First, our food system has changed drastically in the last 50 years, in ways that people aren’t aware of. Walk up and down the aisles, and food in the supermarket looks basically like it always has. But peer behind the curtain and you’ll see how industrialized our food has become, how much fossil fuel it requires to process, how powerful a few large companies have gotten, how technologic animal slaughter has become, and how much we are using novel technologies like genetic modification. Consumers need to be more aware of how the system is changing and what it means.

Second, while the new system has succeeded spectacularly in increasing the efficiency and productivity of American agriculture, cheap food comes at an enormous cost to our health and the environment. We spend less on food than anyone in the history of the world, just nine percent of our income, but we pay in other ways.

Third, the consumer has a great deal of power. People can vote with their forks—for higher quality, for fewer chemicals, for sustainability. Change comes if we demand it.

We tend to think about foods in terms of nutrients, fat content, calorie count, etc. Does this help or hurt us?

We’ve been breaking down food into nutrients and numbers for 30 years, and we haven’t gotten skinnier or healthier. Think about it: The low-fat campaign coincides precisely with the obesity epidemic in this country. In part that’s because the science behind the fad was not very good: For example, fat isn’t as bad as we think, and carbs aren’t as innocent.

Also, if you demonize one nutrient, you give a free pass to another. One product may boast no high fructose corn syrup, but it’s still loaded with sugar. We’ve been binging on carbs since we started obsessing about fat. We need to think in terms of whole foods. That isn’t to say you should ignore lists of ingredients; shorter lists, with recognizable ingredients, are best.

Where in the world are they getting it right?

I’m not sure any one country has it all figured out. Traditional populations that never got into Western diet, so-called primitive people not eating refined foods, are often very healthy. That should tell us something. Humans can do well on what nature has to offer. What’s amazing is that with all our so-called sophistication, we’ve found a way to eat that makes us sick.

With fast or processed food often cheaper and more filling than, say, organic vegetables, lower income people are at a terrible disadvantage when it comes to health, no?

But there is demand for healthy food at every economic level. We need to make healthy calories in the supermarket competitive with unhealthy ones. The government today subsidizes corn and soy as quick, high-yield crops, which is politically popular; instead, we should be helping encourage them to produce lettuce and carrots. If farmers are given incentive to grow diverse, healthy food, they will.

Should the government even be involved, considering the track record so far?

The government is already in food and is going to stay in food. But government interests may be changing. If a healthcare reform plan is set up that guarantees everyone insurance, there will suddenly be a powerful interest in the health of the population. I can imagine a time when policymakers are very concerned about diet, because preventing even one case of type II diabetes saves a lot of money. They’ll be having reservations about marketing soda to children, about agricultural policy. Interest will shift from questions of quantity to those about quality.

Also, the way we are growing, processing, and eating food is responsible for a third of greenhouse gases. President Obama will discover that to get handle on both healthcare and the environment, he’ll need to address farm policy.

There’s a fine line between being an educated consumer and being a pest at restaurants. What questions do you ask when eating out, and when do you set aside your concerns and just enjoy a meal?

I’m an omnivore. I eat meat. If I can’t find out the source of it, I’ll order fish or vegetables. But lots of restaurants these days offer local meat, and those are the places I try to go. On the road, it’s harder. I try to stick to vegetarian entrees or fish, depending on where it’s from and how it’s raised. Regarding meat of unknown origin, I’ve been on those feed lots. I know how it’s done and I don’t have an appetite for that. When I’m out I don’t make a pest of myself, but just the act of asking questions makes a difference. If people keep asking the waiter if the beef is grass fed, the chef may realize that’s a selling point and may order it, put it on the menu. It’s a way the consumer can vote.

What did you grow up eating?

I loved my junk food like any kid, and inhaled my share of burgers and fries. It wasn’t McDonald’s for us, but Westons on Long Island. I loved my Yodels after school, and sodas, but we didn’t keep soda in the house. It was a special occasion treat. That’s a key distinction between then and now. These days kids drink it everyday, eat junk food all the time.

You espouse eating less meat and more greens. How have you changed your own meat-eating habits?

I’ll admit I still love burgers, but you can get grass fed beef even at Costco now. I eat smaller amounts of higher quality meat, which is a good strategy both for you and for your pocketbook, and also for the animals. I also cook more—that’s a big change for me. The only way to really take control of your health and stay true to these views is to cook for yourself.

What’s one particularly valuable thing you’ve learned doing all this research on food?

I’ve learned that our most profound engagement with the natural world is not happening when we travel or go camping. It happens on your plate. We change the world more with food choices than anything we do. Think how agriculture has affected the composition of species, the landscape. We shouldn’t be surprised there are millions of herds of cattle and only 10,000 wolves.

What have you eaten so far today?

I’m at a hotel in D.C. that had oatmeal with strawberries for breakfast. We got takeout food for lunch, I’m embarrassed to say, but it was an organic café; I had tuna on whole wheat. Dinner is still to come. This is real life, so you do have to make compromises. You can’t get it right three times a day everyday, but maybe twice, even once, it makes a difference—to your health and to environmental health. Your choices make a difference.

—Jennifer S. Holland

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