When I first started this blog, I envisioned a a relaxed, traditional approach to cooking and baking by trying out recipes in my home “test kitchen” (which is most certainly not stocked with the most technologically advanced and expensive instruments) and posting photographs and clear, concise directions—something like an evolving Internet cookbook. But as I’ve come to know the food blogosphere and done substantial research on food news, politics and culture in the United States, I’ve realized I can offer a lot more information and in-depth coverage of a variety of issues here on Simply Sumptuous.

This initiative began with my passing interest and curiosity in the highly publicized, much acclaimed works by Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and more recently, In Defense of Food. The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a concise yet eye-opening inside look at the food industry in America from three different perspectives, the industrial, the pastoral, and the personal, as each represents a unique philosophical, moral and ethical position on the production and consumption of food. Pollan examines each of these positions with respect to the “the omnivore’s dilemma”, which reframes the question of what to eat in its larger nutritional, political, and ecological context, each of which have important, if not dire, ramifications not only for our health but for the health of our society, culture and environment as well.

In the spring, Chancellor Biddy Martin selected In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto as the first book in what can only be described as a call for a campus-wide reading club, the 2009 Go Big Read program. While I admire the initiative itself, I’m not too sure about the semantics of the phrase “Go Big Read”. I understand the command “go read” and I get the connotations of a “big read”, but I’m not sure about “Go Big Read”, unless it is just a shameless pun on “Go Big Red”, which, now that I think about it, is the most likely explanation. I would hope the Center for the Humanties takes this opportunity to centralize, consolidate, and deepen dialogue and debate on all matters related to food.

This is a discussion I would like to continue here on campus as well as within the community at large. I believe this is a topic that deserves more attention, especially considering the unique opportunities in and around Madison—the most visible of which is the Dane County Farmer’s Market.

Starting this week, I’ll be profiling Dane County farmers, showing all of you the people behind the local, seasonal food available in the very center of the city every Saturday. This way, I hope you’ll get to know the people who are dedicated to their trade, even in this era of fast food empires and impressive supermarkets packed with exotic fruits and vegetables year round. I don’t mean to condemn either of these venues, but I do hope to spotlight the many worthy alternatives in Madison.

With this venture, I hope to carry out the imperative to act (eat) local, think global. As for thinking globally, much like an editor, I’ll be collating news bites from media outlets across the nation and organizing them in a format that’s easy to access for anyone who is interested in food news but doesn’t have the time to search out the plenitude of articles published every day.