Response To Michael Pollan's Letter Farmer In Chief

In the letter Farmer in Chief written by Michael Pollan in 2008, he states that we need a robust national dialogue on how we produce food in America. In his letter, Pollan argues that we cannot solve the three major crises of global warming, health care, and energy without first recognizing that our current food system has contributed to them and that in order to solve those issues we need to approach a new way of food production in America. Therefore, I strongly agree with Pollan's prescription regarding the American food, because although our current food system is cheap and affordable, the way Americans grow food takes up lots of energy, and some health issues, and environmental issues can be prevented by the type of food we consume. …show more content…
Instead of using pesticides, and having most government farms and food programs' crops grown in monocultures, farmers should be encouraged by the government to let animals graze on the land and also plant crops, eliminating the need for other chemicals, and to grow a diversity of crops. Therefore moving into a system where cultivating polyculture crops are more common. During his argument, Pollan points out to the huge monocultures of the midwestern, the fencerow-to-fencerow planting policies of Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture, the reeking feedlots, and the chemical fertilizer industry, Earl Butz, all as disastrous pieces of our quantity-over-quality, and cheap calories. Unsurprisingly, the way we eat and grow food is very connected to how healthy we are, which is why I believe Pollan is on the right track towards making a healthier choice on the way our food is cultivated and