Michael Pollan

Everyone should think about food and eating like Michael Pollan. I wish he was Secretary of Agriculture. A change in food policy is a damn near panacea. Listen to Pollan on Fresh Air (40min) or read this open-letter to Obama.

Adding to Pollan, (via Ezra) here's some more food policy you should know about.

Jill Richardson digs into the data and learns that about as much land goes to grow corn for high-fructose corn syrup as goes to grow fruits or vegetables:

The USDA site also says that 4.1% of U.S. corn goes for high fructose corn syrup. That means that since 29.9% of all U.S. cropland harvested was planted in corn in 2007, 1.2% of all U.S. cropland harvested in 2007 went for high fructose corn syrup. That's only slightly less than the 1.5% of U.S. cropland devoted to vegetables or the 1.6% of U.S. cropland devoted to [fruit] orchards.

Says something about our priorities. That comes via a Tom Philpott post running through some data showing that subsidies for high fructose corn syrup have merely a moderate impact on consumption.