A Letter to Obama

I just wanted to pass this along to you in case you haven't seen it. It's a great article from a series of articles in The New York Times. It's the food issue, which provides plenty of worthwhile reading. Even though this article addresses the US, it is very relevant to us Canadians.

Read the article here. If you don't want to read the entire, somewhat lengthy article, here are a some points from this sun vs. fossil fuel stand that I found interesting and think everyone should be aware of. My thoughts too.

• The way we eat creates more greenhouse gases than any other industry. (page 1)
• The way we eat has a direct impact on the health care system. The poorer the diet the greater chance of poor health and therefore the greater weight on the health care system. (page 1)
• Our current food system produces cheap calories (high in health depleting fat and sugar and low in health giving nutrients) in abundance making them an attractive option. (page 2)
• Healthy, traditional farming practices can be used in large scale farms and not only create healthier people but also create a healthier world. (page 4)
• Yes producing meat and dairy in humane and natural ways will raise the price of the end product. Organic, grass fed beef does cost more than conventional, dollars that is. That price raise will encourage many to consume less of the now over consumed animal products. Less meat consumption is a health benefit to the over eater. (page 5)
• Much of what is grown as food is not consumed as food. If this land was actually producing healthy food, crop yield would not be a problem. (page 5)
• Much of so-called food crops are being used for fuel. "But while there are alternatives to oil, there are no alternatives to food."-Michael Pollan. Yep, that's right. (page 6)
• Pollans calls for a definition of food because 'junk food' is not really food. I always say that there are no good foods or bad foods. There are, however, things that are called food that I don't consider food. These are synthesized, chemical things that even though they are marketed as food have no place in our bodies. They are unidentifiable objects to our bodies and therefore harmful to our health. (page 7)
• Change can really be made by teaching children. Get them while they are young. Provide a healthy example by starting with yourself because they do what we do not what we say, right? (page 8)
• Finally Michael Pollan suggests that The White House leads by example. That the presidential family eats local, organic, at the dinner table, minus meat one day per week and digs up some grass to start a garden. Brilliant! (page 9)

Read the article here.