The Giving Table

Michael Pollan's latest book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, hit the shelves this week. He's since appeared on many news outlets, blog posts, and television shows discussing what it means to cook and why it's critical to helping change the food system.

Today's Friday Food for Thought comes from an interview Pollan did with The Atlantic, where he shares that the now-famous Wendell Berry adage, "eating is an agricultural act" is what inspired him to pursue food. Buried deep in the interview is a quote befitting our recent event, Food Bloggers Against Hunger. "When people are more conscious about their food choices," he says, "they can change the food system." This optomism is inspiring, and I hope it starts your weekend off on a good note.

"When people are more conscious about their food choices, they can change the food chain. They can change what happens on the farm. I think it's one reason that so many people are finding their way to food as an interest and as a focus of their political energies. Food issues have a tremendous bearing on everything from the environment to public health to monopolization of the economy, and food activism is producing results that you can see. At a discouraging time, it's a very empowering issue."

-Michael Pollan