| I just got the news: my book arrives tomorrow! Hooray! That is, it arrived at my publisher's today and it arrives at my place tomorrow. Then I'll immediately ship out all of the pre-orders (after signing them, of course).
I'm very happy for so many reasons. There's the obvious reason - I'm now a published author. But there's also the fact that much of what I wrote about is time-sensitive and the sooner the book gets here, the more relevant it will be. The issues themselves stay largely unchanged over time (sadly) but the political situation changes from week to week.
I wrote this book to fill a very specific gap in current literature about food. We know what the problems are. We know pretty well what the solutions need to be. We have a lot of political information from Marion Nestle in Food Politics and from Dan Imhoff in Food Fight. But neither of those books really answered the question I wondered about, which is: Which issues should we be asking our representatives to take action on, and what should we specifically ask for?
I saw a Food, Inc poster about a week ago that gave 10 tips on making our food system better. One was to tell your Congressperson you want safe food. OK, great. But what specifically are we supposed to ask for??? THAT is the question I set out to answer.
I'll be honest with you. When I read the finished version of my book a few months ago, I was disappointed. I read through all of the policies I called for and realized that those policies alone wouldn't fundamentally bring us the changes we need. And I thought: Did I screw up? Did I totally miss the boat? Would my friends and peers call me out on wasting my time with a book that calls for incremental change?
But I realized that I DID accomplish what I set out to do. I call for policies that are politically feasible NOW. And it is TOTALLY pathetic how little is politically feasible now. While the policies I call for clearly aren't the be all and end all of changes that we need, they are the first clearly laid out platform I've seen, particularly one that's explained in a way that's intended to be accessible to all readers. It's a needed start. And as we push the debate forward on the issues I tackle in my book, we'll create awareness among the public and we'll also move the bar of what's possible ahead a little bit.
For example, Prop 2 in California only outlawed 3 specific cruel practices to animals, but it sparked a national debate. It resulted in an Oprah show expose of factory farming. That show reached voters far beyond California, and the awareness generated among those who watched that show went beyond just the 3 practices included in Prop 2 itself. For some people, maybe it was the first they they really thought about the fact that their food comes from animals. And maybe, now that Prop 2 passed, the public will demand more changes in animal agriculture. Perhaps if we had started with a more comprehensive measure, it would have failed, but the debate and awareness created from Prop 2 will make people more open to a more comprehensive measure that comes next.
I wish the American people (and the people who make up our government) were ready now to accept a more progressive vision of our food system. I wish they were ready to call for the full extent of changes we need now. But they aren't. And I realize - that's not my own failing. It's just disappointing.
I tried in the book to equip the reader with facts that I find the most compelling for why we need sustainable agriculture. I tried to share things that are not included in other popular books like The Omnivore's Dilemma. I go over the history of how we came to have such widespread pesticide use because I think it shows that it wasn't a scientifically-based rational decision at all, but rather a decision made by chemical companies, eager to profit after World War II ended, and a government that caved to their wishes out of fear of slipping back into the Great Depression.
I also explain how and why sustainable agriculture actually works. To me, that was the the most important thing I learned while researching this book. Without an understanding of that, we can too easily be called knee-jerk anti-science Luddites, when in fact sustainable agriculture is highly scientific. Without understanding how plants interact with their ecosystems to get nutrients and protect themselves from pests and disease, it's too easy to fall victim to arguments that we need pesticides or fertilizer or else we will all go hungry. But once you do understand how sustainable agriculture works, then you can't be fooled by myths and lies perpetuated by those who profit from unsustainable agriculture (or the well-meaning people who believe them).
I hope you do like the book. I tried to make it informative yet enjoyable. Because of the time-sensitive nature of bills in Congress and news cycles, etc, the book is not enough on its own to give you an up-to-the-minute analysis of food politics. But the book does give you a very detailed and broad background on all of the various food policy issues out there, and then you can join me here on the blog to keep up with the latest news on everything and action alerts, etc. |
