Getting into the news through the back door

Writer Charlotte Allen wrote a scathing column for the Los Angeles Times last week about a new food movement in the United States aimed toward more sustainable and socially responsible consumption.

Titled "Keep your self-righteous fingers off my processed food," the article takes to task "social critics (who) inform us that we're actually spending too little for the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the furniture we sit on and the gasoline that runs our automobiles." The concept, Allen suggests, goes way beyond Marie Antoinette saying "let them eat cake."

The Allen column generated many outraged letters to the editor, including one from the director of UC Cooperative Extension in Ventura County, Rose Hayden-Smith.

"I am one of the 'social critics' Allen writes of in her opinion article," Hayden-Smith declared.

She acknowledged that processed food may be the cheapest choice, but the hidden costs are high.

"Consider the obesity epidemic in our nation, and the economic impact and human suffering caused by mostly preventable chronic diseases, such as diabetes," Hayden-Smith wrote. "The space devoted to Allen's article would have been much better used providing useful information about how to put in a home garden."

Hayden-Smith is in Washington, D.C., this week furthering her efforts to encourage a socially responsible food system. Today she is attending a National Food Policy Council Conference and tomorrow she will meet with leaders of national organizations who work on food systems issues. She will also meeting with USDA staff and possibly a member of U.S. Ag Secretary Vilsack’s “Kitchen Cabinet."

On Thursday Hayden-Smith meets with Deputy Ag Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and White House Chef Sam Kass. On Friday, she's being filmed for a video segment on gardening with kids for a new Web site called Earth Parent.

Hayden-Smith plans to write about her Washington, D.C., trip on her Victory Grower blog.