Food industry and trade

The Food Network draws more viewers than any of the cable news channels, but Americans are actually cooking less than ever. Food-culture writer Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) ponders the phenomenon.

From food scientists who study the human palate to maximize consumer bliss, to marketing campaigns that target teens to hook them for life on a brand, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Moss' new books goes inside the world of processed, packaged foods.

One-third of American today are obese, and another third are overweight. A new HBO documentary series, The Weight of the Nation, explores how our country got this way and what can be done to tackle the growing national health crisis.

Filmmaker Robert Kenner explores the underbelly of America's food industry — and the health consequences of its food-supply stranglehold — in his documentary Food, Inc.

In an open letter to the next president, author Michael Pollan writes about the waning health of America's food systems — and warns that "the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close."

Writer Michael Pollan's new book, The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World (Random House) takes a look at four plants cultivated by humans: the apple, the tulip, potatoes and marijuana. Pollan demonstrates that plants and humans have developed a reciprocal, co-evolutionary relationship: do we plant potatoes, or do potatoes seduce us into planting them? Pollan questions the assumption that we are in charge of our agriculture.