Lisa Miller, “Divided We Eat,” Newsweek, November 22, 2010
“Essentially, we have a system where wealthy farmers feed the poor crap
and poor farmers feed the wealthy high-quality food,” food activist Michael
Pollan told Newsweek society editor Lisa Miller in this article examining the
gap in the availability of nutritious, fresh and organic foods between rich
and lower-income Americans. Noting that “in hard times, food has always
marked a bright border between the haves and the have-nots,” Miller opines
that healthier foods “have become luxury goods that only some can afford”
while “highly caloric, mass-produced foods like pizza and packaged cakes” are
staples for the poorest Americans, many of whom are obese and live in “food
deserts” that lack supermarkets stocked with nutritious fare. “Corpulence used
to signify the prosperity of a few but has now become a marker of poverty,”
Miller writes.
She quotes recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that
show 17 percent of Americans (about 50 million people,) live in “food insecure”
households without enough money to buy food or that run out of food
before more money comes in. “Reflected against the obsessive concerns of
the foodies in my circle, and the glare of attention given the plight of the poor
and hungry abroad, even a fraction of starving children in America seems too
high,” Miller writes.
Pollan and Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger, told Miller that an answer to the availability gap might rest with big retailers providing access to fresh, local and affordable produce. Pollan also envisions a future when health insurance companies advocate for small and mid-size farmers to fight diabetes and obesity and “dreams of a broad food-policy conversation in Washington.” Berg, however, doesn’t believe the food industry has been “entirely bad: it developed the technology to bring apples to Wisconsin in the middle of winter, after all. It could surely make sustainably produced fruits and vegetables affordable and available.” As he explained to Miller, “We need to bring social justice to bigger agriculture as well.”
