The Omnivore's Dilemma Part 14

Eat Well ( (www.eatwellguide.com) is an online source of sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs. Enter your zip code to find healthful, humane, and eco-friendly products from farms, stores, and restaurants in your area.

Eat Wild ( (www.eatwild.com) lists local suppliers for gra.s.s-fed meat and dairy products.

The Edible Schoolyard ( (www.edibleschoolyard.org) started as a one-acre garden and kitchen cla.s.sroom at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California, and now has a small network of affiliate schools.

Food Routes ( (www.foodroutes.org) is a national nonprofit dedicated to "reintroducing Americans to their food-the seeds it grows from, the farmers who produce it, and the routes that carry it from the fields to our tables."

Jamie Oliver: School Dinners ( (www.jamieoliver.com/school-dinners) is the chef's website devoted to his campaign for better and healthier school meals.

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture ( (www.leopold.iastate.edu ) "explores and cultivates alternatives that secure healthier people and landscapes in Iowa and the nation." ) "explores and cultivates alternatives that secure healthier people and landscapes in Iowa and the nation."

Local Harvest ( (www.localharvest.com) helps you connect with local farmers, CSAs, and farmers' markets.

Mycolog ( (www.mycolog.com) includes a variety of fascinating mushroom facts.

National Family Farm Coalition ( (www.nffc.net) is an organization to help support the livelihood of food producers, and feed the world's people within their own borders.

Pesticide Action Network ( (www.panna.org) promotes the elimination of dangerous pesticides and offers solutions that protect people and the environment.

Sky Vegetables ( (www.skyvegetables.com) builds and maintains sustainable gardens on rooftops.

Slow Food USA ( (www.slowfood.com) supports good, clean, and fair food while preserving traditional methods of preparation and farming.

Spoons Across America ( (www.spoonsacrossamerica.org) is a national non-profit that promotes and organizes children's culinary education.

Sustainable Table ( (www.sustainabletable.org) offers a variety of excellent resources on local, sustainable, and community-based food, including special features for teachers and educators.

The Vertical Farm Project ( (www.verticalfarm.com) promotes indoor farming in urban settings.

Weston A. Price Foundation ( (www.westonaprice.org) is an archive of information on the sorts of traditional whole-food diets advocated by Weston A. Price. Local chapters are good resources for finding some of the best pastured animal foods.

W.K. Kellogg Foundation ( (www.wkkf.org) helps fund some great initiatives surrounding food att.i.tudes and food policy-look at "Food and Society" and "Food and Fitness."

VIDEO.

Nourish is a public television program, aimed at high school students and narrated by Cameron Diaz, that looks at our relations.h.i.+p to food from a global perspective, connecting our food choices to the environment and to our health. is a public television program, aimed at high school students and narrated by Cameron Diaz, that looks at our relations.h.i.+p to food from a global perspective, connecting our food choices to the environment and to our health.

Fresh by Ana Jones is an inspiring look at the burgeoning movement to reform our food system. by Ana Jones is an inspiring look at the burgeoning movement to reform our food system.

Food Inc. is an investigative doc.u.mentary by filmmaker Robert Kenner about industrial farming and its effect on our health. is an investigative doc.u.mentary by filmmaker Robert Kenner about industrial farming and its effect on our health.

What's on Your Plate is a doc.u.mentary by Catherine Gund that follows two girls from New York City as they explore their place in the food chain. is a doc.u.mentary by Catherine Gund that follows two girls from New York City as they explore their place in the food chain.

King Corn is a doc.u.mentary featuring two East Coast college grads who move to the Midwest to plant an acre of corn and follow it all the way to the dinner plate. is a doc.u.mentary featuring two East Coast college grads who move to the Midwest to plant an acre of corn and follow it all the way to the dinner plate.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

I HAD A LOT OF HELP IN THE KITCHEN PREPARING THE THE OMNIVORE'S OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA. DILEMMA.

First to Gerry Marzorati, my longtime friend and editor at the New York Times Magazine New York Times Magazine, who first suggested five years ago that I spend some time writing about food for the magazine. Unbeknownst to either of us, he was pointing me down the path that led to this book.

I am especially grateful to the farmers and the foragers I write about here. George Naylor in Iowa, Joel Salatin in Virginia, and Angelo Garro in California were my food-chain Virgils, helping me to follow the food from earth to plate and to navigate the omnivore's dilemma. All three gave unstintingly of their time, their wisdom, and their always excellent company. Thanks, too, to the hunters and gatherers who graciously welcomed so rank an amateur on their expeditions: Anthony Ta.s.sinello, Ben Baily, Bob Carrou, Richard Hylton, Jean-Pierre Moulle, Sue Moore, and David Evans.

In educating myself on food and agriculture, I've incurred a great many debts. Among my most generous and influential teachers have been: Joan Gussow, Marion Nestle, Fred Kirschenmann, Alice Waters, Todd Dawson, Paul Rozin, Wes Jackson, and Wendell Berry. Thanks also, for information and insight, to Bob Scowcroft, Allan Nation, Kelly Brownell, Ricardo Salvador, Carlo Petrini, Jo Robinson, David Arora, Ignacio Chapela, Miguel Altieri, Peter Hoffman, Dan Barber, Drew and Myra Goodman, Bill Niman, Gene Kahn, and Eliot Coleman.

Many people supported the writing of this book in other ways. In California, Michael Schwarz generously read the ma.n.u.script and offered timely encouragement and helpful suggestions, reminding me what a good editor he was before he forsook print for television. In Berkeley, the faculty, staff, and students of the Graduate School of Journalism, and in particular Dean Orville Sch.e.l.l, have created a stimulating and supportive community in which to do this work. Mark Danner, an old friend and once again a colleague, has, as ever, provided a valuable sounding board. The students in my food chain cla.s.s have taught me more than they probably realize about these issues over the past few years. Mesa Refuge, in Point Reyes Station, provided the perfect setting in which to write and research a key chapter. And the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has supported my research in crucial ways.

I'm especially grateful to Chad Heeter, for his dogged research and fact-checking, not to mention his willingness to accompany me on a futile quest to gather salt in San Francis...o...b..y. Nathanael Johnson, Felicia Mello, and Elena Conis nailed down several elusive facts just when it looked like they might get away. My a.s.sistant, Jaime Gross, contributed to this project in many ways, but I'm particularly grateful for her superb research and fact-checking.

In New York, I'm grateful for the excellent work and good cheer of Liza Darnton, Kate Griggs, Sarah Hutson, and Tracy Locke at the Penguin Press, my publis.h.i.+ng home. Thanks to Liz Farrell at ICM. At the New York Times Magazine New York Times Magazine, where some of the material in this book first appeared, I've profited handsomely from the superb editing of Paul Tough and Alex Star and (before they moved on to other magazines) Adam Moss and Dan Zalewski.

In a publis.h.i.+ng industry not known for loyalty or continuity, I've been blessed by the constancy of both my editor and agent. This is the fourth book of mine that Ann G.o.doff has edited, albeit at three different houses. At this point I can't imagine doing a book with anyone else, which is probably why I keep following her around Manhattan. Her moral, intellectual, emotional, and financial support is a critical ingredient in the making of this book. This is also the fourth book of mine represented by Amanda Urban, a verb that doesn't come close to capturing everything she does to keep me whole and on the proper path.

Speaking of constancy, this is also the fourth time I've relied on Mark Edmundson to read and comment on a book ma.n.u.script; as ever, his editorial and reading suggestions, as well as his literary judgment, have been invaluable. This time around, he (and his family) contributed in another way as well, by joining me for one of the meals chronicled in these pages. Thanks to Liz, Willie, and Matthew for their gameness, good appet.i.te, and hospitality.

But the prize for gameness in the pursuit of a book chapter must go to Judith, who shared the two meals that bookend the book-the McDonald's cheeseburger at one end and the wild boar at the other-and so much more. A book becomes a sometimes disagreeable member of the family for a period of years, but Judith treated this one with patience, understanding, and good humor. Far more crucial to the book, though, has been her editing. Since I first began publis.h.i.+ng, Judith has been my indispensable first reader, and there's no one whose instincts about writing I trust more.

Last but no longer least is Isaac. This is the first book Isaac has been old enough and sufficiently interested in to actually help me with. His own approach to food-Isaac is the pickiest eater I know- has taught me a great deal about the omnivore's dilemma. Though he declined to taste the boar, Isaac's contribution to this book-coming in the form of smart suggestions, stimulating conversations at the dinner table, and, on the bad days, the best comfort a father could wish for-has been more precious than he can know. Thank you.

I had further help creating this young reader's edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma The Omnivore's Dilemma. Richie Chevat did a masterful job of adapting the book for a new generation of readers, streamlining a complex narrative without ever over-simplifying it-not an easy feat. Malia Wollan, my research a.s.sistant, contributed to the project in so many ways: gathering and researching all the new visual material, reading and commenting on each draft, and working tirelessly to insure the book's accuracy. Alisha Niehaus, the book's editor, somehow managed to keep the project, with its many chefs and moving parts, right on track. I'm grateful for her skillful editing, unwavering enthusiasm, and faith in both the book and its audience. Thanks also to Shanta Nevlin, for getting the word out so skillfully, and to Jasmin Rubero, for her design, and her imagination in giving visual expression to all this information.