Opening paragraphs.............

      American food is in crisis, and rarely has more disruption loomed before us.
      People are rebelling against the current food-production methods involving long-distance shipping, fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms.  Many people have returned to eating locally grown food from small farms, and there is a fear that our agricultural practices lead to mass-produced food products that are bad for our health and worsen climate change.  But is this fear well founded?  Is local food a good thing?
      On the other side of the ledger, we are spending more and more on fancy restaurants.  At a time when many economic sectors are struggling, the choices for fine meals are expanding in most American cities.  But are we spending our money in the best way possible, or are we overlooking cheaper and possibly superior alternatives?
     In a world with some pretty big problems, is it even appropriate to think of food in aesthetic terms as much as we do?   The backlash drove a recently published article in the Atlantic Monthly to suggest that foodies are evil for aestheticizing the experience of eating.  But what could be morally wrong with eating good, even beautiful food?

-Tyler Cowen,  An Economist Gets Lunch:  New Rules For Everyday Foodies