Taking sides

A couple of things I'm reading, and a Web site that needs to be viewed to be believed. San Francisco-based investigative reporter Chris Cook examines the troubling relationships between the people who make our food and the people who sell it in "Diet for a Dead Planet," published by New Press. A fitting follow-up to Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation," Cook's book offers sobering insight to the world of big agriculture and big supermarkets, and how the small farmer will lose (and has been) every time, unless consumer demand radically changes.

The voice of science (and reason?) defends the potential of genetically modified crops in "Mendel in the Kitchen," authored by Nina Federoff, a molecular biologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences. To feed the Third World, the author argues, advances in GMO crops are not only beneficial, but also necessary. I haven't cracked the book yet, but I'd rather find an anti-GMO tome to read side by side. Recommendations? E-mail me.

And now for the bizarre file: It's not about the chemicals in the coffee, it's about the taste. The gentlemen holding court at the Center for Global Food Issues have unique talents, indeed: it's not easily one can talk of saving the environment with pesticides and plastic and still keep a straight face. You can order their manifesto here.