The Past, Present, and Future of Food

This event, even after having been moved to a larger auditorium, is compltely sold out (tho folks are looking for tickets on Craigslist). If you live in San Francisco, you can watch the discussion broadcast in the North Gate Hall Library at UC Berkeley. If you live anywhere else, you can watch the webcast here.

I, personally, shall be holed up in Brooklyn with buddies and a bowl of homeade popcorn, and hoping that our internet connection doesn’t die on us, and pondering the bizareness of cross-country real-time, which will have me listening to the discussion at 10pm EST. Oh well.

But why is this conversation so exciting?

I think it’s partly because we don’t often get to see change actually happen, and we’re dealing with two contestants in the sustainable foods debate who are eminently well placed to make that change happen–quickly. And they already have.

It was just this summer that Michael Pollan criticized John Mackey and Whole Foods for their “supermarket pastoralism” - that is, selling the sizzle more than the actual goods. The Whole Foods stores regional local farmers and douse the store with a liberal splashing of the word “local” — but their centralized distribution systems don’t really allow for much local produce at their stores at all. Is it possible Whole Foods wasn’t walking the walk?

John Mackey responded, and promised a few changes, among them announcing that space would be allotted in the parking lots of free-standing Whole Foods stores for farmer’s markets every Sunday. I don’t know if this has happened. But the reaction was remarkable. It seems that they really do want to help. Or at least, keep up their image.

To recap:

• read Mackey’s response to Pollans “Supermarket Pastoral” allegations (which appeared separately in the NYTimes, and in his book, Ominvore’s Dilema)
• check out Pollan’s response
• and the new Whole Foods programs instituted in response

And the conversation continues tomorrow night. Journalist v. businessman, one of the oldest tricks in the books. It seems that the result will be to keep the industry honest — even if it will ultimately mean more money for both of them, it’s good for the world and the rest of us too.