Clara Jeffery and Monika Bauerlein, “Editor’s Note: Want to Fix the Country? Fix Food,” Smart Growth (Mother Jones), March/April 2009

Smart Growth, a special report issued by Mother Jones magazine, this month featured an editor’s note focusing on the recent Senate confirmation hearing of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the need for a sustained dialogue about the U.S. food system. According to the article, the confirmation hearings included remarks by Senator Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that the editors translated to mean, “Organic farmers = elitists = liberals who are supported by their uppity stockbroker wives. Plus, their produce is worm ridden.” “It’s that kind of cliché and recrimination that passes for a national conversation about agriculture,” opines the article, which similarly lambastes the “foodie movement” for perpetuating a “two-class system: pesticide-laden, processed, packaged, irradiated slop for the many, artisanal sheep’s
milk cheese for a few.”

The editorial recommends drawing on “both ancient practices (like polyculture) and modern farming” to solve resource conflicts and promote healthier, more sustainable eating habits among the American public. The article also questions the investment of some high-ranking Cabinet members in ethanol-based fuel solutions: “Some leaders, including Obama’s energy secretary, Steven Chu, still hold out hope for cellulosic ethanol, but that dream might be just one last Hail Mary pass to an industry built around refining, selling, and burning a liquid fuel.”