Instructify

October 21, 2008

I just ate the sticker off my granny smith apple. Well, to be more precise, I just ate about 3/4 of the sticker, and when I was taking the next bite, I saw the remaining bit. So I didn’t eat the whole sticker. But now I am left wondering which is more toxic — the pesticides no doubt used to make sure this delicious apple grew to be ginormous, or the sticker and its adhesive? I mean, they have to consider that one in 10 dummies will end up eating the sticker, right?

Michael Pollan wrote a tremendous pieces for the NYT Magazine this weekend: An Open Letter to Our Next Farmer-in-Chief. In it, he argues that the American food system is deeply broken, and with the price of oil rising, in need of reform. Soon.

It must be recognized that the current food system — characterized by monocultures of corn and soy in the field and cheap calories of fat, sugar and feedlot meat on the table — is not simply the product of the free market. Rather, it is the product of a specific set of government policies that sponsored a shift from solar (and human) energy on the farm to fossil-fuel energy.

The piece lays out an agenda that includes not just reform of the government’s approach to agriculture (which should delight free-marketeers), but a prescription for better health (cutting back on plentiful corn and soy could mean limitations on cheap non-food derivatives like high fructose corn syrup) and some re-tooling of the educational system as well (taking a long hard look at agricultural/industrial education and how we promote certain careers). This is the kind of thoughtful editorial that could spark some real discussion in a classroom — you could use it as-is for high-schoolers or adapt it for middle-schoolers. -ROSS WHITE

An Open Letter to Our Next Farmer-in-Chief

Force Feed Food Force to Your Students

Test Your Vocabulary and Feed the Hungry with FreeRice

Save Money and Your Taste Buds - Bring Your Own Lunch

Photo credit: Stevie Rocco on flickr