Food & Society Memo: Michael Pollan on the Pleasures of Eating: Part Duex

Yesterday, we published the first chapter of writer ("The Ominvor's Dilemma") and University of California at Berkeley Journalism professor Michael Pollan's new book, "In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto," which was excerpted in the UK-based Guardian newspaper.

In today's issue of the Guardian, the second part of Pollan's introductory chapters is published in an essay written by Pollan.

In the essay, "How to get back to real food," Pollan says we need to rediscover the simple rules of healthy eating. To that end, Pollan offers his recipe for reclaiming control over what he calls "our disastrous diets."

Pollan's new book is on sale beginning this week. We wanted to give our readers a sneak preview, as we believe the book will be much discussed among food industry professionals, nutritionists, farmers, consumer advocates, environmental groups, consumers and others interested in what we eat and how we grow and market our food.

Read the essay/excerpt from Michael Pollan's book, "In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto" here.

More on Pollan:

Read more about Pollan's new book, what he cooks and eats at home, where he shops, and other food and nutrition issues in this profile, "What Would Michael Pollan Eat?" by Carol Ness in the San Francisco Chronicle. Hint: He's not anti-meat, nor is he a "food fanatic."

Resources:

>You can read a review (December 30, 2007) of Pollan's new book, "In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto," here.

>You can also read a review, from 2006, of his best selling book, "An Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," here.

Monday Morning Java: Starting the Week Off With A Jolt

Friend or Fowl? Celebrity chef bites the hand that feeds him over strong beliefs on factory poultry farming issue debate

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who stars in TV ads for British supermarket giant Sainsbury's, this morning slammed his employer and Britain's other "big four" supermarket chains for not showing up on his TV program to debate factory poultry farming.

Oliver, who gets paid 1.2 million pounds a year for staring in the Sainsbury's TV ads, recently invited representatives from Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda (the supermarket "big four") to appear on his TV documentary, "Jamie's Fowl Dinners."

As part of the documentary on factory fowl and egg farming, Oliver discovered that supermarkets pay farmers as little as three pence for a chicken, an amount Oliver says is outrageously low. He invited representatives of the four big supermarket chains to appear on the program and discuss and debate the issue.

None of the four, including his employer Sainsbury's, sent representatives to debate the issue with Oliver on the program. This has outraged Oliver, who is not only a famous chef in Britain, but has an international following among food lovers as well.

Chef Oliver told the London Daily Mail newspaper this morning that "they (the supermarket chains) all refused to take part in the program. "I am really upset," Oliver told the Daily Mail. "The question is, why didn't they come. What is there to hide?"

The celebrity chef particularly singled-out Sainsbury's for his anger. "It is shocking that the people (Sainsbury's) I work for didn't turn up," Oliver told the Daily Mirror. "I just don't know why (they didn't)."

Chef Jamie Oliver cries "fowl" and says "big four" British supermarket chains are "chicken" to debate him over factory poultry farming issue.

A Sainsbury's spokesperson said they provided a senior company executive to be interviewed by Oliver on the program. Oliver interviewed the executive for the show. The spokesperson defended their actions, saying they didn't feel the need to debate the issue since the senior manager was provided and interviewed by Oliver.

Tesco, Asda and Morrison's spokespeople didn't offer any direct reasons as to why they declined to participate in a discussion and debate with Oliver on the factory farming and related poultry issues.

However, all three grocer's said they are very concerned about and working on the factory farming poultry issue, and have each worked to create and sell "cruelty free" raised birds and eggs respectively. Each chain offers "cage-free" eggs for sale in the stores, in addition to those raised using conventional methods. They also offer "free-range" birds for sale, along with organic chickens, in addition to birds raised in the manner characterized by Oliver.

It will be interesting to see if (1) Sainsbury's pulls its TV ads, which are currently running frequently in Britain, featuring Oliver, and (2) If either Oliver resigns his commercial arrangement with Sainsbury's, or the supermarket chain fires him.

Of course, both parties could agree to disagree on the debate attendance issue, and work together to better the poultry farm to retail supply chain in all ways. Stay tuned.

Note: you can watch a video of Oliver offering his opinions of the "big four" British supermarket companies, and their decision not to participate in his discussion and debate on the factory poultry farming issue here. We must say, watching the video this morning over coffee did give us an extra Monday morning jolt.

Product Innovation Memo: The Lifesaver Water Bottle

British inventor Michael Pritchard just might have invented one of the most important, and lifesaving, products in recent history.

Prichard has turned a common looking plastic bottle into a device he says can instantly clean even the dirtiest water, making it safe to drink.

Michael Prichard hold his invention, the Lifesaver water bottle, up for all to see.

Prichard told writer Richard Maino of the London Press Service he got the idea for the Lifesaver water bottle after watching TV coverage of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. The tsunami killed at least 230,000 people and displaced millions. Further, many of the survivors of the tsunami had no water in the aftermath of the killer storm, which left many of them dehydrated, leading to more deaths and numerous illnesses.

In his London Press Service story, Maino describes how the Lifesaver Bottle (pictured below) works, Prichard's goals for the simple-looking water bottle, and the potential it has to save lives in both underdeveloped countries where clean water is at a minimum, and for use in the aftermath of disasters like the tsunami.

Disaster relief workers rely on having bottled and canned water shipped into areas hit by serious disasters like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and even those in first world countries like Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. The problem is the distribution of the bottled and canned water can take days--and it's near-impossible to distribute it to all those affected by a major disaster on the scale of the tsunami for example due to the wide geographical path of the storm.

One the other hand, equipping people with a device like the Lifesaver water bottle in the immediate aftermath of such a disaster (or even giving them to people to have on hand in the event of such a disaster) can save lives that otherwise would be lost.

Such a device also would be far less expensive than buying bottled water. The environmental impact also would be considerably lower: Not only would gallons upon gallons of fuel be saved do to not having to truck in all the bottled water, but there would be no need to dispose of the empty plastic bottles in landfills. This is an especially serious waste issue in developing countries which generally don't recycle plastics.

If Prichard's invention works--which seems to be the case--it could be one of the most simple and basic, yet important life saving products in recent history.

Read the entire London Press Service article on the Lifesaver water bottle here.

Read more about the Lifesaver water bottle at the company's website here.

Food & Society Memo: Michael Pollan on the Pleasures of Eating

Writer Michael Pollan, author of the best selling book "The Omnivor's Dilemma," has a new book coming out this week.

The book, "In Defense of Food: An Eaters Manifesto" suggests there once was a time when knowing what to eat was easy. It not only was encoded in our genes so to speak, it also was culturally based, and a decision unfettered by so many middle men.

Over the past 40 years however, Pollan says the food industry and nutritionists have interfered with out diet. Among the results of that interference, Pollan argues, is confusion--and an epidemic of food-related diseases.

The book won't be published until January 31. However, Pollan published the first two chapters from his book in tomorrow's (Monday, January 7) issue of the United Kingdom-based Guardian newspaper.

Pollan's central point in the excerpt from the first chapters of his new book (which are published in the Guardian in essay form) is that it's time to forget about the science and marketing--and rediscover the pleasures of eating.

Like his book "The Omnivor's Dilemma," Pollan's new book is likely to get lots of attention and stimulate much discussion among consumers, nutritionists, farmers, the food industry and others interested in what we eat and how we grow and market food. We give you a preview here before the book comes out on January 31.

Read Pollan's essay from the Guardian here.

Green Memo: Adam Werbach and the 'Greening' of Wal-Mart

At age 23, Adam Werbach became the youngest president of the Sierra Club, one of the oldest and most prestigious environmental organizations in the United States.

Werbach's election as president didn't come easy. The old guard at the Sierra Club believed he was not only to young to run the national organization, but that his lack of experience and seasoning would set the group back even farther than it already was at the time.

However, after a strong campaign, and a fight against a group of senior board members, Werbach was elected president of the word-famous conservation organization. His tenure heading the Sierra Club wasn't without controversy though. But Werbach left a legacy, which was to bring thousands of young people into the environmental organization, energizing it and providing for its longevity.

After leaving the Sierra Club, Webach courted controversy within the environmental advocacy community once again. A few years ago he gave a talk at the San Francisco-based Commonwealth Club, one of the oldest and most prestigious public affairs organizations and forums in the U.S. Werbach's speech, "is Environmentalism Dead," seriously criticized the environmental movement for not including the causes of economic and social justice along with environmentalism.

The speech created Werbach fans and Werbach enemies within the environmental and conservation community. It also stimulated much debate and discussion within the community over the ideas of conservation without other political goals (such as economic and social justice) and environmentalism with a cause; the joining together of the concepts of ecological, economic and social justice as a comprehensive goal.

Not one shy to controversy in the past, perhaps Werbach's current engagement is the one that's generating the most controversy to date in his career as an environmental and conservation advocate. What is his current engagement?

Warbach, who currently runs an environmental-oriented consulting firm called Act Now Productions based in San Francisco, has joined up with Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation and retailer, in their effort to green the company and develop an integrated sustainability program company and store-wide.

The cover story in today's San Francisco Chronicle Magazine chronicles Werbach's life as an environmentalist--from his first formal "green" act, which was drawing up a petition while in the second grade to oust James Watt, former President Ronald Reagan's controversial Secretary of the Interior in the 1980's--to his serving as a paid sustainability consultant today for Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart.

We've written often here about Wal-Mart's sustainability initiative. The Chronicle's cover story, written by Burr Snider, offers some new and additional insights about what Wal-Mart is up to on the sustainability front, while at the same time providing some interesting information about the usually private battles that go on within the environmental and conservation community. It also profiles Werbach's life-long work and dedication to the environmental cause as he sees it.

Werbach, like us, believes Wal-Mart is sincere in it's efforts to create a sustainable culture and corporation. (If for no other reason than economics.) We've written about our problems with Wal-Mart--its hourly wages (to low we believe), Health insurance policies (to minimal), lead-paint covered toys (outrageous) and a few other issues we believe the retailer needs to dramatically improve on for its associates and customers.

However, we believe having Wal-Mart as a corporate (and retailing) leader on green and sustainability issues is a major plus. Like they say in the business world: As Wal-Mart goes, so goes the rest of the industry.

Read the full cover story, "Werbach at Wal-Mart? here.

Supply-Side Memo: Sweet Success With Organic Honey

For 25 years Richard Spiegel has been producing and marketing organic specialty honey from his company headquarters--a converted hog barn--in Hamakua, on Hawaii's Big Island.

Spiegel, who refers to himself as a retired hippie, owns Volcano Island Honey Co., where he produces award-winning organic kiawe honey using sustainable farming and production methods.

Spiegel recently told writer Karin Stanton in an article by the Associated Press, and published in the Honolulu Advertiser, that sales of his organic honey are so good he's having trouble keeping up with the demand. However, he added, he doesn't consider that his real success. Rather, Spiegel says, his goal is to "inspire other farmers to look for creative, eco-friendly and sustainable methods to produce good food."

"I've been trying to change the world since forever," he told Stanton. "I started as a lawyer, but that wasn't doing it." he added.

It seems Spiegel found his calling not in the law, but rather with the bees, producing and marketing organic honey.

Volcano Island Honey Co. produces and sells what it calls Rare Hawaiian Organic White Honey. Honey varieties include: Organic White Honey, Organic Winter Honey, White Honey With Organic Ginger, Organic White Honey With Hawaiian Lilikoi and others. (See a complete list here.) The sweet nectar has won numerous specialty product awards including a Silver Sofi in 2007 for outstanding new product from the National Association for the Specialty Foods Trade (NASFT).

Richard Spiegel (left) explains the fine points of how he produces his organic honey and farms sustainably to a group touring his farm and production facility.

Spiegel also uses his honey company as an educational laboratory to educate individuals and groups about sustainable and organic farming. He offers tours of his farm and of the production facility, located in the converted hog barn, to students, community groups, neighbors, farmers and agriculture groups--and just about anybody who cares to see what he's up to.

The company also publishes a newsletter which talks about the comings and goings on at the organic farm as well as sustainable and organic farming in general.

We suggest you read more about Spiegel, his award-winning honey, his views on sustainable farming methods, and what he thinks about farming and food production in general, in this short piece from the AP, published in the Honolulu Advertiser (December 31, 2007). It's a sweet story about a natural and specialty foods entrepreneur who's on to a sweet idea. (Full story here.)

Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Update

Fresh & Easy and the UFCW Union:

It looks like 2008 could add an additional element of excitement to what promises to already be an exciting year for Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market venture in the Western U.S.

According to two publications (and we've confirmed the story with our sources), the United Food & Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) plans to launch an aggressive organizing campaign this year, targeting Fresh & Easy store clerks at the retailer's stores in California, Arizona and Nevada. The goal is to get the retail clerks to vote on whether or not they want to be represented by the union.

According to a December 30, 2007 story in the blog, Fresh & Easy Buzz, California will be "ground zero" for the union's organizing campaign, which our sources tell us could begin as early as this month. Read the piece in the Fresh & Easy Buzz blog here.

The union is feeling strong as it just recently signed a contract agreement with California's major supermarket chains for its retail clerk members. The UFCW is calling the contract "the best ever in the U.S." for supermarket retail clerks. On the heals of this four year contract, the union wants to organize Tesco Fresh & Easy workers because the British grocer has plans to become a major player in food retailing in California and the Western USA, as we've reported extensively here.

In another piece on the issue, published in today's Sacramento Bee newspaper, the Bee is reporting that Tesco's Fresh & Easy grocery markets can look for a "Wal-Mart style" campaign from the UFCW in terms of its efforts to unionize Fresh & Easy store clerks. By "Wal-Mart style" campaign, the Bee is referring to efforts by the union like its sponsorship of the WakeupWal-Mart.com website, that writes about everything Wal-Mart from a labor, ethical and social point of view, and generally not in a positive manner.

In fact, the Bee story reports the UFCW has set up a website called "Fresh & Queasy" in which it is at present posting information about Tesco in its home country of Britain. Read the story in today's Sacramento Bee here.

Fresh & Easy Buzz says it located a website called "Fresh & Queasy" on You Tube, but that to date it hasn't had much activity: very few postings and very few page hits.

Our union sources confirmed the information on both the Fresh & Easy Buzz blog and in today's Sacramento Bee article.

The UFCW hasn't had much luck in organizing workers at other major, non-union grocers in California and the west. These include Whole Foods Market, Inc., Wal-Mart (its supercenters) and Trader Joe's, who's corporate headquarters is in Southern California. And, although the retail clerks' union will continue trying to get store clerks at these grocer's stores to hold union votes, it seems its main target for 2008 will be Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market.

As we've reported here (just do a search on Fresh and Easy), 2008 is going to be a big year for Tesco's Fresh & Easy. For example:

>Scores of new stores will open in Southern California, Arizona and Nevada.

>Its 850,000 square foot distribution center in Riverside County in Southern California should be fully operation later this year as the grocer solves some regulation issues which have prevented it from being fully-operation thus far.

>Fresh & Easy will open its first stores in Northern California sometime this year.

>By late spring the first stores will have been open for six months, which will give the retailer an idea of how things have gone since the launch.

Add to these developments the organizing activity planned by the UFCW for this year, and it should be an event-packed 2008 for Tesco's Fresh & Easy on all fronts--retail, distribution, real estate, economic and socio-political.