"I don't have the stats in front of me, but I'm certain the relative price of food and its share of consumption expenditures has been falling for a very long time. So Pollan's "cheap food" explanation would have to contend with that."
Frankly, I want to see that data. Prices where I am have been going up...especially in the last three years.
"I have a grudge against him. About 13 years ago, he rejected a piece of mine that Harper's had commissioned because it had "too many ideas" in it (that's a direct quote, not a paraphrase)."
...and Mozart wrote too many notes! That's funny. I had a friend, prof at Berkeley, who submitted an article to the PMLA that was a very clear exposition of Pound's Pisan Cantos. It got rejected because it was too easy to understand...too clear.
Joanna