The farmers’ market at Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn

Michael Pollan has a fantastic survey of the rapidly growing food movement in the current New York Review of Books. As always, Pollan manages to illuminate a subject with many moving parts in a very small space.

He delivers a succinct history of the movement and describes the many facets of food activism, from environmental to public health issues to more esoteric but no less important subjects like community and democracy.  He points out that this breadth makes it an attractive focus for people on both the left and right of the political divide- one of the many reasons it is a subject with the capacity to really transform the political landscape.  Perhaps most importantly, he points out that locavore tendencies are often rooted in a desire to reformulate traditional consumer culture.  His finish is pretty good as well . . .

. . . food is invisible no longer and, in light of the mounting costs we’ve incurred by ignoring it, it is likely to demand much more of our attention in the future, as eaters, parents, and citizens. It is only a matter of time before politicians seize on the power of the food issue, which besides being increasingly urgent is also almost primal, indeed is in some deep sense proto- political. For where do all politics begin if not in the high chair?—at that fateful moment when mother, or father, raises a spoonful of food to the lips of the baby who clamps shut her mouth, shakes her head no, and for the very first time in life awakens to and asserts her sovereign power.

Local and sustainable food is a subject fairly well outside our focus here at Urban Green, where our eyes are typically trained on green buildings.  But of course most folks in both camps are pulling in the same direction.  We all want to reduce our impact on the environment and support systems that enable healthy (in every sense of the word) communities.  In recognition of this synergy, and cognizant that our shared missions are rarely discussed or acted upon, last year we developed a really remarkable event called Hungry New York.  We gathered 100 folks from both the local/sustainable food and green building communities for a local meal.  The audience included architects, farmers, bakers, engineers and everyone in between.  Hosted by City Bakery, our master of ceremony was English architect and author Carolyn Steel, whose book Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives was the inspiration for both the title and content of our event.  With a short talk from Carolyn as catalyst the dinner spurred myriad discussions and I am happy to report that a number of partnerships were formed that evening- resulting in quite a few unexpected collaborations.  It was a huge success and we are hoping to hold the second such event this October- and with any luck we’ll have Carolyn to lead the way once again.  Look out for more details in this space.