Michael Pollan\u2019s \u201cIn Defense of Food\u201d is problematic.\u00a0 He identifies key food issues we face today and their causes.\u00a0 This is important, but his supposed \u2018solutions\u2019 are subpar at best.<\/p>\n
He pushes for individualized effort, but just like many other issues we face currently, the issue of food has become systemic, so individual efforts will have little to no effect.\u00a0 As soon as policies, or misinformed policies I should say, were put into place, this became a much greater issue.<\/p>\n
Addressing the problems of the Western Diet is not a burden that should be placed solely on individuals for a variety of reasons.<\/p>\n
First, the only way to address a systemic issue is through systemic action.\u00a0 There is no way an individual (through their own personal actions) can undo all of the \u2018imitation foods\u2019 passing for normal, or the marketing of foods with altered fat content, nutrient content, you name it.\u00a0 This, and everything else perpetuating the Western Diet, will not change without creating policies that stop the exponential growth of said diet.<\/p>\n
Second, many individuals don\u2019t have food options, therefore are unable to make any sort of change to their personal choices even if they want to.\u00a0 This may become increasingly true due to the widening of the income gap.\u00a0 I remember once upon a time when my family was solely dependent on the food offered at food banks.\u00a0 We couldn\u2019t afford to be picky, just as many others can\u2019t.\u00a0 And often times the cheapest foods are very closely intertwined with the Western Diet.<\/p>\n
These are just two reasons why placing full responsibility for change on individuals is not a viable option when addressing the monstrosity of the Western Diet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Michael Pollan\u2019s \u201cIn Defense of Food\u201d is problematic.\u00a0 He identifies key food issues we face today and their causes.\u00a0 This is important, but his supposed \u2018solutions\u2019 are subpar at best. He pushes for individualized effort, but just like many other issues we face currently, the issue of food has become systemic, so individual efforts will have little to no effect.\u00a0… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[46],"class_list":["post-861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industrialized-food","tag-western-diet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385s18\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}