Slate.com: Tyler Cowen critiques Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” from a macroeconomic perspective and finds it wanting — yet his critique is curiously (and dismally) unsatisfying, too. Cowen says that Pollan’s desire for food-cost transparency is “an unattainable ideal, given the interconnectedness of markets,” and argues that the best solutions to environmental problems are more policies, not different personal choices. [Hat tip to Barry]
Grist: Batting for the microeconomic team, our favorite philosopher-farmer Tom Philpott says that the cure for Midwestern farmers’ losses is to start growing more food for their neighbors, and less for agribusiness and ethanol concerns. If Midwesterners bought just 20% of their food locally, that would be an additional $100 million for regional farms, enough to wipe out their collective $80 million annual loss. Take that, Tyler Cowen!
San Francisco Chronicle: A brief by Carol Ness has some encouraging news for grassfed-beef lovers. Native grasses on a huge parcel — 80,000 acres — around the Hearst Castle are being restored for a modern, grass-fed beef operation.
New York Times: Kim Severson returns from Terra Madre with a smorgasbord of culinary tidbits (and silly nomenclature) about the “United Nations of food.”
Gristmill: Tom Philpott pens a paean to the “mad flavor” of Austin’s Boggy Creek Farm produce (which our Omniwhore also hearts), and envies how it gets to sell most of its produce 20 feet from its downtown field.
Gristmill: Organic, Inc. author Samuel Fromartz weighs in (sorry) on the discussion of restricted-calorie diets and health.
Reason magazine: The greening of Wal-Mart has CEO H. Lee Scott palling around with some rather lefty new friends. Not much new here for regular readers of Grist, from which the article liberally cribs.
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