Agriculture and food make it to Oprah!
January 31, 2010If you know me well … very well … you know that I have a soft spot for Oprah Winfrey. It’s a guilty pleasure of mine that I no longer indulge in because my fulltime job conflicts with her 4:30 p.m. air time. Nonetheless, when I friend mentioned Oprah interviewed Michael Pollan this week about modern food I started hunting for footage on YouTube.
Here’s a brief clip from the Oprah episode with Michael Pollan.
Michael Pollan is a well known food and agricultural author who, among many claims to fame, is featured in Food Inc. In the show’s opening comments, Oprah spoke about Food Inc. and her impressions.
I like to think it’s fate, but Oprah came away from Food Inc. with the same message as me: Regardless of your food choices (organic, conventional, local, vegetarian, etc.) — CHOOSE CONSCIOUSLY. As a society, we owe it to ourselves to learn about agriculture, food production and the food we buy. I (and Orpah!) are not asking for a complete uproar. I just think that being conscious about the food you purchase and cook is a very simple but great lesson in agricultural communications.
If you have the chance to catch the interview, do it! It’s interesting to hear Oprah’s comments as someone who is very removed from modern agricultural production (even though huge amounts of agricultural trading are dictated in her hometown at the Chicago Board of Trade). The show’s also a great way to introduce yourself to Michael Pollan.
