I have been saving Michael Pollan’s “Farmer in Chief” from the Times for a quiet moment (estimation: 1 hour) when I could devote myself. It’s worth the read (actual: 37 minutes). I was disappointed by his impractical and whimsical close to The Omnivore’s Dilemma so much so that I skipped In Defense of Food. In this proposal to Washington, Pollan redeems himself, breaking down his “sun-food agenda” which posits that we return to a sun-based food system. Regardless of the practicality of his measures and the length at which he describes them, our current economy necessitates change. Even if you’re simply waiting for a better tomorrow, it is important to have a prospective picture of what that will look like.

For cliff notes, here is Michael Ruhlman’s concise summary.

My mother says I used to sneak sticks of butter behind the sofa and chomp on ‘em like Snickers. I had a period when I ate mayonnaise straight out of the jar, during my teething phase I loved frozen peas, and since I can remember I enjoyed eating whole lemons. Before I was three, I liked spicy food (my dad is Indian), but once I was old enough to understand the responsibility of a half white kid, I sadly swore off all Indian to “fit in.”

My mother is amazing with food. When I was little, she made everything from scratch. I ate leftovers from her dinner and homemade baby food, both flattened with a fork, of course. When she was pregnant with me she tended a vegetable garden and fed herself only fresh, organic food.

People prefer not to discuss their eating habits. Now that I’m a student of food, I’m finding that even the most vocal meat lovers become suddenly shy at the table with me, and equally so do the vegetarians. The thought of me judging their diet is just as unsettling as any actual argument I might have. I’ve found most people still consider diet a personal choice like birth control, not a public one like religion.

Prior to the 1970′s, philosophers didn’t find the subject of food ethically compelling. Most only touched on it when discussing how best to nourish the body. In today’s culture, Americans are slowly gaining awareness of the political impact of a single trip to the grocery store. They are also starting to look more realistically at the topic of health, beyond the continuously changing landscape of fad dieting. Equally though, the number of obese and diabetic Americans is rapidly increasing. In light of factory farming and industrial agriculture, modern philosophers like Australian-born ethicist Peter Singer are now writing critically on the implications of our diets.