Essay by Michael Pollan
'Why Bother?'
from
NYT Mag Green Issue
and interesting
alt blog response
from a Seattle food writer
plus about
garden cities
Monday, April 28, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
STUFF LIKE THIS TROUBLES ME
So, as you may know, I work on an Entertainment web site. And I happen to sit near the Movies Producer. We work in in an open work space. On occasion, fun discussions occur while we slog away on the site. HA. So, last week, one such topic happened to be food/socioeconomic issues (a favorite of mine! ;-) of which I mentioned a documentary I had seen on class in America "People Like Us" where there is a segment called "The Trouble with Tofu" .
In Burlington, low income folks are at war with upper middle-class counter-cultureites over who will build the new downtown grocery. Will it be Shaw's, a national chain of supermarkets, or the Onion River Co-op, a smaller, community-based health food store? While the Co-op promises that it will accommodate the tastes of the masses, many Burlingtonians are suspicious of a place they consider too expensive and judgmental of those who opt for Wonder Bread, cigarettes, and red meat.
The topic turned up again today, with the release of the new Tina Fey movie Baby Momma (Fey's character is an exec at a Whole Foods-type company, while the surrogate she hires is "white trash.").
It let to discussing this blog item.
Of which, I enjoyed much, said Movie Producer response:
Another aspect that interests and/or concerns me is the separation of “facts” (experience or ‘what is’) from values (not the best word for it, but I mean judgments of what’s better or what ‘should be’). I am not a moral absolutist, but I have to ask re: this blog post, are people not allowed to think about or decide what is ‘better’ – for the planet, for their health, for whatever? To fathom improving the status quo? To imagine what would be a better “American way of life”? Simply implying that coastal folks with their fancy supermarkets, higher levels of formal education, sushi bars, etc. are snootily ignoring reality seems to say no. I note: Isn’t the “middle of the country” turning a blind eye to the “facts” and experience of life for coastal populations just the same way? Not everyone who lives in the middle of country is part of a hopelessly inert “permanent underclass,” so isn’t there a whole lot more going on here, in terms of exploitation of lower income populations and the hideous capitalist machine?
Stuff like above troubles me *all the time*. I’m often trying to figure out what I believe in terms of these questions.
I used to try to listen and try to consider all POVs and I was accused often of being “journalistic’ and perhaps at times deceptive but this allowed me to ‘float’ between different kinds of people and different groups but I felt I might be ‘seeding ideas’ that way... However, my friend Steve was inflexible – holding people accountable and voicing his view (on what I *too* believed to be ‘fact’) – he had a stance (fact + values).
In order to change the status quo, I currently believe I need to become more like Steve. This is a change in view that I’ve had in the last six months or so… That means to me:
I need to decide what is better - have a stance (fact + values)– voice and live this – and finally challenge blind eyes.
I’m just typing this out for some reason – it seems to relate in some way.
In Burlington, low income folks are at war with upper middle-class counter-cultureites over who will build the new downtown grocery. Will it be Shaw's, a national chain of supermarkets, or the Onion River Co-op, a smaller, community-based health food store? While the Co-op promises that it will accommodate the tastes of the masses, many Burlingtonians are suspicious of a place they consider too expensive and judgmental of those who opt for Wonder Bread, cigarettes, and red meat.
The topic turned up again today, with the release of the new Tina Fey movie Baby Momma (Fey's character is an exec at a Whole Foods-type company, while the surrogate she hires is "white trash.").
It let to discussing this blog item.
Of which, I enjoyed much, said Movie Producer response:
Another aspect that interests and/or concerns me is the separation of “facts” (experience or ‘what is’) from values (not the best word for it, but I mean judgments of what’s better or what ‘should be’). I am not a moral absolutist, but I have to ask re: this blog post, are people not allowed to think about or decide what is ‘better’ – for the planet, for their health, for whatever? To fathom improving the status quo? To imagine what would be a better “American way of life”? Simply implying that coastal folks with their fancy supermarkets, higher levels of formal education, sushi bars, etc. are snootily ignoring reality seems to say no. I note: Isn’t the “middle of the country” turning a blind eye to the “facts” and experience of life for coastal populations just the same way? Not everyone who lives in the middle of country is part of a hopelessly inert “permanent underclass,” so isn’t there a whole lot more going on here, in terms of exploitation of lower income populations and the hideous capitalist machine?
Stuff like above troubles me *all the time*. I’m often trying to figure out what I believe in terms of these questions.
I used to try to listen and try to consider all POVs and I was accused often of being “journalistic’ and perhaps at times deceptive but this allowed me to ‘float’ between different kinds of people and different groups but I felt I might be ‘seeding ideas’ that way... However, my friend Steve was inflexible – holding people accountable and voicing his view (on what I *too* believed to be ‘fact’) – he had a stance (fact + values).
In order to change the status quo, I currently believe I need to become more like Steve. This is a change in view that I’ve had in the last six months or so… That means to me:
I need to decide what is better - have a stance (fact + values)– voice and live this – and finally challenge blind eyes.
I’m just typing this out for some reason – it seems to relate in some way.
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