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" My writing is remarkably non-confessional; you actually learn very little about me. "
Michael Pollan
Writing
About
Learn
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" Fairness forces you - even when you're writing a piece highly critical of, say, genetically modified food, as I have done - to make sure you represent the other side as extensively and as accurately as you possibly can. "
Michael Pollan
Food
Say
You
" As a society, we devalued farming as an occupation and encouraged the best students to leave the farm for 'better' jobs in the city. We emptied America's rural counties in order to supply workers to urban factories. "
Michael Pollan
America
Best
Better
" In corn, I think I've found the key to the American food chain. If you look at a fast-food meal, a McDonald's meal, virtually all the carbon in it - and what we eat is mostly carbon - comes from corn. "
Michael Pollan
Food
American
You
" If you're eating grassland meat, your carbon footprint is light and possibly even negative. "
Michael Pollan
Eating
Meat
Your
" I probably spend more on food than a lot of people, and I feel good about the whole food chain I'm supporting when I'm doing it. But even I have to remind myself. I'm always complaining about the prices at the farmer's market. "
Michael Pollan
Food
People
Myself
" My mode as a writer is to layer different perspectives: the scientific, the philosophical, the political, the journalistic. When you layer them, you get a really wholesome, interesting picture. "
Michael Pollan
Political
Picture
Interesting
" One of my rules is pay more, eat less. You do get what you pay for, and if you're willing to pay more for pastured eggs or grass-fed beef, you're getting something that's more delicious, and you'll feel better about eating it. "
Michael Pollan
Eat
Better
Rules
" Those of us who care about food and where it comes from will miss both Obama and Michelle. Even though Obama failed to do many things he indicated he would do around food, Michelle Obama has done a lot to shine a light on the link between diet and health, which is really important. "
Michael Pollan
Light
Care
Shine
" Perhaps more than any other, the food industry is very sensitive to consumer demand. "
Michael Pollan
More
Food
Demand
" I think the most important thing we can teach our kids for their long-term health and happiness is how to cook. "
Michael Pollan
Important
Happiness
Think
" Yes, I very much like to have a personal stake in what I'm writing about. "
Michael Pollan
Personal
Much
Like
" A program to make municipal composting of food and yard waste mandatory and then distributing the compost free to area farmers would shrink America's garbage heap, cut the need for irrigation and fossil-fuel fertilizers in agriculture, and improve the nutritional quality of the American diet. "
Michael Pollan
Food
Quality
Free
" I think cooking is really key because it's the only way you're going to take back control of your diet from the corporations who want to cook for us. The fact is, so far, corporations don't cook that well. They tend to use too much salt, fat, and sugar - much more than you would ever use at home. "
Michael Pollan
You
Think
Control
" It's the embrace of corn-based ethanol that has driven up all food prices. It's not making agriculture more sustainable. "
Michael Pollan
More
Agriculture
Driven
" I think perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal; fairness, however, is not. "
Michael Pollan
I Think
Perfect
Goal
" The correlation between poverty and obesity can be traced to agricultural policies and subsidies. "
Michael Pollan
Policies
Obesity
Between
" The French fry did not become America's most popular vegetable until industry took over the jobs of washing, peeling, cutting, and frying the potatoes - and cleaning up the mess. "
Michael Pollan
Cleaning
Over
Mess
" Species co-evolve with the other species they eat, and very often, a relationship of interdependence develops: I'll feed you if you spread around my genes. A gradual process of mutual adaptation transforms something like an apple or a squash into a nutritious and tasty food for a hungry animal. "
Michael Pollan
Animal
You
Relationship
" Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. "
Michael Pollan
Food
Too Much
Healthy
" McDonald's is in a unique position. They can decide they don't want meat with hormones in it, and that will be the end of hormones in meat. I actually think exerting pressure on McDonald's is probably just as important as on the Department of Agriculture. "
Michael Pollan
Unique
Important
Think
" Hillary Clinton is not strongly identified with reforming the industrial food system. The Clintons were involved with Walmart and Tyson in Arkansas. Though as a senator, Hillary was pretty good at reaching out to the small farmers in Upstate New York. "
Michael Pollan
New York
Small
Good
" The family meal is really the nursery of democracy. It's where we learn to share; it's where we learn to argue without offending. It's just too critical to let go, as we've been so blithely doing. "
Michael Pollan
Doing
Meal
Learn
" I mean, we're really making a quantum change in our relationship to the plant world with genetic modification. "
Michael Pollan
Relationship
Mean
Plant
" To a very great extent, it's the fast-food industry that really industrialized our agriculture - that drove the system to one variety of chicken grown very quickly in confinement, to the feedlot system for beef, to giant monocultures to grow potatoes. All of those thing flow from the desire of fast-food companies for a perfectly consistent product. "
Michael Pollan
Chicken
Great
Grow
" For many of us, eating has surprisingly little to do with hunger. We eat out of boredom, for entertainment, to comfort or reward ourselves. Try to be aware of why you're eating, and ask yourself if you're really hungry - before you eat and then again along the way. "
Michael Pollan
You
Comfort
Eating
" Europeans fought for shorter workdays, more vacation time, family leave, and all these kinds of things. Those haven't been priorities in America: it's been about money. You see, in the countries that fought for time, they cook more often; they have less obesity. There are real benefits to having time. "
Michael Pollan
Family
Time
Money
" When you cook, you get to shop. You get to vote if you want the pastured raised pork or the organic grain. You can get to help produce your agricultural system, and you give that up when you outsource your cooking. You become dependent on what's offered - and that's a shame. "
Michael Pollan
Help
Cooking
Vote
" A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule. "
Michael Pollan
Nature
Gardening
Lawn
" When you realize the real pleasure in food comes in the first couple bites, and it diminishes thereafter, that's a kind of reminder to focus on the experience, enjoy those first bites, and as you get into the 20th bite, you're talking calories and not pleasure. "
Michael Pollan
Enjoy
Experience
Focus
" The garden suggests there might be a place where we can meet nature halfway. "
Michael Pollan
Gardening
Garden
Meet