I don't think that Louise Fresco wrote Michael Pollan's Misguided Food Nostalgia (Zester Daily, February 21) just to start a controversy.
I agree with her when she points to our tendency to look at past times with tinted glasses (Morning in America).
She calls it the 'great-grandmother' outlook.
Was most of America eating nutritious meals in the 70's?
Were my grandma's homecooked meals that I enjoyed in late 50's and early 60's (growing up in France) always healthy and balanced?
Did we find less chemicals in homes and in crops then than we do now?
I saw plenty of chemicals sprayed on vineyards in 2 years I worked during grape harvest in Roussillon.
The debate over food that Michael Pollan brings to the table, Eat Local, is part of the embarrassement of riches the middle classs suffers from in the developped world.
In her piece, Louise Fresco reminds us that there is room for nuance in debate on food in general. People in many countries are now familiar with various cuisines and ingredients they might not have known in their childhood.Things change.
Two years ago, a very trim Japanese speaker at an event I was attending suggested that world would be a better place if Americans and others watched their portions and did not waste so much food.
Past seen through Tinted Glasses for Green Day # 165
Previously: Bee Biodynamic, Safe Havens for Queen of the Sun at Querciabella in Tuscany
(* Video is 'Feeding the Whole World' presentation by Louise Fresco at Ted)