Food fight

We all eat, but few of us know about the high-level food fight raging on right under our noses. In one corner, in Cal blue and gold, stands the lean and not-so-mean Michael Pollan, Knight professor of environmental journalism at UC Berkeley and author of The Omnivore's Dilemma, an influential book that's making its readers think before they eat.

Across the ring, in khakis and a burgundy polo shirt with the Whole Foods logo stitched across his chest, crouches John Mackey, founder and CEO of Whole Foods, the largest organic grocery chain on the planet.

The dietary duel started with Omnivore, Pollan's critical examination of how our food choices affect not only our health, but also the well-being of animals, the environment and the health of the planet. In his book, Pollan calls Whole Foods "big organic," an enabler of industrial-scale organic farming and mass marketing, and he accuses the upscale chain of presenting a misleading picture of much of what it sells. He also writes that the Argentine asparagus he bought at Whole Foods for $6 a pound tasted like damp cardboard.

Mackey fired back. Not with a glob of organic mashed potatoes, nor an attack press release, but with an invitation. Mackey asked Pollan to meet with him in Austin, Texas, at Whole Foods' headquarters. He greeted Pollan with an 11-page letter responding to his complaints and a $25 Whole Foods gift certificate to atone for the asparagus. That chat lasted an hour and a half, but the discussion didn't stop there.

Pollan says his now-yearlong dialog with Mackey has demanded a lot of self-control, but somehow they've both managed to keep it from getting personal.

"One of the refreshing things about the exchange," he told CityBeat, "was that it didn't devolve into one of us insulting or flaming the other, even though we had some pretty deep disagreements."

Mackey's original letter, now posted on his blog on Whole Foods' website, chides Pollan for his oversights and describes Whole Foods' influence in enlarging the organic market. Pollan's reply points out the company's failure to live up to its own standards. That response is posted on Mackey's blog, too, followed by another letter from Mackey and more than 100 comments by readers. The readers' views are all over the map, but they're unanimous in thanking Pollan and Mackey for the tenor and openness of their debate.

The duo aired their discussion even further when Pollan invited Mackey to a public meeting in February in Berkeley. More than 2,000 people showed up.

What could have been two big egos snarling over the organic carcass became an influential conversation about what Americans need to know about how their food is produced, its true costs to their health and to the environment and what the world's largest organic grocer can do to make a difference.

"It's about hitting the right tone," explains Pollan, "and congratulating [Mackey] on engaging in dialog. I mean, how many corporate CEOs do that with their critics? It's really exceptional. It just doesn't happen."

Who knew food was such a hot issue? Pollan says he's shocked by the strong response to The Omnivore's Dilemma and the ensuing public debate, but he chalks up much of the unexpected impact to timing.

"It came out at a time of enormous political frustration about other things," he says, "the war and a couple of elections where at least people on the Democratic side felt that the vote wasn't working. There's a lot of interest in having a conversation about something people can control individually, not through the political system."

Pollan, who's been in perpetual public-lecture mode ever since his book was released, says he's been noticing how people nationwide seem to be getting hungrier and hungrier for more control over their food. "There's a lot of political energy flowing into this issue," he says. "Politicians are starting to get the message that people are angry about the lack of access to fresh, wholesome food."

Pumped up by the public reaction, Pollan says he thinks we're at the beginning of a movement toward reforming the American food system. He sees a demand for change coming from many quarters.

"College students are very engaged by food issues," he says. "It's the first time they have to make their own decisions about what they eat."

He sees movement among the ranks of young parents, too. "What's really galvanized people is concerns about their children," Pollan says, "childhood obesity and diabetes, food marketing to kids, Coke machines in schools. Food in schools is a hot issue all over the country. If you talk to Aramark, Cedexo, Cisco-the companies who essentially feed everyone living in institutions-they're feeling pressures they've never felt before to do more organic, do more local. A whole new set of pressures is being brought to bear."

Pollan says fast-food companies are even feeling the heat.

"McDonald's can change very quickly," he says, "and they have on some issues. We'll see organic food coming out of McDonald's at some point."

Although he gives Whole Foods high marks for its responses to his challenges, Pollan cautions against viewing the market as the savior of the food system. "We make a mistake putting too much faith in one corporation. The power of this movement has to be from a great many different efforts. Counting on one corporation is a form of monoculture thinking. The grassroots nature of this thing is very important. You want to have many players. It's the consolidation of the food system that got us into trouble."

Pollan says that, ultimately, the solution to reforming the food system lies in legislation.

"People need to vote not only with their forks, but with their votes," he explains. He says people should be paying attention to this year's Farm Bill, a piece of eye-glazing legislation that creates the ground rules and doles out the money that shapes policy not just for farmers, but for school lunches, the health of American soil, the quality of our water, the diversity and look of the landscape and the safety and security of our food supply.

"The whole system has been designed to promote monoculture," Pollan says, "on the farm, in the processing, in the supermarkets. Now we need a Farm Bill that pushes things in the right direction."

The national conversation Pollan has sparked has made environmentalists, public-health administrators, homeland-security officials and everyone in between realize they actually do have a stake in the Farm Bill. Change will be incremental, but Pollan, the visionary and the optimist, says he sees a time when "the eaters of America demand a place at the table, and we have the political debate over food policy we need and deserve."

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