Something New in School Food: D.C. Central Kitchen's Local Food Connection

by: euclidarms

Thu Aug 12, 2010 at 04:27:58 AM PDT

The District of Columbia is about to embark on what may be the nation's most unorthodox public-school food program: meals made from scratch, using locally grown ingredients, by a charitable social-services agency whose primary mission is feeding the homeless and teaching ex-offenders how to cook.

Beginning next week, the agency in question -- D.C. Central Kitchen -- will set up shop at Kelly Miller Middle School in Northeast Washington and get ready to start cooking meals for seven D.C. schools when classes resume Aug. 23. D.C. Central Kitchen was the winning bidder for one of two contracted pilot programs intended to provide some competition for Chartwells, the giant food-services company that has been providing meals of mostly processed convenience foods to the city's 122 public schools for the past two years. Revolution Foods was chosen for the second project, catering "portable" meals to seven other schools.

As well as being the first time in recent memory that meals have been made from scratch in a D.C. school kitchen, the program represents the culmination of innovative efforts by D.C. Central Kitchen to build a successful economic model around concepts that one doesn't usually associate together: local farming, job training for the down-and-out, and feeding the indigent.

Giving blemished local specimens a second chance

Founded by Robert Egger -- the deep thinker who's the subject of Grist's ongoing series Egger's Head -- D.C. Central Kitchen for the last several years has been building relationships with farmers in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and using discount produce purchased there at auction to make the 4,500 daily meals it serves each day in local shelters and soup kitchens. But some of that produce has also been going into a wholesale food business that D.C. Central Kitchen has been quietly building on the side: selling fruits and vegetables at upscale grocers such as Wagshal's in Friendship Heights, making pizza sauce for trendy We the Pizza restaurant on Capitol Hill, among others.

Arrangements like these give local businesses an opportunity to express their philanthropy as part of everyday commerce, rather than digging into their pockets to make a donation. The proceeds, along with income from the kitchen's catering arm -- Fresh Start Catering -- help fund the kitchen's other programs. In fact, the wholesale produce and processing business has grown so much at D.C. Central Kitchen that there's no longer room for it at the charity's facilities at 2nd and D streets NW. The kitchen, which had already extended its operating hours and rents freezer facilities in suburban Maryland, is about to expand into an additional 6,500-square-foot space.

The developments at D.C. Central Kitchen converge precisely with the public school system's recent efforts to introduce fresher, healthier foods, as well as the "Healthy Schools Act" approved earlier this year by the D.C. Council, which not only raises nutritional standards for school food but provides bonus funding for every meal that contains a locally grown component.

Mike Curtin, D.C. Central Kitchen's chief executive officer, said the charity wasn't looking to expand into the schools, but felt an obligation to offer its unique and entirely self-created position in the nascent local food-distribution chain for the pilot project. He sees this as a chance to prove the validity of the organization's model for building an economical, self-sustaining food community around local resources, an approach sparked by Curtin's observation that the kitchen's regular purchases of hothouse tomatoes flown in from Belgium seemed out of whack.

D.C. Central Kitchen now buys tons of local tomatoes -- sometimes blemished or otherwise unsuitable for sale commercially -- and freezes them by the bucketful for future use in sauces. He sees huge potential business in other products, such as prepared carrot sticks for school snacks, or an entire line of dried local fruits that could be used in cereals, muffins, and other goods. The kitchen also makes money transporting grass-fed meats from Shenandoah processors to local restaurants, and Curtin believes the less desirable cuts -- such as beef chuck -- could easily end up as burgers on cafeteria trays as part of a bartering arrangement with restaurateurs.

Curtin said he expects next year to begin making "contract purchases" from local growers, meaning telling farmers what kind of produce to grow and how much. Such innovations are fueling excitement as well as an atmosphere of creative thinking around the possibilities for alternative food production outside the nation's capitol.

Kitchen ex-confidential

D.C. Central Kitchen's bid for the pilot contract was "somewhat more" than the $2.70-per-meal benchmark the schools had set in their request for proposals, representing approximately the amount the federal government provides for a fully subsidized school lunch. In a rare instance of a local government stepping forward with extra money for school meals, the "Healthy Schools" act kicks in an additional 10 cents for each breakfast and each lunch served. Curtin said he figures about $1 of the total goes toward ingredients, leaving a profit margin of between 4 and 6 percent for D.C. Central Kitchen -- close to the industry average.

He said the charity's off-premise work is more expensive than competitors' because D.C. Central Kitchen pays its workers more. Cooks at D.C. Central Kitchen start at $12.50 per hour, compared to an industry average of $8 to $10 per hour, Curtin said. In addition, the kitchen pays 100 percent of the cost of health care, along with disability and life insurance, vacation and a 50 percent matching contribution to retirement savings. In the deal with D.C. schools, there's just one hitch: the kitchen can't use most of the cooks it trains, because so many of them are convicted felons. D.C. Public Schools provided a long list of criminal categories it would not accept in settings populated mostly by children. Sex offenders and pedophiles already are excluded from D.C. Central Kitchen's training program, according to Curtin.

The issue has come up before. When D.C. Central Kitchen was negotiating its contract to cook meals at the Washington Jesuit Academy -- a private school for at-risk boys in Northeast Washington -- board members there also raised concerns about the criminal backgrounds of the kitchen staff. But Curtin said he told them "that was a deal breaker," and the academy agreed to give it a try. So far, Curtin said, there have been no untoward incidents. Some of the cooks have even become mentors and role models for the students. The issue of giving second chances to offenders who have served their time, Curtin says, is one that deserves wider public debate.

"The food is the easy part" of the new pilot program, Curtin said. "The staffing issue is the hurdle."

Want a Cook for Good Tour stop in your area?

by: CookforGood

Thu Apr 01, 2010 at 07:52:42 AM PDT

The tour will raise money for the Community Food Security Coalition and other local anti-hunger or environmental groups.

Want a tour stop in your town? Read below for details.

Committed to Better School Food: Dinner

by: euclidarms

Wed Mar 31, 2010 at 04:26:30 AM PDT

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

Prior to hiring Fresh Start Catering a year ago to make meals from scratch, food at the Washington Jesuit Academy was very much like the stuff served at the public elementary school my daughter attends: re-heated convenience food. Administrators at the private, tuition-free middle school for "at risk" boys knew they needed to make a change. Too often the students were listless, cranky, out of focus after meals. The school now pays 30 percent more for meals prepared from fresh, mostly local ingredients in their own kitchen.

Committed to Better School Food: Lunch

by: euclidarms

Tue Mar 30, 2010 at 03:33:32 AM PDT

By Ed Bruske
aka The Slow Cook

Allison Sosna is a young chef who fell in love with local produce. She even remembers where: it was in a Washington, D.C. restaurant called "Hook," working with celebrated sustainable seafood chef Barton Seaver.

"We would get amazing produce every day from farmers in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania," Sosna recalls. "They would just walk through the back door into the kitchen and start unloading all of these ingredients that I had never seen before: candy-striped beets, purple bell peppers, black radishes, pom-pom mushrooms. And I got hooked. I wanted to know what else was out there, these ingredients I had never seen or heard about before--and right in my own back yard."

Commitment to Better School Food: Breakfast

by: euclidarms

Mon Mar 29, 2010 at 05:48:25 AM PDT

Chef Duane Drake lines a dozen pie shells on sheet pans and begins filling them for breakfast quiche. First, he scatters freshly torn spinach leaves at the bottom of the shells. Then he begins cutting blocks of Muenster cheese into cubes. He works quickly. "This morning, I'm speedballing," he explains. Two of his assistants have been out sick. He's behind with the prep work.

In the walk-in refrigerator, Drake locates a large plastic tub filled with an egg, milk and pesto mixture he made the night before. He begins pouring it into the pie shells and checks the clock: He has only a few minutes to get the quiches into the kitchen's convection oven and finish baking them before students arrive at 7:30 for breakfast at Washington Jesuit Academy.

Wait a second. Can that be right? Handmade quiche for school breakfast?

Local D.C. Grain Farmer Pulls Back

by: euclidarms

Sun Mar 28, 2010 at 05:22:28 AM PDT

Grain is one item that determined locavores often stumble over. Typically, it's just not widely available, if grown at all. That's why we were glad back in December to report that Rob Moutoux, third generation of local farmers, was at the Dupont Circle farmers market selling several varieties of grain he was growing near the family farm in Loudon County.

At the time, Rob had about 10 acres planted and was producing some 30,000 p0unds of grain he hoped to place in local stores. But now he has written customers and friends that he will no longer be offering his grain at farmers markets or in stores but only at the family farm stand near Purcellville. Consequently, he is also reducing the amount of acreage he is planting with grain and focusing more on the family's orchard business--for which they have been famous for years--and a CSA program.

"There is certainly a business opportunity for local grains.  It wasn't so much that the market wasn't there, though I didn't really tap into it very extensively in 2009, going to three farmer's markets," Rob said in a e-mail when I asked him to explain his decision. "When we spoke, I was looking at expanding markets through selling wholesale to local food coops and health food stores, and discontinuing the farmer's markets.  I still think that's a great idea.  The reason I'm not doing it is because it's just not a project I want to take on at this time.  I've got my hands in a lot of different projects right now, and in order to do them right, something has to give.

"I do absolutely think that growing 30-50 acres of grains, milling them, and direct marketing them to stores is a great business model and a waiting opportunity.  Just not for me," he continued. "It would take a bit to set up the milling, volume handling, and distribution properly.  I didn't have the time to dive in and I didn't want to half ass it.  Orchards, veggies, consulting, and the home farm stand take up plenty of time for me at the moment.  Who knows what will come in the future, though, and I am still growing the grains and selling them at our farm stand...

"I will say that there are several mills in PA that are on to this sort of project already, and have their organic flours in DC area stores (not sure which ones).  It's true that grains are successful on economies of scale, and so these mills that can move, clean, store, and mill more efficiently than I could are much better suited to make a go of it.  These would be Small Valley Milling, Frankferd Farms, Annville Mill, and maybe a few others."

Perhaps some readers know of these brands and where they are being sold in the D.C. area and can share that information in the comment section.

Another Concern Troll Worries About Locavores

by: chicago jack

Sat Feb 13, 2010 at 20:42:25 PM PST

'Diners now scan the menus at their local restaurants for provenances like "Cattail Creek Ranch lamb" or "Hudson Valley rabbit." And home cooks now await boxes of fresh produce delivered weekly from local growers.'

Well, you might ask, what could possibly be wrong with these things? Darlin helpfully points out something that perhaps locavores hadn't thought of:

"as much of the East Coast lies blanketed beneath a foot or more of snow, it's as good a time as any to raise a few questions about the trend's viability."

Doh! Weather! We completely forgot about weather!

But that's not the only flaw in preferring locally grown food. There are also "inconsistencies in locavore behavior." Darlin explains:  

Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen, Conclusion: Better School Food -- Can We Get There from Here?

by: euclidarms

Sun Jan 24, 2010 at 04:47:19 AM PST

I recently spent a week in the kitchen at H.D. Cooke Elementary School here in the District of Columbia observing how food is prepared. This is the last of a six-part series of posts about what I saw. You can find previous posts on The Slow Cook blog or here:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

When I asked to spend time observing the kitchen operation at my daughter's elementary school, I thought I was going to see people cook. The food service provider for D.C. Public Schools, Chartwell-Thompson, had recently ditched the old method of feeding kids with pre-packaged meals from a food factory and replaced it with something they called "fresh cooked." Being one of those folks who's trying to return to  cooking from scratch with fresh, local ingredients, I was anxious to see how Chartwell's plan would play out.

WashPost Ups Volume on Backyard Chickens

by: euclidarms

Thu Jan 07, 2010 at 05:29:48 AM PST

Local Food in "Healthy Schools": The Debate Begins

by: euclidarms

Wed Jan 06, 2010 at 05:08:37 AM PST

Where is Ellwood Thompson's?

by: euclidarms

Thu Dec 17, 2009 at 03:17:56 AM PST

Ellwood Thompson's, in case you've never heard, is a relatively small grocer with one store in Richmond that specializes in locally grown and organic foods. Locating such a store in the middle of our Columbia Heights neighborhood here in the District of Columbia would seem to be not just a great shopping opportunity for the increasingly hip, young and monied local residents, but a boon to local farmers and Washington-area agriculture.

Yet not everyone is happy about it. Some food access advocates have been using Ellwood Thompson's as a kind of whipping boy for their concerns over a  dearth of supermarkets in poorer parts of the city, especially east of the Anacostia River. Who needs Ellwood Thomspon's when there's a Giant just two blocks away, and a Target (yes, they even cite the convenience aisles in Target) in the very same mall? And let's not forget the farmers market in nearby Mt. Pleasant. (Unfortunately, the farmers market is only open four hours a week on Saturdays during the season, and closed December through April.)

These naysayers are especially miffed that a special tax break was extended to Ellwood Thompson's that they say should only go to stores in needier areas. This last concern appears to be based on a misreading of D.C. tax law--or perhaps on a law that no longer exists.

In 1981, the D.C. Council passed a law granting special tax status (D.C. Code 47-3801)--no local property taxes for 10 years (D.C. Code 47-1002(23))--to new or largely refurbished supermarkets that locate in "underserved areas." These were described as any one-square-mile area where there are fewer than two supermarkets for every 10,000 residents, or no supermarkets at all, regardless of the number of people. In the year 2000, however, the Council replaced the "underserved areas" language with a long list of designated development zones around the city (D.C. Code 47-3801)--including the area surrounding the new Metro station in Columbia Heights--where the tax break for new or refurbished supermarkets would be extended.

Thus, Ellwood Thompson, which would be located less than a block from the Metro, was automatically eligible for the tax break. And according to Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), the deal to bring the grocer to Columbia Heights never would have worked without it. There was just one problem, Graham said. The original law was designed for free-standing supermarkets. Ellwood Thompson's was moving into a space in a mall. Unless the law were somehow changed, the tax break would go to the owner of the mall, then be divided among all of the mall's other clients--Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Marshall's, Best Buy, Staples and many others.

Graham introduced an amendment (pdf) that would allow the tax break to flow directly to Ellwood Thompson's.

"We're very anxious to have them. It's a great compliment to Giant," said Graham. "Organic food stores have always worked well alongside a traditional food store...I think they're going to be unbelievably successful."

Graham doesn't buy the notion that the tax break should be reserved for poor areas of the city. Above all, he said, there must be a grocer willing to locate in those areas in order to use the tax break. "You can't manufacture the grocery store interest. There has to be an interest to go with the tax incentive."

Ellwood Thompson's owner, Rick Hood, said he is anxious to move to Columbia Heights and take advantage of the Washington area's agricultural assets, something that does not exist to quite such an extent in Richmond.

The store builds relationships with small to mid-size farmers who use natural and sustainable practices to grow their products. For instance, Ellwood Thompson's features meats from Polyface Farm's Joel Salatin, the libertarian Virginia farmer made famous by Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma. They buy fresh tofu from Twin Oaks, an alternative community in Louisa, Virginia. In winter, Ellwood Thompson's supplements locally grown vegetables with organics grown in California. But Hood is eager to provide a venue for Washington's locally grown winter produce as well--as long as it's not from greenhouses that use too much energy for heat.

Hood said the company's approach extends to supporting local businesses of all kinds--cheese makers, sign makers, bankers. "Whenever we have a choice between dealing with a local business, we like the idea of trying to keep the money within the community rather than give it to companies that are not local. We're trying to avoid the nationals if we can," although you will find national brands of organic and vegan products in the store's grocery aisles.

The grocer's commitment to local extends to a community garden near the Richmond store where store employees volunteer time with customers and local residents to grow food.

Which brings us back to the original question: When will Ellwood Thompson's open its store in Columbia Heights?

It sounds like the recession has posed a speed bump, and maybe Hood is looking for a little break on his rent.

"We're making progress. We're working with the developer," Hood said. "We've had this recessionary change, and there's a reluctance on the part of the developer to make any change in the economic structure of the rent...There's a really good chance we will work it out."

Any issues with getting financing? "We've made progress there."

As residents of Columbia Heights and supporters of local food, we certainly do hope it gets worked out.

A Landmark Vision for "Healthy Schools"

by: euclidarms

Wed Dec 16, 2009 at 04:49:02 AM PST

Among the issues Cheh said her recently introduced "Healthy Schools" legislation is designed to address:

*Eighteen percent of District high school students are obese and 35 percent are overweight, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

*Eighty-one percent of D.C. high schoolers do not eat the recommended five daily servings of fruits and vegetables

* Eighty-five percent of female teenagers to not consume enough calcium.

* Seventy percent of high school students in the District fail to meet the CDC's recommended level of physical activity.

* Thirty-two percent of children in the District live in poverty, 19.2 percent in extreme poverty. More than half do not have a personal doctor and 34 percent of children have not had a preventive medical visit and dental visit in the past year.

* One in six children in the District has asthma, one of the highest rates in the country.

Over the past six days, I have been writing about the details of the "Healthy Schools" bill (here, here, here, here, here and here), introduced jointly by Cheh and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D). The paper released yesterday by Cheh lays out the reasons for numerous policy upgrades designed to vault the District of Columbia into the front ranks of school districts embracing the modern food movement.

"Teaching students to live a healthy lifestyle and making school environments healthier," Cheh tells colleagues, "can have a major, lifelong impact on the wellbeing of our youngest generation."

About 40,000 children attend schools in the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) system, while another 20,000 attend charter schools. The DCPS food provider, Chartwells, serves meals to about 30,000 children each day. Charter schools hire their own food providers, often small caterers, individually.

The bill would make breakfast free to all public school students in the District. The D.C. Public School System already provides universal free breakfast. The new policy would extend free breakfasts to all charter school students. The bill also would broaden the number of students eligible for free lunch. Currently, students whose family incomes are within 131 percent and 185 percent of the federal poverty level qualify for a "reduced-price" lunch and pay about 20 cents per meal. The school system has eliminated the co-payment in more than 70 schools, and Cheh's bill would expand the program to all schools, including charter schools, in an effort to increase the number of children who eat lunch.

According to Cheh, 27 states have passed school nutrition policies while 21 states have enacted farm-to-school policies for incorporating locally grown produce in school meals. The District has done neither. The "Healthy Schools" bill would establish local nutritional standards exceeding federal requirements, and, over a four-year phase-in period, bring the District into line with standards recently developed by the Institute of Medicine for the U.S. Department of Ariculture.

The standards call for reduced consumption of salt and sugar and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. Cheh's bill requires that all eligible D.C schools participate in the federal government's "Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program." The option is available to schools where at least 50 percent of students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch, but only 23 of 88 eligible schools in the city currently participate, Cheh said.

The bill embraces policies adopted in 2006 by the city's Board of Education to restrict the sale of sugary beverages and manage the portion sizes of junk food. According to Cheh, some 15 percent of D.C. public schools--and an unknown number of charter schools--do not follow the policies. The legislation not only makes those policies law, but sets out fines of $500 per day for schools that are not in compliance.

Cheh argues that children will be more likely to eat more fruits and vegetables if these are sourced from local farmers practicing "sustainable" agriculture. Local produce tastes better, Cheh says, and purchasing it boosts the local economy and helps the environment. The bill includes a five-cent bonus for school meals that include local produce, as well as grants--when funds are appropriated--to assist local groups in building infrastructure for distributing and storing local farm products.

"According to community experts," Cheh writes, "this nickel incentive is large enough to significantly increase the amount of fresh, local foods and vegetables served in the schools."

According to Cheh, DCPS is engaged in a pilot recycling program that includes 40 schools. The "Healthy Schools" bill requires that schools recycle paper, bottles, cans and cardboard, including food services. However, because system-wide recycling would need additional funding, it would only take effect when funds "become available."

"Currently, school meals create enormous amounts of waste," Cheh says. Her bill would, within four years, ban Stryrofoam trays, tens of thousands of which go into school trash cans every day. The bill would also require the schools to compost food waste. According to Cheh, DCPS and its food provider, Chartwells, "would like to compost, but lack the funds and infrastructure to do so." The bill would establish a pilot composting program, but--again--only when funds are appropriated.

"Healthy Schools" would also establish "wellness centers" in all of the city's high schools. Currently, the District operates a handful of such centers--Woodson, Anacasita and Spingarn--where "comprehensive medical services" are managed by Children's Hospital with staff from the medical residency program at Georgetown Univeristy. The bill calls for developing a plan by 2015 to expand the program.

Federal law requires school districts to develop "wellness" policies, but contains no requirement for updating them. Cheh's bill would require that wellness policies for D.C. schools be updated every three years, and that they address "environmental sustainability and farm-to-school intitives" as well.

According to Cheh, the biggest complaint about wellness policies is that they are not widely known or promoted. A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that only 45 percent of D.C. schools had copes of their wellness policies. The "Healthy Schools" legislation would require schools to post the policies on their websites, and share them with food service providers, PTA's and anyone who asks for them in school offices.

Would "Healthy Schools" Mean More Local Food

by: euclidarms

Sun Dec 13, 2009 at 07:42:43 AM PST

The proposed payment, supplementing funds provided by the federal government to subsidize school meals, would represent a rare instance of a local government kicking in to raise the quality of school food, especially around the idea of locally produced ingredients.

The provision makes a further distinction that would set the District apart from most jurisdictions that have embraced local foods in school meals: it would require that those fruits and vegetables come from farmers engaged in "sustainable practices."

This last requirement is sure to raise some eyebrows on Capitol Hil, where industrial agriculture-an industry heavily reliant on fertilizers and pesticides derived from fossil fuels-enjoys huge support and puts a giant lobbying effort into play. The D.C. "Healthy Schools" proposal, which must ultimately be approved by Congress, defines "sustainable practices" as those that "minimize carbon emissions and other environmental degradation, regenerate soil nutrients through crop rotation or other methods that minimize environmental impact, avoid the use of chemical fertilizers, sythetic pesticides and herbicides,.."

And, in a move that could significantly shift some thinking about how D.C. schools source the meats and dairy products they serve to children-as well as bringing the city more into line with good food advocates-the bill includes under its sustainability umbrella agricultural techniques that "avoid non-therapeutic antibiotics and hormones." Antibiotics and hormones are routinely used to increase production in industrial-scale dairies and feedlot operations, raising concerns and a fierce debate over possible impacts on human health  as well as animal treatment.

Introduced jointly by Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray, the proposal (read more here and here) could have some immediate impact on the way food service providers source their products for D.C. schools. It states that "public schools shall not enter into food service contracts that prohibit the purchase" of locally and sustainably grown farm products. It also requires food service providers to "identify, disclose, and certify the location where fruits and vegetables are grown and processed and whether growers are engaged in sustainable practices."

The proposed legislation represents a huge gift to advocates of locally and sustainably grown farm products. But it may be more carrot than stick. The bill says that public schools-including charter schools-must serve foods grown locally and sustainably "whenever possible," with a preference for foods "grown or processed" in Maryland or Virginia. Tight food budgets as well as a food distribution network not necessarily geared to locally and sustainably grown products could sorely test the meaning of "whenever possible."

The bill contains other suggestions for increasing the use of local products, and boosting the local farm economy. It calls on schools to "collaborate" with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, community organizations and food service providers "in teaching students and food service staff about the economic, environmental, and nutritional benefits of purchasing and eating" local foods.

The bill would require the state superintendent of education to issue grants toward developing programs that advance a farm-to-school program, but only "when funds are appropriated." It also calls on schools to adopt programs such as a "local flavor week" or a "harvest of the month" that promote local foods.

In the last year, a D.C. Farm to School Network, organized by the Capitol Area Food Bank, has emerged to encourage farm-to-school practices. It's largest event to date was a highly successful "Local Flavor Week" in September that resulted in cooking demonstrations and other food-related activities in dozens of D.C. schools.

Full disclosure: I am a member of the D.C. Farm to School Network's advisory board and had a hand in writing some of the sustainability language that appears in the "Healthy Schools" legislation.

My New Business Needs Your Help

by: Ellinorianne

Wed Oct 28, 2009 at 10:57:46 AM PDT

The eat-in did not happen, not enough people responded.  It was disheartening but we promised we would meet up anyway and talk about our passions regarding food issues.  I thought I might have a partner for the Aliso Viejo Community Garden.  I knew I might make a friend and an ally.  Only good things could come from this.

So we met a few weeks later and I learned more about her business, I insisted on learning more about it, Eat Cleaner, All Natural Food Wash and Wipes.  I was intrigued and to be honest, I was out of work and thought maybe there was an opportunity for a job.

Why are (some) farmers afraid of Michael Pollan?

by: jgoodman

Wed Sep 30, 2009 at 19:34:31 PM PDT

Advocates of large scale agriculture see Pollan as the enemy, they believe he stands against everything they see as the future of agriculture. Pollan however is not an absolutist, his basic premise is that people need to think more about their food; where it was grown, how it was grown, was the farmer paid fairly, is it good for you?

Pollan wants people to think about cooking, about food freshness and flavor, about the dinner table as more than a "filling station".