Food Politics

America Meets Alice Waters on 60 Minutes

Last night’s 60 Minutes profile of Alice Waters pinned the rise of the organic food movement (and its ubiquity) on the heralded chef. Reporter Lesley Stahl called Waters “gentle and dreamy,” but also “a steamroller” who is pushing to alter food culture in this country. No news to Grub Street readers, but this is likely the first time many Americans have even heard Waters’s name. While it’s hard to imagine the mainstream abandoning microwaves and cooking eggs over a wood-burning stove like Waters, she did counter charges of food elitisim. “I feel that good food should be a right and not a privilege and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides. And everybody deserves this food. And that’s not elitist,” she said. At the end of the piece, Waters advocated for a White House vegetable garden — which already exists. Her exact wording was an “edible landscape,” which sounds grander than any old cabbage patch. After the jump, watch Alice Waters’s daughter talk about her relationship with McDonald’s French fries.

Alice Waters’ Crusade for Better Food [60 Minutes]

America Meets Alice Waters on 60 Minutes