On Food and Cooking

availability in ethnic markets. Yet another, at
the opposite extreme, was the rediscovery of
the traditional system of food production and
its pleasures: eating locally grown foods,
often forgotten “heirloom” or other unusual
varieties, that were harvested a matter of
hours beforehand, then sold at farmers’
markets by the people who grew them. Allied
to this trend was the growing interest in
“organic” foods, produced without relying on
the modern array of chemicals for controlling
pests and disease. Organic practices mean
different things to different people, and don’t
guarantee either safer or more nutritious foods
— agriculture is more complicated than that.
But they represent an essential, prominent
alternative to industrial farming, one that
encourages attention to the quality of
agricultural produce and the sustainability of
agricultural practices.
These are good times for curious and
adventurous eaters. There are many forgotten