this list, deeming agribusiness as the biggest contributor to green house gases. It seems that every way we turn, change is desperately needed.

Through this interview, Pollan urges Obama to look at the problems with the food industry through a global perspective that is interdisciplinary in nature. Without doing so, Pollan believes that he will be missing an opportunity to look at what is possibly the most important question, how do all of these dots connect?