Michael Pollan: The Food Movement, Rising

Posted: 21 May, 2010

Michael Pollan reviews five books on the rise of the increasingly visible food movement.  The article alone is worth reading, providing excellent summaries as good reviews are supposed to do.  His closing comments on Janet Flammang's book are particular interesting given the tension created by the apparently conflicting values of women in the workplace and the importance of shared meals perceived as "women's work."

The full article is here.

But the movement’s interest in such seemingly mundane matters as taste and the other textures of everyday life is also one of its great strengths. Part of the movement’s critique of industrial food is that, with the rise of fast food and the collapse of everyday cooking, it has damaged family life and community by undermining the institution of the shared meal. Sad as it may be to bowl alone, eating alone can be sadder still, not least because it is eroding the civility on which our political culture depends.

read more