More on the Food Economy

To the editor:

I was excited to see Mark Bittman draw attention to the plight of workers in the food supply-chain, who "labor in difficult, even deplorable, conditions." Yet, in reading further, I discovered that he seems to think these bad conditions end when food leaves the farm or the packinghouse. The continuing growth of low-wage jobs handling food in restaurants, supermarkets, and "big box" stores refutes this.

Bittman's bias towards home food production - indeed, the fourth idea in his "manifesto" is to "encourage and subsidize home cooking" - both ignores the prevailing trend in production of meals and blinds him to badly-needed reforms. His bias is perhaps understandable (he is, after all, an author of recipes for the home cook), but to pose a return to home production of food is as a solution is both unrealistic - because increased time devoted to home cooking would almost certainly mean a reduction of job hours, family income, and national productivity - and utopian - because it simply "wishes away" the reality of low-wage jobs in foodservice and retail.