Food has meant many different things to me at different times in my life. It has been a joy as I gather around for birthday dinner with my extended family, an annoyance as I scarf down a Clif bar between classes, a wonder as I pull a baby beet from the wet earth. I had yet to view food as the cultural significance that it truly is until reading In Defense of Food by Michael Pollen. I realized that food has defined who we are, changed the way we socialize, function and connect. We came from a society of hunter gatherers and with the invention of agriculture we settled, grew free time and developed society. Today we have moved farther and farther from our food. We rely on scientists and journalists to tell us what to eat and dissect an interconnected world to its parts. We have become sick, sad and disconnected and it seems like it can all be rerouted back to the loss of our food culture. I found this book fascinating and I am still reeling from all it had to offer. I have decided that it is time to wake up and see food for what it is. To acknowledge its complicated past and its important future. To start to restore its role in our lives as the glue of our culture and the answer to our health epidemic. I am elated that the answer is so simple but concerned that we have moved so far from our roots and won’t be able to go back.