Chapter Two

The Garden-to-

Kitchen Connection

I

n the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, the United States male and

female relay race teams both dropped the baton and were disqualifi ed. During

the past two generations, since perhaps the early 1970s, we have dropped

another two batons: home cooking and the kitchen garden.

I need no detailed statistics to back up this claim, only a simple observation

of the way most of us live, even as I tried to follow and teach a healthier way

to eat.

I have worked with food and public com­

munications every single day for more than 50

years and watched as people appeared to eat

fewer plants that they had grown or cooked

from scratch.

I’m not surprised that our overall health

has worsened! Notwithstanding great sci­

entific leaps in medical intervention, our

level of appropriate preventive behav­

ior has fallen, and the evidence is plain for

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