Articles by Tom Philpott

My problem with David Kamp’s NYT review of Michael Pollan’s new book

In his review of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, published in Sunday's NYT Book Review, David Kamp expresses a bit of received wisdom that needs rethinking.

Kamp, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and GQ who himself is writing a book about food, generally approves of Pollan's well-documented indictment of the dominant U.S. food system and exploration of its alternatives (which I reviewed here).

But to the big-picture problems presented by Pollan, Kamp demands big-picture solutions. And here is where I think Kamp, like many commentators on the vast-scale environmental troubles plaguing our culture, goes astray.

Wendell Berry on ‘economic development’

Right-wing critics of environmentalism lean heavily on a false dichotomy: "the economy" vs. "the environment." They pretend that human prosperity and "nature" are playing a zero-sum game. By, say, neglecting to mangle the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve for a year or two's supply of crude, we're somehow making a huge economic sacrifice. Mountaintop removal is unpleasant, the argument goes, but we need to get at that coal to maintain "economic development."

Wendell Berry, the sage of northern Kentucky, has made a career of obliterating such sophistries. Counterpunch.org has just published an interview with him. Check it out.

On an unrelated note, I declared in a recent post that "Environmentalists could intervene in the immigration battle by altering the terms of debate. But so far, they've been silent." As a correspondent pointed out, that statement "is not entirely correct." Andrew Christie of Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Committee recently published a piece linking trade with immigration. It's worth reading.

On the art and brutal economics of small-scale farming

Since moving to the North Carolina mountains in 2004 to launch a farm project, I've learned some sobering lessons about idyllic rural life.

To wit, small-scale organic farming is an art form -- and as with most artistic endeavors, the hours are long and the pay is crap. How did I wind up penniless and exhausted, sporting a beat-up pair of Carhartts? You'd think I had set up shop as an abstract painter in some squalid, ruinously priced Williamsburg, Brooklyn, garret.

(There's much to love about the farming life, too: for example, the volunteer broccoli raab that's sprouting up everywhere in one part of the garden, a triumph of unintentional permaculture. Saute it with a little olive oil, garlic, crushed chile, and vinegar, and you remember why you came to the farm in the first place.)

The USDA's Economic Research Service recently released two reports on the state of farm economics. The information contained therein can help greens as they formulate an agenda for the 2007 Farm Bill (which may be even more important than defending biofuel and hybrids from critics.)

Michael Pollan digs into the mysteries of the U.S. diet in The Omnivore’s Dilemma

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan diagnoses the national attitude toward food: angst. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael […]