The Food Issue - An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief - Michael Pollan - NYTimes.com:

It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.

And so on, and so on for like 9 pages. I believe I agree with every word of it. Someone should put Michael Pollan in charge of the whole lot and get the US to start thinking about food again. Oh, and Victory Gardens! He wants to bring them back. Sounds good to me.