The Issue of Eating Locally Appears in This Week’s Time Magazine (With Quotes From Yours Truly…)

The current issue of Time Magazine, which just came out this morning, contains a lot of really neat articles about food, eating, health, family meals pasture-raised beef, and eating locally. For regular readers of this blog, the topics covered by Time in this series of articles makes it something worth looking into, and I highly recommend picking up a copy the next time you are at your local bookstore, newstand or grocery store.

One of the articles, “The Lure of the 100-Mile Diet” is about eating locally, and while it didn’t come out during the month of May, eating locally isn’t something that should be talked about just one month of the year, during the Eat Local Challenge. It is an enduring concern of those of us who want to support more sustainable methods and means of agriculture.

Now that the article is done and out, I can ‘fess up to having been contacted by the reporter who wrote the story, and being interviewed. Margot Roosevelt asked very probing, thought-provoking questions, and I was very happy with her treatment of the subject, which because of the print space she was allotted, was concise, but very thorough and not shallow.

While it doesn’t appear in the online version of the article, a photograph of me was taken by a Time photographer to add to the print story; as I have not had a chance to run out and pick up a copy, I do not know if it actually made it into the issue. But, if it did, and if everyone is terribly curious about what I look like–you can pick up a copy of this week’s Time and find out!

I won’t talk about the experience of the photo session just yet, because I want to highlight the other interesting articles in Time this week right now. Later, I’ll talk about how it felt to be photographed and interviewed by folks from one of the premier news magazines out there.

So, what other fascinating articles are in Time this time around?

Michael Pollan, author of the book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, presents “Six Rules For Eating Wisely,” which includes the sage advice, “Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” Amen to that!

“The Magic of the Family Meal” takes up the issue I have talked about many times in this blog–why family meals are good for kids and parents, while Margot Roosevelt takes on “The Grassfed Revolution,” and talks about why pasture-raised beef is better for the cows, the diners and the environment. In “Rethinking First Foods,” reporter Pamela Paul looks into the issue of what are the best first solid foods for babies to eat in order to help promote healthy eating habits for the future.

Amanda Bower looks at two communities and how they managed to change school lunches from bastions of fat, salt and sugar into nutritional powerhouses loaded with fresh food while getting the kids to eat and like the new foods in “Retooling School Lunch.”

Another issue that I have been ruminating on for years, is the question of why some diets and nutrients work better for some people more than others, is covered by “Does My Diet Fit My Genes?”, while “Catering to the Melting Pot” shows how chain restaurant The Cheesecake Factory has strongly influenced the way that Americans eat and has introduced ethnic foods to the mainstream.

“How Sweet it Isn’t” takes on sugar substitutes and why they aren’t necessarily making Americans thinner, while “2 Thin Chefs” examines why Giada De Laurentis and Suzanne Goin, while they are surrounded by temptation every day, still manage to remain “vanishingly thin.”

There is even more in the issue that are related to food, eating and health, but I think I gave you the major highlights. I think it that it is really worth running out and picking up a copy, and not just because my fifteen minutes of fame are contained therein!

18 Comments

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1. Time is not my usual reading but you’ve talked about issues in which I’m very interested. I’ll be reading this one. Thanks for the heads up.
   And I’d like to see your picture.

   Comment by tanna — June 5, 2006 #

2. […]  Also, kudos to Barbara from one of my favorite foodie reads, Tigers and Strawberries, for her quotes in another article in the issue focusing on the Locavore movement!  […]

   Pingback by Locals Only — June 5, 2006 #

3. Very, very cool. Of course I want to get the magazine, and not just to see what you look like either!

   Comment by kalyn — June 5, 2006 #

4. May 2006 Eat Local Challenge: Conclusions

   So May has come and gone and the challenge is over. I’m afraid I wasn’t as energetic as I could have been seeking out new sources of local food. And I think the people at the market think I’m seriously nutty. (“Eet’s that woman who always asks whe…

   Trackback by Too Many Chefs — June 5, 2006 #

5. I’d planned on stopping by on my way home this afternoon, Barbara. I was going to stop to pick up a couple things on the way. I’ll try to pick a copy of Time up for you.

   Excited to have a friend in Time magazine! I know all sorts of celebrities now it seems! 😉

   I was actually stopping by because you hadn’t posted to your blog in days, and that’s so unlike you. Was just kinda worried. Glad to see your that your at least alive, (hopefully well.)

   See ya later!

   -Dan

   Comment by Dan — June 5, 2006 #

6. Tanna–I think that this issue will be well worth your time!

   Kalyn–I couldn’t resist mentioning that for those who want to know what I look like bit, as I am notoriously averse to having my photograph taken!

   Dan–I am okay now, but for the past three days, have been sick off and on. We went to Columbus shopping on Friday (I finally had to break down and buy maternity clothes–and yes, I am finally showing), and while there, I ate something that did not agree with me. So, off and on for the past few days, I have been very sick and very tired.

   I am pretty much allright now, though.

   The issue will be on the stands tomorrow, btw!

   Looking forward to seeing you!

   Comment by Barbara — June 5, 2006 #

7. Props to you being in Time! I’ll try to pick up a copy!

   Comment by Garrett — June 5, 2006 #

8. How exciting, and so deserving! Mucho kudos to you!

   Comment by Kirk — June 5, 2006 #

9. Looks interesting; I’ll have to pick up a copy.

   “Don’t eat anything your great-great-great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”

   Given that my great-great-great grandmother was probably a German farm woman and I mostly eat Thai, Indian, and Middle Eastern goods…she wouldn’t recognize a great deal of my diet. But I do agree with the sentiment, hypothesizing a more adventurous ancestor. I do like Michael Pollan.

   I’m not sure about the “2 Chefs” article. I don’t really want to be “vanishingly thin,” and the thought of eating only appetizer-plate meals is pretty horrifying to me (I graze anyway, since I’m hypoglycemic, but I don’t buy that salad plates are a “normal” portion anymore than supersizing is). I don’t eat a lot, but I eat more than that and I like being not hungry.

   I think the real key is that they’re eating good food. Good food is satisfying, so you’re less likely to keep eating because you feel something’s missing. But we do idolize “self-control” in our society, even when maybe we shouldn’t, so I suppose emphasizing portion control is more in keeping with American ideals.

   Comment by Mel — June 5, 2006 #

10. Just found your blog through a friend’s links blog. I’ve added you to my daily reading list.

    As someone else suggested, Time is not my normal reading fare, but I’m going to seek this issue and purchase it. Part of why is that the clients who come to our (pain relief) clinic do trust mainstream publications and will believe from it the things they find dubious from us. For example: sugar substitutes (with the possible exception of NON-corn based xylitol) = bad news. The differences between sugar sources, etc.

    Thanks for being here!

    Dot

    Comment by Dot — June 6, 2006 #

11. I’ll have to go out and buy one–usually I read Time when I’m at the hairdresser or the dentist.
    Certainly Time couldn’t have picked anyone who could better articulate what local eating is all about.

    Comment by lucette — June 6, 2006 #

12. Congratulations Barbara! It is nice to see good work recognized. I read the whole story on line – but – sadly, no picture. Will have to find a magazine for that.

    Comment by Maureen — June 6, 2006 #

13. You look great in that picture. The food looks nice too. Way to go!

    Comment by mzn — June 6, 2006 #

14. Congratulations Barbara!

    We have stopped our subscription to Times just recently. But I won’t miss a chance to see and read about my favorite blogger in MSM, in a million years.:) Congrats once again!

    Comment by Indira — June 6, 2006 #

15. Hello, everyone–thanks for the congratulations–they mean a great deal to me.

    What is most exciting about this whole thing isn’t just that I am in Time–of course that is a good ego boost, but what makes me happiest is the fact that the Eat Local ideals and movement are gaining a wider audience through Time Magazine. It would have been nice to have my blog linked to Time, but what -really- matters to me is that I can provide words and a face for eating locally that shows it to be something that more people can be involved in than just folks in the Bay Area. The fact that I am in Ohio–a red state–goes far in de-marginalizing the movement. Lots of folks get the idea that it is all hippy dippy radicals eating locally–but we aren’t. We are just people who care deeply about food–and that is neither a red or blue state phenominon.

    (Now the truth of the issue is that Athens Ohio is an island of blue in a sea of red, but the article makes no mention of that wee fact.)

    Mel–I had to laugh when I read your comment–my great grandmothers probably would look very askance at the Indian, Thai and Chinese food I eat every day, too! That is a great point, and one that deserves mention, though I understand that idea of what Pollan is saying. Some of the vibrantly artificially colored, processed foods that come in tubes and boxes and bags would not likely be recognized by most of our ancestors as being food.

    As for the 2 Thin Chefs article–it is funny–when I put a link to it, I hadn’t read it yet. If I had, I probably would not have linked to it. I figured it was going to be about how chefs work such long hours and are so busy they don’t really eat much and they burn a ton of calories–that was my experience of chefs in culinary school. Most of them ate very little out of habit, and while it is stereotypical for chefs to be seen as big, jolly round people, very few of the ones I worked with fit that image. Most of them were trim, fit, average in size or thin, and it is because of the tremendous energy they burned doing their jobs–it is physically demanding work, and it shows.

    But then, I don’t count Giada as a chef anyway. She is a good cook who has written books and is a TV star. A different thing altogether.

    She also looks anorexic to me…but that is a side issue. I really hated the way that article was written–it was borderline sexist.

    Dot–welcome! I am happy to have you here!

    Yes, what you say is true–people will take information from “authoritative” sources like Time better than they will from people who probably know as much but don’t appear as “authoritative.” Which is why I am so thrilled they are covering these issues in a big way and bringing them to the average American home.

    Thanks, Michael–I am very pleased with how the photograph turned out. It is rare to get a really good photo of me, because I hate to have my picture taken. But, Ted, the photographer, was great, and he kept me laughing, which made it all so much easier.

    The food styling was all me. 😉 And the delicious Athens produce from the Farmers Market.

    Indira–thank you! Now you finally get to see what all of me looks like, not just my eyes up above a kitten’s head. 😉

    Comment by Barbara — June 7, 2006 #

16. Ha !!! Congrats, that totally sounds like a ton of fun. Glad they picked you cause you know stuff and talk as though you’re smart.
    Time Magazine, that’s awesome.

    Ya know, even though I’m not all that inspired about the eating local action, I have to say I’d rather read about that than another one about this new thing called charcuterie.
    I recently was interviewed by a semi-large local paper’s food & wine department about said topic. And I was thinking, “Isn’t this like totally 2003?”
    Plus he’d never read Meathenge so he was completely in the dark as to why he was talking to me. Feh.

    Sigh.

    Comment by Dr. Biggles — June 7, 2006 #

17. Hello, Dr! Good to see you again!

    I do try to talk like I am smart and say, you know, intelligent sounding things anyway. It is just how I am. There are exceptions, like the time I said, “That’s back when everyone had grandmothers,” but generally, when I hold forth on a subject, I do try and do it, and myself credit.

    Charcuterie is new? But, like hasn’t humanity been practicing that art since, like, I don’t know, since there was meat, guts, salt and smoke? Or, am I wrong again? Wow. New?

    But then, eating locally isn’t really new, either…it just seems that way. I grew up eating that way, being a farmer’s granddaughter and all.

    A reporter talked to you, but didn’t know why? Wow. Journalism schools must be graduating anyone these days. (Says a former reporter….)

    Comment by Barbara — June 7, 2006 #

18. Barbara,
    Congrats!

    I’ve been trying to eat locally as well (in France) and told my husband no more bananas from Madagascar. My sister mentioned it in her car column as well.
    http://www.metroactive.com/metro/05.10.06/rev-0619.html
    One of her professors is Michael Pollen.

    I’ve read your blog for a long time and thought that I would finally comment. Thanks for your insight on so many issues.

    Best,
    Riana

    Comment by Riana — June 8, 2006 #

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