i've been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, and aside from a few wordy and history-laden passages, i find it fabulous. i'm a little more than halfway through, and already if i could only eat pastured (grass-fed) meat and dairy, i would. as with many whole-foods shoppers, i didn't realize how non-whole whole foods actually is. (ie. open range chicken means chickens that are reared to not want to go outside finally having access to a tiny lawn they never venture to.)

i long to live on a true sustainable farm, reveling in the balance of nature. having the fruits and vegetables grown without chemicals, the animals content and happy, actually eating food that doesn't make them ill. at least until i read the section about getting up at 5am every morning to move the chickens. thanks, but no. not a farmers life for me. yet, the health benefits coincide completely with my personal vision of a healthy diet. not veganism, vegetarianism, high fat, low fat, hi carb, no carb, meal replacement, nor appetite suppressant, but eating non-processed food, as close to the diet humans evolved eating. nature and ecology got more right than any person could ever hope to. just look at the margarine-butter debate that still rages.

and i am convinced that corn is the reason americans are fat. just try to cut corn out of your diet, for a month, no, a week, no a day! utterly impossible, unless you are eating lettuce. (this includes of course all the by products of corn that are put into everything, including animals not meant to eat it). not that corn is so terrible, but i really only want to eat it when its flattened into a chip dipped in salsa, or into a tortilla filled with cheese, or in its natural kernel state, on or off the cob - more specifically, when i know, and choose, to eat corn.

when i was in london, contrary to the stereotype of english food being bad, i had some fantastic meals. what i remember most were two meals, one at an english resturant, where i had the best typically english food. when done well, it is delicious. lamb shank that fell off the bone, it was so good. but the other was simple grilled chicken, at a french resturant. i wasn't expecting much, chicken is chicken. but this chicken WAS NOT chicken. in the words of julia child from "my life in france" (another fabulous book!) the chicken was so chickeny. i finally understood what she meant! i've heard over and over that the chicken we get today doesn't taste like the chicken from years ago- most likely because they are force fed a diet of the ever present corn that will fatten them up. and my english chicken was probably fantastic because it didn't come from a feed lot in kansas.

the treatment of animals is important, but that really isn't my foremost motivation, it's health. with the ever present obesity crisis, (that's start coincided with the invention of high-fructose corn syrup!) eating truly organic foods should be given more credence. not to mention the effects on the environment, also a strong personal motivator. aside from money (the agricultural industry not getting richer, and spending a bit more of my own on quality food), there really doesn't seem to be a downside. though i won't be out milking the cows anytime soon, i did come across this great website. if i can get my lazy butt to these farmer's markets, consider me a convert.