Dark Horses

The competition for silliest socio-economic fad of the era is intense, but fair-minded folk would have to grant the recent vogue of “natural foods” a special place of honor in the absurdity rankings.

As pointed out by Drs. Elizabeth Whelan and Frederick Stare in Panic in the Pantry (Atheneum, $8.95), food faddism has always been with us, and undoubtedly always will be. It has of late been escalated, though, by a couple of factors peculiar to our epoch: the youthful counterculture and its Rous- seauvian yearnings, and the continuing ideological warfare of the liberal-Left against the American business system, in which the task of growing, processing, and merchandising food has come to play a prominent role.

MS

About the Author

M. Stanton Evans

Featured Tags

The competition for silliest socio-economic fad of the era is intense, but fair-minded folk would have to grant the recent vogue of “natural foods” a special place of honor in the absurdity rankings.

As pointed out by Drs. Elizabeth Whelan and Frederick Stare in Panic in the Pantry (Atheneum, $8.95), food faddism has always been with us, and undoubtedly always will be. It has of late been escalated, though, by a couple of factors peculiar to our epoch: the youthful counterculture and its Rous- seauvian yearnings, and the continuing ideological warfare of the liberal-Left against the American business system, in which the task of growing, processing, and merchandising food has come to play a prominent role.