Chef Mario Batali looks ahead to the future of food, from farms to school lunches, and asks for moderation.
By MARIO BATALI What lies ahead in the future of food? I don't think we'll be eating high-tech food pills anytime soon, thankfully. But with problems like collapsing fisheries and rising levels of childhood obesity, we do need to step back and consider where we want to be a few decades from now.
The future of food in America hinges on our ability to listen to what the earth and scientists and farmers are telling us. The issues surrounding food are not all black and white, good or bad. We must embrace moderation, from big business to the small producer, from steak to tofu. My own concerns are hardly unique to me—and I neglect countless important points—so think of what follows as the start of a conversation.
Corn as a Vegetable
Corn will continue to be planted "fence row to fence row" and subsidized by the U.S. government, sneaking its way into our bread and cereal and every other product, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. But farmers don't plant corn because they love corn syrup, or because they prefer seeing their crop used to fill the tank of an SUV with biofuel rather than to feed people in the developing world. They do it because it's how they can make money.
I'd hope that we can give our corn farmers more economically viable options, such as sustainable soy and alfalfa, and tell the American government that we want our corn to be a vegetable again. We might even stop making villains of all sugars and come to realize that moderation is the key. Eat all sugars, including high-fructose corn syrup, in moderation.
Catching Less
Fisheries all over America are collapsing. If we continue to ignore the experts' advice, we will definitely see the extinction of bluefin tuna and many other species. Entire fishing villages are losing their livelihoods at breakneck speed. I believe that Americans can learn to eat fish responsibly, sparing some of the more endangered species like Atlantic cod and grouper, just as fishermen can learn to accept seasonal quotas as a way to preserve jobs and income for generations to come.
Minding Our Meat
Industrial livestock farms are polluting and inhumane, and they account for much of the pathogenic bacteria, like salmonella, that end up in our meat and poultry (and even our leafy greens). They also sustain notoriously bad working conditions for the people that labor in them. We need to pay more attention to where our meat comes from, or we will continue to pay the price in public health and worker safety.
More encouragingly, the infrastructure for distributing meat from small farmers is improving, with Wal-Mart, of all companies, at the cutting edge. Campaigns like "meatless Monday" have also gained momentum. It may be unreasonable to expect everyone to become a vegetarian, but is it such a stretch for Americans to skip meat just one day a week?
Fisheries all over America are collapsing. If we continue to ignore the experts' advice, we will definitely see the extinction of bluefin tuna and many other species. Entire fishing villages are losing their livelihoods at breakneck speed. I believe that Americans can learn to eat fish responsibly, sparing some of the more endangered species like Atlantic cod and grouper, just as fishermen can learn to accept seasonal quotas as a way to preserve jobs and income for generations to come.
Minding Our Meat
Industrial livestock farms are polluting and inhumane, and they account for much of the pathogenic bacteria, like salmonella, that end up in our meat and poultry (and even our leafy greens). They also sustain notoriously bad working conditions for the people that labor in them. We need to pay more attention to where our meat comes from, or we will continue to pay the price in public health and worker safety.
More encouragingly, the infrastructure for distributing meat from small farmers is improving, with Wal-Mart, of all companies, at the cutting edge. Campaigns like "meatless Monday" have also gained momentum. It may be unreasonable to expect everyone to become a vegetarian, but is it such a stretch for Americans to skip meat just one day a week?
Sweet Drinks
If Americans, especially younger Americans, keep drinking soda at the rate of 1,000 calories a day, we will continue to pay the price in higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. But maybe we can take Michael Pollan's sensible advice and "at least return soda to its place as a special-occasion drink." (How about Soda Fountain Fridays, along with pizza for a special food/drink combo?) And perhaps Americans will finally wake up and realize that the bottled-water companies are literally drilling up the water from under their houses and selling it back to them in plastic at the corner store.
Help for Lunch Ladies
My own Mario Batali Foundation is all about kids, so this issue is particularly dear to me. I hope that the future of food in America holds a drastic and intelligent update of the USDA-sponsored national school lunch program, which is one of our most successful social welfare efforts, feeding some 30 million children. We can't forget that many of these children depend on school lunch for their only meal each day, which makes it crucial that they get the nutrition they need.
To do this, the program needs to change its current focus on simply meeting calorie standards and holding down fat levels. Switching to an emphasis on certain amounts of particular foods, like lean protein, whole grains and vegetables, would give lunch ladies all over America some guidance in meeting a wider range of nutritional needs.
If Americans, especially younger Americans, keep drinking soda at the rate of 1,000 calories a day, we will continue to pay the price in higher rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. But maybe we can take Michael Pollan's sensible advice and "at least return soda to its place as a special-occasion drink." (How about Soda Fountain Fridays, along with pizza for a special food/drink combo?) And perhaps Americans will finally wake up and realize that the bottled-water companies are literally drilling up the water from under their houses and selling it back to them in plastic at the corner store.
Help for Lunch Ladies
My own Mario Batali Foundation is all about kids, so this issue is particularly dear to me. I hope that the future of food in America holds a drastic and intelligent update of the USDA-sponsored national school lunch program, which is one of our most successful social welfare efforts, feeding some 30 million children. We can't forget that many of these children depend on school lunch for their only meal each day, which makes it crucial that they get the nutrition they need.
To do this, the program needs to change its current focus on simply meeting calorie standards and holding down fat levels. Switching to an emphasis on certain amounts of particular foods, like lean protein, whole grains and vegetables, would give lunch ladies all over America some guidance in meeting a wider range of nutritional needs.
