;)

Dear Chef,

You know I adore you. You know I love and relate to your ad hoc cooking philosophy, the way you teach how to cook not necessarily what to cook and, mostly, and your spice pantry. But today, when you alluded to the reasons chickens no longer require marinade for tenderness with nothing more than a wink and a smile and a "Let's just say today's chickens aren't the same as grandma's chickens" well, let's just say I lost a little respect for you -wink smile.

I don't think the fact that chickens no longer have room to move and are, in fact, engineered to not be able to move, is anything to wink and smile about. I think glossing over issues like this is irresponsible. I appreciate that you only get a half hour which is certainly and absolutely not enough time to provide in depth analysis of our current food crisis but surely if your goal is to educate viewers about food you do everyone a great injustice by refusing to address it all.

I know you're not averse to editorializing about food choices. I've seen you advise against high fructose corn syrup, sweetened juices and unhealthy frying practices. You promote fresh, whole ingredients. So why would you not advocate for free range organic chickens? More likely to be ethically raised, nutritionally and ecologically superior free range chickens are just like grandma's chickens were and, while they may be more expensive, do offer an opportunity to exercise our right to nutritionally sound food.

The word idiot comes to us from the ancient Greeks who used it to describe a private person who refused to do his duty and take part in political life. Obviously, Michael, we no longer live in a democracy like the Greeks. Democracy has shifted to a corporatocracy and our political arena is not parliament but the marketplace. The most effective political action and protest we can exercise occurs not at city hall but the shopping mall and, while every product is opportunity to assert our political and social ethos, the most important and, I would argue, efficient place to vote is in the produce aisles. After all, most of us eat three or four times a day, even the most dedicated activists can't say they attend that many protests a day.

But, every time one of your viewers opts for buying a chicken who had room to walk, nest and live with dignity in a natural environment instead of a creature tortured in a factory barn that's exactly what what they're doing. Protesting. And it is an option, and you had that option but you chose not only not to exercise it but not to acknowledge it. And that leaves all of us, including your progeny, one step closer to eating frankenfood. Do you have a recipe for that?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a pig roast to plan. Let's just say, you don't want to get me started. ;)

Regards,
Me

P.S. Pizza soup? Best. Idea. Ever.