This week’s New York Times Magazine is all about food (see it here). In the issue, Michael Pollan, one of my favorite food authors, offers several food policy suggestions to the next president. He links health care, energy independence, and climate change to current (unsustainable) agricultural practices. The whole article is worth reading and reflection. My thoughts have been drawn repeatedly to one statistic cited in the piece–the average American consumes over 190 pounds of meat annually. Since it takes about 8 pounds of feed for 1 pound of beef, that means that the average American consumes 1,520 pounds of food annually, just in meat. That’s 3/4 of a ton! Given the environmental toll of US agricultural practices, and the fact that the poor (both at home and abroad) are most vulnerable to the effects of global climate change, I think I’ll have a salad for dinner tonight.
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