Food for thought.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Editorial

Nothing is more basic to our lives than the food we eat. In this issue, we bring together writers and thinkers on various aspects of food and agriculture. Marc Eisen writes about the paradox of success in one of the nation's fastest growing organic farm cooperatives, Organic Valley. David Helvarg, executive director of Blue Frontier, an ocean conservation group, takes on the future of aquaculture in an age when we are pulling 850 aircraft carriers worth of aquatic life out of the sea every year.

From Hawaii, Paul Koberstein covers the GMO industry's attack on scientists. You may have noticed the spate of stories in the mainstream media that dismiss consumers who worry about genetically modified food as overcautious and paranoid about their health. That industry-supported line cleverly changes the subject, from the damaging environmental impact of GMO crops and the heavy use of pesticides they require to individual human health effects, which are hard to prove. Koberstein reveals how the companies that finance much university research have muddied the waters, and how they have targeted scientists who raise questions about the technological miracle of GMOs.

Renegade lunch lady Chef Ann Cooper explains why we shouldn't leave poor kids alone in the cafeteria line. Restaurant worker organizer Saru Jayaraman discusses the way food workers have galvanized the labor movement. Diet for a Small Planet author Frances Moore Lappe talks about her vision for a more just and sustainable food culture.

My dear friend Jessica Prentice, who lived with me when we were little kids in our parents' graduate-student commune in the late 1960s in Madison, went on to coin the...