Food & Nutrition
After about a decade covering the business, politics and technology of food, I’ve gained perspective on the machinations of the food industry that become helpful when I think about specific issues in broader contexts. Sometimes the best way to get at the truth is to draw from that experiencing, weaving together thoughtful, evidence-based elements to tell the bigger story.
The idea: The fast food industry co-opted a fundamental American value, then turned it into an effective tool for defending its role in feeding people nutritionally-crappy food.
“By employing the word “choice,” fast food companies and the lobby that represents them are able to scramble the national discussion.”
The idea: The trick of making a societal shift to healthier eating depends on de-linking the notion that ‘more food for less money’ is an inherently good thing. Blowing up the concept of value is the challenge.
“To change that culture, it will take successful collaboration from groups that often have competing interests.”
The idea: America is having an unhealthy love affair with protein. The food industry is making money off society’s ignorance about macronutrients and it’s setting us up for confusion.
“We work ourselves into a rhythm of confusion. Right now fats and carbs are out, and protein is in. But for how long?”
The idea: Artists stopped showing us the truth about where our food comes from, and the planet is worse off for it.
“At some point, the way we make our food became so consolidated and so grotesque that people stopped wanting to see it, even in art form.”
The idea: Functional foods are really boring, but somebody has to tell Silicon Valley.
“A great comparison is that sex is just a way to make babies.”