Speakers: Changing food industry can help fix other problems

UPCOMING SEASON

The upcoming Richmond Forum season will kick off Nov. 14 with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Others in the 2009-2010 series:

• Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

• Steve Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine and former presidential candidate

• Humanitarian Greg Mortenson

• David Plouffe, President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager

Info: www.richmondforum.org or (804) 330-3993.

President Barack Obama will need to confront the nation's food issues sooner or later because they are key to solving three major problems in the nation -- energy independence, the health crisis and climate change, author Michael Pollan said at last night's Richmond Forum.

Agriculture and modern processing use 20 percent of the total fossil fuel consumed in the nation and produce more greenhouse gas than any other industry, Pollan told an audience at the Landmark Theater.

Pollan and fellow author Marion Nestle discussed the food chain in America and offered guidance on making choices that are healthier for people, the environment, animals and farm workers.

"When we eat from this modern industrial food system, we are eating oil and spewing greenhouse gases," said Pollan, who is also the John S. and James L. Knight Professor of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley and director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism.

Health-care spending in the U.S. has gone from 5 percent in the 1960s to 17 percent, while the amount Americans spend on food during that same time has decreased, from 18 percent to 10 percent, Pollan said.

"I can't help but think that if we spend a little bit more on food, we could spend a lot less on health care," Pollan said, prompting applause.

"As a society, I think, we are slowly coming to the recognition that you cannot have a healthy population without a healthy diet. But you cannot have a healthy diet without a healthy agriculture, and that's what we need to work on."

Nestle, who is also a microbiologist and professor at New York University, said federal farm policy changed in the 1970s from paying farmers to not grow food to paying them to grow as much as possible. This resulted in cheaper food, greater amounts of it and competition in the food industry.

"Overall, what we have is a situation in which food companies, sometimes health professionals and the government are collaborating to create an environment that encourages people to eat more than they should or would be good for them," Nestle said.

She said she is encouraged, however, by the current food revolution where people are moving away from processed food and back to "real food," healthy foods that have natural nutrients, not a lot of additives, are produced responsibly and are affordable.

In an interview before the forum, Pollan said one obstacle is the notion that eating better is too expensive. The food industry's business model is to start with the cheapest possible raw ingredients and pay farmers and workers "as little as you can get away with" and "add value through processing and packaging and novelty and sell it for as much as you can get," he said.

"That business model is fundamentally at odds with providing people with what they need -- which is simple, healthy food," Pollan said.

Nestle said people have ways to counter the food industry's influence on lawmakers.

"One is to vote with their forks. Decide what kind of food they're going to buy and what kinds of foods they're going to use their dollars for," Nestle said in an interview before the forum. "The other is through the democratic rights of citizens -- lobbying your congressional representatives, writing letters, joining groups, trying to elect better representatives."

"And let them know that you're following their vote on the farm bill," Pollan added. "When your voters don't pay attention to an issue, then you listen to lobbyists. But if your voters do pay attention to an issue, you think twice."

Pollan's works include "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," and "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto." Nestle's books include "What to Eat," and "Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health."

Contact Melodie N. Martin at (804) 649-6290 or mmartin@timesdispatch.com.