Mark Bittman on Food in America

February 5, 2013

Mark Bittman is a foodist supreme and an omnivore. He and Anthony Bordain are my food persona idols. Although they both do eat all manner of animal products, they do it in awareness. In this TED talk Bittman details the history of eating and agriculture in America that has brought us to this point. I am about his age so I relate totally to the diet he describes on his childhood table. Like him, I was inspired my mother’s God awful cooking to learn to cook early in life. Unlike him, I became a vegetarian at the age of 19. In 1970 in North Carolina I can assure you that vegetarianism was completely foreign as a concept. My diet was not yet healthy, but it was mostly homemade. I was a baker of biscuits and bread.  I was lucky that my roommate had  mother who sent us really tasty canned produce from her garden in South Carolina.   Over time I met vegetarians for health (from northern California, of course) and improved the ingredients I used. I garden and enjoy cooking and eating produce now, but my learning curve has taken place in a time when all agriculture has become progressively less healthy. I hope you will have time to listen to Bittman’s excellent talk, but if you need a summary here it is:

1. Animals are responsible for 20% of the air pollution and much of the lifestyle disease in America
2. Eating plants is known to be healthier than eating animals
3. Agribusiness and the USDA are not our friends
4. It is simple to change one’s own diet and thereby make the most important contribution