Pollan argues that over the years, Federal food policy helped create an industrial agricultural system with dire consequences at home and abroad. Food policy influences healthcare costs, domestic security, international relations and immigration. And though food policy wasn't a campaign issue, Pollan believes Americans understand the importance of food and are already pushing for change, noting:

The American people are paying more attention to food today than they have in decades, worrying not only about its price but about its safety, its provenance and its healthfulness. There is a gathering sense among the public that the industrial-food system is broken. Markets for alternative kinds of food - organic, local, pasture-based, humane - are thriving as never before. All this suggests that a political constituency for change is building and not only on the left: lately, conservative voices have also been raised in support of reform. Writing of the movement back to local food economies, traditional foods (and family meals) and more sustainable farming, The American Conservative magazine editorialized last summer that "this is a conservative cause if ever there was one."

We cannot possibly list all the groups experimenting urban farming, food sustainability, access, reform and education. You can check out some projects on blogs like City Farmer News. Below are just a few organizations working in very different parts of the country towards similar goals: changing America's relationship with food.

Allen purchased a dilapidated farm on the north side of Milwaukee — the last registered farm in the city — and began recruiting local teens as farmhands. Soon, Allen helped found Growing Power to teach the skills and techniques of urban farming to anyone who was interested. The organization he's helped build now runs urban farms in Milwaukee, Chicago and surrounding areas. They grow food for local communities and restaurants, and train thousands of aspiring urban farmers from the United States and abroad.

Allen's vision is as holistic as his farming methods, placing urban farms at the center of healthy, food-secure communities. In many inner-cities, Allen sees "food deserts," communities without grocery stores or access to fresh produce. Residents in these underserved areas experience all the health and social problems that come from poor nutrition and unhealthy diets. Scientific studies have born out Allen's hunch, finding that a person's proximity to fresh food sources and fast food is a good predictor of their health. If someone lives close to fast food, and far from grocery stores and other sources of fresh produce, as many urban residents do, they are more likely to suffer diet-related ailments. Allen believes urban farms and strong community food systems can provide underserved communities with jobs, healthy food and a strong sense of community. "Food is at the foundation," Allen has said, "But it's really about life."

Will Allen recently won the prestigious "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation — half a million dollars with no strings attached. Allen has said he hopes Growing Power can leverage the award to help the organization achieve its goals, and that he'd like to use the money to build a five-story, off-the-grid farming and education center to spread his message and knowledge.

>Watch a video from a Growing Power training.

One other vast monoculture dominates America's landscape, costing $30 billion dollars annually, and producing no food, no raw material — in fact, nothing of utilitarian use at all. Grass. According to estimates from a 2005 NASA study conducted by Cristina Milesi, Americans cultivate at least 50,000 square miles of grass for traditional lawns, golf-courses and parks, making grass the number one crop in America. Grass consumes huge amounts of water, chemical fertilizers, and fuel. Milesi estimates our nations lawn lands use as much as 200 gallons of water per person, per day. And a well-watered, well-fertilized lawn uses more carbon than it produces unless the owner recycles the grass clippings.

This is just part of what Fritz Haeg thinks about when he sees miles of front lawns. Haeg, an artist living in Los Angeles, sees many things in lawns: wasted space; lifeless chemical-ridden soil; a sanitized, anti-social barrier between neighbors; but he also sees potential.

Haeg wants Americans to think about their lawns and what else they could be, so he created "Edible Estates." With support from local museums and arts organizations, Haeg works with volunteer families to replace their grass with prototype organic gardens, customized to be highly productive in their community's growing region. The families agree to maintain their living works of art, which are both food sources and challenges to the lawn status quo. To document the project and spread the conversation, Haeg has created numerous materials, including a Web site, a book and a video featuring the Foti family. The Fotis live in Lakewood, California, which was constructed in the 1950s and considered by many to be archetypic post-WWII suburb. Watch the video below.

Alice Waters has long argued that a new relationship with food should begin in the kitchen. An influential chef and sustainable food advocate, Waters newest cookbook, THE ART OF SIMPLE FOOD, is a road map to her ideal lifestyle — sustainable, fresh, healthy food. Like Allen and Haeg, she sees food as central, but from her own angle; she's dubbed hers a "delicious revolution."

And though her restaurant, Chez Panisse, is world famous, her advocacy reaches beyond fine dining. She founded The Edible Schoolyard to provide urban school children with access to an organic garden and teach them the connection between kitchen and gardening skills, what the organization refers to as "ecoliteracy." In early 2008, Waters received the Harvard Medical School's "Global Environmental Citizen Award" for her work on behalf of sustainable food. Below you can watch a video of her accepting the award.

And, also like Haeg, Waters has set her sites on lawns. Or, rather, one very large and influential lawn — at the White House. Waters wants to see an organic garden, grown on White House grounds, feed our presidents and their families. It's an idea that dates back to the Victory Gardens of WWII, when Eleanor Roosevelt planted a garden to help the war effort. Twenty million Americans followed suit, and at their height, Victory Gardens supplied 40% of America's domestic food supply. Waters wants future presidents to lead the way to greater ecoliteracy. She's inspired a new generation of advocates like Daniel Bowman Simon and Casey Gustowarow.

Simon and Gustowarow were so captivated by the idea of a farm at the White House that they started a cross country trip to raise awareness. Traveling in a converted school bus, dubbed the "White House Organic Farm Mobile", or WhoFarmMobile, they are gathering signatures for a petition they'll present to Barack Obama when he takes office as the President.

Published November 28, 2008.

Guest photos by Robin Holland