Michael Pollan’s New Aphorism

by tristero

I recently attended a talk by food movement advocate and journalist Michael Pollan and was going to tell you all about it. But why should I when Pollan gave an interview to Amy Goodman where he said exactly the same thing?

Pollan is well known for his pithy observations and aphorisms such as: “Eat food, not too much. Mostly plants” and also for his “rule” – deliberately tongue-in-cheek, sort of – not to eat any processed food with more than 5 ingredients. Problem is, Pollan is not only read by sympathizers but also by the food industry who are brilliant at co-opting and transforming perfectly reasonable ideas – eating locally, for example – into marketing slogans for their lousy food. So, with this in mind, Pollan has introduced a new aphorism which he thinks will put the kibosh on their plans, namely:

Don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised.

Clever guy, but that won’t stop our intrepid marketeers. Well cultivated and seeded word of mouth, viral marketing, and product placement in vegetable/fruit aisles will do the trick nicely.

Still, props to Pollan for trying.