Michael Pollan reiterates one of his many good points about buying local and less processed food in the following MSN interview excerpt.
He also mentions Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and farmer's markets.
http://www.louisvillecsa.com/
(This interview is much better than the usual articles at MSN!)
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Q: How do you educate their palates and inspire people on a taste level to seek out organic and local cuisine?
Michael Pollan:
One of the ways people learn about food is going to good restaurants, where the chefs show you what can be done with an artichoke or an organic chicken breast. It’s one place to expose yourself to new flavors and new experiences. I think that your palate gets conditioned by what you eat. Salt is a great example. Those of us who eat a lot of processed food are conditioned to outrageous amounts of salt. The reason they put so much salt in processed foods, besides the fact that it’s appealing, is it makes up for the lack of flavor. Because when you process food, you’re removing flavor. I defy anyone to go to the farmer’s market, eat a well-grown carrot and think “God, I’d rather eat a French fry from McDonald’s” It’s just a far better experience. Before you assume that you’re not going to enjoy something, you should try it at its best. There are farmers today who have such skill and have learned to grow foods so well—when it’s fresh and it’s picked right, it’s a richer experience than any kind of processed food you can have.
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More of the interview:
http://lifestyle.msn.com/green/greenart ... id=6463090