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Comments

• [1] Jamal from Manhattan July 04, 2008 - 11:48AM

  This is an interesting topic because I am a vegetarian but on a recent trip to Japan I could find virtually -no- Native Japanese Vegetarians. What is it about Americans and food that cause that guilt? Our relationship with food is unhealthy.

  
  
• [2] SuzanneNYC from Upper West Side July 04, 2008 - 12:01PM

  Americans' relationship to food is obsessive and unhealthy. But I have to say celebrating food -- glorious multi-colored eggs fresh from the hen -- is luxury for the well-off. For most people, food options are limited and costly. An important part of public policy would be to ensure that inner-city neighborhoods have access to supermarkets (or something like that) as opposed to the small stores where choices are limited and prices are high. Not that I'm trying to put small grocers out of business but as we all know these are the only options for most inner-city residents.

  
  
• [3] Art White from Brooklyn July 04, 2008 - 12:27PM

  Aah, how nice it must be to live a life where one can save the planet for future generations by such simple acts as eating wonderful fresh food. I think Ms Waters needs to spend a year living on a minimum wage salary working a forty hour week in East New York while raising a couple of kids. I'd be willing to bet she wouldn't last a week. Now thats some reality TV I'd watch.

  
  
• [4] chefesse July 04, 2008 - 12:29PM

  Alice Waters did not answer Brian’s question about how the typical consumer can afford to buy organic. Those who would most benefit from a shift in their relationship between the food they eat and one’s health are those most pressed economically. They are already freaked by how much non-organic produce, fresh fish and so on, costs them. This is the generation that thinks a "happy meal" price tag is what a meal should cost. Let’s face the facts: those beautiful blue, green and speckled eggs Alice referred to were $7.00 for a half dozen at the Union Square farmers market on Wednesday!

  As much as I support a return to the sustainable growth and processing of our food supply, I believe this issue must be addressed in a more pragmatic way for change to take place. Rather then being lectured on the (myriad) problems of eating mass produced foods, people need to learn how to integrate "conscious" eating into their lifestyles...a little at a time.

  Once one knows, for example, exactly how our livestock is raised (especially by videos where once viewed, you can never get those images out of your head) paying more for humanely raised meat makes more sense. Waxing eloquent on how yummy and beautiful these foods (like those admittedly fabulous eggs) is not enough.

  
  
• [5] linhelen from upper west side July 05, 2008 - 09:26AM

  I heard this program just after I returned from my local Fri. Greenmarket where I've noticed that most of the customers were people who were privileged to be able to afford the foods she talks about. In the past there were more customers with varied incomes but now that prices have gone even higher, these people are hardly there. It is now left mostly to the "Whole Foods" shoppers. I wish Alice Waters would have addressed this. However, I've noticed a certain arrogance and self-righteousness on the part of the people like her, like the people in my neighborhood who are thrilled that Whole Foods is building a huge store here and are not concerned at all that we lost the one affordable market.(Now I hear we are getting an expanded version of another one, supposedly affordable, although this very store has raised its prices since the other one went out but not as high as Whole Foods will be.) I agree completely with the above post about the value of education to affect change. I wish Brian had another guest present who could have addressed this, someone who actually cared.

  
  
• [6] paul from suburbs July 06, 2008 - 04:26AM

  It would seem that good quality food is more expensive, but as my friend says, 'you can pay for it now or pay for it later at the hospital'.

  
  
• [7] William Bednarz from Jersey City, New Jersey July 06, 2008 - 04:00PM

  Everyday I see people eating(?) in their cars. It makes me want to scream - go sit down and eat as human beings - ladies and gentlemen, not as animals in cars chewing their cuds