Salon's How the World Works column talked briefly about the Omnivore's Dilemna on Friday, specifically about how the situation regarding the price of corn has changed since he wrote it:

If one had to choose one sentence to sum up "Omnivore," it might be: Our diet sucks, because corn is too cheap.

Except, of course, now corn isn't cheap at all -- it's $5 a bushel (up from $2 at the beginning of 2006). Livestock owners are outraged, and food security in the developing world is the new rallying cry for activists of all persuasions. The price of food is once again a political issue. In the space of barely 18 months we've gone from a scenario in which American farmers routinely overproduced to one in which they can't possibly produce enough to satisfy demand. The prospect of this coming to pass is never even hinted at by Pollan. Indeed, one could almost imagine him applauding, if he had been told when "Omnivore" was originally published that two years later the beef industry would be screaming bloody murder about how ethanol had forced the cost of cattle feed sky-high. Fantastic news! Cows were never designed to eat corn! High fructose corn syrup isn't healthy!. Make corn more expensive, and maybe Americans will be a little less obese.

Maybe this explains why, as Pollan was recently quoted saying in a San Francisco Chronicle feature, that his next book might be on the topic of ethanol.

If I were a cannibal, I wouldn't want the people-heads either.

Nutty, your great-grandmothers wouldn't have recognized tomatoes as food?

I don't think so. Even if they'd fully made the transition from "ew, they're poisonous!" to "yum," which I'm not sure about the timing of, I don't think they were grown much in my region at that time. They're difficult to raise from seeds with such a short growing season, unless you've got a lot of leisure and indoor space at your disposal.

I bet Mark Bittman doesn't mean for me to be eating tomatoes canned in lead tins, with whatever scary stuff might have been mixed into them!

(Also, my great-grandmothers were Anglo enough that I bet they regarded the tomato as suspiciously "ethnic.")

Indeed, one could almost imagine him applauding, if he had been told when "Omnivore" was originally published that two years later the beef industry would be screaming bloody murder about how ethanol had forced the cost of cattle feed sky-high. Fantastic news!

One can imagine me applauding right now. What's their point?

A few escape Sunnydale, but many are trapped.

Whoa - that headline caused a double-take.

That's one of my least favorite Pollan-isms. I get that he's trying to say "avoid processed foods" and that by "your great-grandmother" he means "someone's great-grandmother," but still. It's just such an annoying sentence.

The giants defense was great to watch and the strategy of using the clock in the first quarter I found entertaining to watch.

Ah, the Giants defense. It was like unto watching a pack of lions taking down a gazelle. Brady's eyes were bugging out in terror by the second half. It was great. (I loved the game.)

I don't think so. Even if they'd fully made the transition from "ew, they're poisonous!" to "yum," which I'm not sure about the timing of, I don't think they were grown much in my region at that time. They're difficult to raise from seeds with such a short growing season, unless you've got a lot of leisure and indoor space at your disposal.

They were in common use in England by the end of the 18th century. I'm fairly certain your grandparents would have recognized them as food.

Hee. If I ate like my great-grandmother, I bet I'd have a completely different diet than he intends. Lots of rice, lots of fermented bean products. Probably a good bit of fatty pork. Fish. Seaweed. Lots of pickled and dried things.

Yum.

What's the deal about pastured vs. free range poultry?

In other news, snow day! So all you people east of me will probably get this storm in a couple of days. I made one trip out to the house already, but the highway was so bad there was no way I was making it to the school. One of the schools between here and there canceled, for the first time in over a decade. So it's pretty messy out that way.

But it's really good timing for me because most of the stuff is out at the house. We have a lot of fidgety little packing things to do here at the duplex. Because tomorrow our buddies with the trailer come and we're finally moving! (Weather permitting.) But we're close. And even if they can't make it out, we've got enough over there that I think we could stuff the mattress in our van and get there ourselves, enough to live, anyway.

The SO is mostly over his cold, so I took him out for breakfast this morning to celebrate. We ate pancakes and watched the cars struggle on the street.

Now I'm snuggled up with the dog for a bit before I call time and get going on my tasks here.

--Eat more like people with traditional food cultures (the French, Italians, the Japanese, Indians, Greeks) and regard non-traditional foods with skepticism

I don't get this. Don't all people have traditional food cultures?

Don't all people have traditional food cultures?

I think he means "Don't eat like an American."