An Eater's Manifesto
January 22, 2008
A New York Times ad for Michael Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, had a good subtitle for the book's January third release: "A New Way to Eat in the New Year." The ad then listed 12 rules from the book, which I will reprint here:
1. Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
2. Avoid foods containing ingredients you can't pronounce.
3. Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot.
4. Avoid food products that carry health claims.
5. Shop the peripheries of the supermarket; stay out of the middle.
6. Better yet, buy food somewhere else - the farmer's market or CSA (Community Supported Agriculture).
7. Pay more, eat less.
8. Eat a wide diversity of species.
9. Eat food from animals that eat grass.
10. Cook and, if you can, grow some of your own food.
11. Eat meals and eat them only at tables.
12. Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.
Three things that must be said about this ad:
1. The punctuation is excellent. Few people today know how to use a colon and semicolon.
2. The advice is excellent. Longtime Early to Rise readers know these rules.
3. Spelling out all the advice is a risky marketing proposition. I am tempted to read the book because it is clearly a good, smart book. But I have the rules. Do I need the book?
Kudos to Michael Pollan and his publisher.
posted by M. Masterson @ 8:11 AM,
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