In case you missed it, the New York Times Magazine this past Sunday rolled out its “food issue.” It would not be the Times, nor would it be a true media food fiesta without the appearance of Michael Pollan, the cultural elite’s perennial guiding light, and the lord mayor of the Saturday morning farmer’s market.
About half way into the magazine banquet, Pollan serves up a short essay entitled, “Rules to Eat By.” (Aren’t all of Michael Pollan’s food writings called “Rules to Eat By”?) True to the Pollan form, this one begins with the obligatory condemnation of the modern food industry, the “treacherous food landscape,” as he calls it. Why treacherous? Because consumers can trust no one: food marketers lie, nutritionists collaborate with the marketers, and federal government regulators are limp zucchini in the presence of Big Food’s insatiable appetite for profits.
