Working for Better Food – REAL Food

Yesterday, I put up an entry talking about student loan advocacy and how you can help change student loan legislation for the better. Well, today I’m posting some information from an e-mail I received from a different advocacy group where I’m a member of the listserv. This message comes from “Food Democracy Now” where they talk about some of their recent successes. I’m only going to put one of them on here, since I sent a message during this debacle.

Only weeks ago Michael Pollan’s bestselling book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma was kicked off campus at Washington State University until you raised your voice “In Defense of Michael Pollan”. In less than 2 hours over a 1,000 citizens had raised their voices through emails, and 150 phone calls were made to WSU’s president’s office defending academic freedom.

Thanks to you – and the generosity of food safety lawyer Bill Marler – all 4,000 incoming freshman at WSU will now have the opportunity to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and learn how their food is produced.

I’m proud to say that I sent an e-mail to Washington State University’s President to express my displeasure at the university’s removal of this book from the Freshman reading list. My gripe was that some younger people don’t really understand how what they typically eat is not food, per se, but rather a bunch of things that used to be food and are now broken down into various parts and then thrown back together. I’m telling you, when I read Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, I changed my mind on a lot of the food that I was eating. Sure, I had begun eating more organic foods before reading the book, but learning about how the food industry is set up and in bed with the government is definitely an eye-opening discovery for most people.

Anyway, for those concerned about the food that we eat, I suggest heading over to Food Democracy Now and signing their petition. It’s one of those things that will likely be worth it in the long run.