Green For President

Green for President Occupy Big Food rally in New York City We’ve always said here that gardening is political, a way of opting out of a culture that pushes us to live lives powered entirely by fossil fuels and processed substances that bear only the slightest relationship to actual food. Food is political, as Michael Pollan has been telling us for years, and as the Occupy Wall Street movement asserted last year. So it’s very nice that the Green Party has just fielded its first candidate to quality for federal matching funds, an internist named Jill Stein. And based on an interview that appeared in the New York Times yesterday, I certainly like her.  Whereas I find most health care pros are pretty focused on pharmaceuticals and not so much on eating well, Stein actually cooks, and cooks organic, as a good Green should.  According to the Times, she is running because she “grew impatient with the social and environmental roots of disease.” She is also very funny on the subject of professional politicians.  Asked what it was like to debate Mitt Romney, as she did when she ran unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts in 2002, she said,  “It’s easy to debate a robot.”  Here’s hoping she gets to debate him again this year. • Email to a friend • Article Search • View comments • Track comments •