I’ve been trying to eat locally as well (in France) and told my husband no more bananas from Madagascar. My sister mentioned it in her car column as well.
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/05.10.06/rev-0619.html
One of her professors is Michael Pollen.

I’ve read your blog for a long time and thought that I would finally comment. Thanks for your insight on so many issues.

Best,
Riana

I do try to talk like I am smart and say, you know, intelligent sounding things anyway. It is just how I am. There are exceptions, like the time I said, “That’s back when everyone had grandmothers,” but generally, when I hold forth on a subject, I do try and do it, and myself credit.

Charcuterie is new? But, like hasn’t humanity been practicing that art since, like, I don’t know, since there was meat, guts, salt and smoke? Or, am I wrong again? Wow. New?

But then, eating locally isn’t really new, either…it just seems that way. I grew up eating that way, being a farmer’s granddaughter and all.

A reporter talked to you, but didn’t know why? Wow. Journalism schools must be graduating anyone these days. (Says a former reporter….)

Ya know, even though I’m not all that inspired about the eating local action, I have to say I’d rather read about that than another one about this new thing called charcuterie.
I recently was interviewed by a semi-large local paper’s food & wine department about said topic. And I was thinking, “Isn’t this like totally 2003?”
Plus he’d never read Meathenge so he was completely in the dark as to why he was talking to me. Feh.

Sigh.

What is most exciting about this whole thing isn’t just that I am in Time–of course that is a good ego boost, but what makes me happiest is the fact that the Eat Local ideals and movement are gaining a wider audience through Time Magazine. It would have been nice to have my blog linked to Time, but what -really- matters to me is that I can provide words and a face for eating locally that shows it to be something that more people can be involved in than just folks in the Bay Area. The fact that I am in Ohio–a red state–goes far in de-marginalizing the movement. Lots of folks get the idea that it is all hippy dippy radicals eating locally–but we aren’t. We are just people who care deeply about food–and that is neither a red or blue state phenominon.

(Now the truth of the issue is that Athens Ohio is an island of blue in a sea of red, but the article makes no mention of that wee fact.)

Mel–I had to laugh when I read your comment–my great grandmothers probably would look very askance at the Indian, Thai and Chinese food I eat every day, too! That is a great point, and one that deserves mention, though I understand that idea of what Pollan is saying. Some of the vibrantly artificially colored, processed foods that come in tubes and boxes and bags would not likely be recognized by most of our ancestors as being food.

As for the 2 Thin Chefs article–it is funny–when I put a link to it, I hadn’t read it yet. If I had, I probably would not have linked to it. I figured it was going to be about how chefs work such long hours and are so busy they don’t really eat much and they burn a ton of calories–that was my experience of chefs in culinary school. Most of them ate very little out of habit, and while it is stereotypical for chefs to be seen as big, jolly round people, very few of the ones I worked with fit that image. Most of them were trim, fit, average in size or thin, and it is because of the tremendous energy they burned doing their jobs–it is physically demanding work, and it shows.

But then, I don’t count Giada as a chef anyway. She is a good cook who has written books and is a TV star. A different thing altogether.

She also looks anorexic to me…but that is a side issue. I really hated the way that article was written–it was borderline sexist.

Dot–welcome! I am happy to have you here!

Yes, what you say is true–people will take information from “authoritative” sources like Time better than they will from people who probably know as much but don’t appear as “authoritative.” Which is why I am so thrilled they are covering these issues in a big way and bringing them to the average American home.

Thanks, Michael–I am very pleased with how the photograph turned out. It is rare to get a really good photo of me, because I hate to have my picture taken. But, Ted, the photographer, was great, and he kept me laughing, which made it all so much easier.

The food styling was all me. And the delicious Athens produce from the Farmers Market.

Indira–thank you! Now you finally get to see what all of me looks like, not just my eyes up above a kitten’s head.

We have stopped our subscription to Times just recently. But I won’t miss a chance to see and read about my favorite blogger in MSM, in a million years.:) Congrats once again!