Late last week, Scripps Networks Interactive announced that it is rebranding the Fine Living Network, a cable channel dedicated to showcasing sophisticated lifestyles, into the Cooking Channel. Though not slated to ocurr until the third quarter of 2010, the network’s about-face follows a larger cultural shift in the way Americans are viewing their food and their kitchens.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.”

With these words, Michael Pollan opens his latest book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (Penguin, 2008). Like most of what Pollan does these days in talks, essays and TV appearances, the book is a toehold for the progressive food movement. But the book also has significant drawbacks that make it a less enjoyable and entertaining read than Pollan’s previous bestselling book, the ridiculously popular The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Foodbuzz, one of the biggest networks of food blogs has released their nominations for best blogs. I am honored to say that Farm to Table was nominated in the Best Sustainable/ Green Blog Category. I am thrilled to be in the running, especially with such amazing fellow nominees. I’d like to take a second to mention them.

I would suggest that the next wave in food publishing isn’t necessarily just blogging–or at least, it’s something that includes blogs but is much larger. This is Web 2.0, folks, the era of social media. I get all my news from Twitter and Facebook. True, the tweets and honks lead my to online articles and blog posts, but the distribution completely different from print media: scattered, informal, personal.

Store this one in the Sad News/ Good News department. First the awful word that Gourmet Magazine, after 67 years of publication, will cease its run. My heart goes out to the journalists, writers, editors, photographers and other staff who will, presumably, be losing their jobs before the end of the year. I’ve been reading Gourmet since I started cooking in college and its a great loss.

But I think there is a larger issue going on here, there are some in the local foods movement who are inherently biased against private enterprise. To them, private enterprise almost always end nefariously, and that therefore, government and other not-for-profits should take the lead, and that only they can be the true answers we seek.

The core philosophy of this business is equally a remarkable story. From the start, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company was set up to be an environmentally and socially responsible niche producer of superior cheeses. The artisan cheese products, handmade from local goat and sheep milk, honour the best from the craft traditions while integrating with the future economic strategy of the region.

But we really have some house cleaning to do. In order to take us into that next step where we crack into the mainstream culture and begin the wholesale reshaping of American food, how its produced, processed, procured, cooked and eaten, we’ve got to get a couple of things ironed out. An article I read today by one of our leading lights, Grist Magazine’s Tom Philpott, really got my goat.

Slow Money uses the principles of Slow Food to improve and repair America’s broken food system

…It occurred to me that in a deep recession with looming environmental problems that seriously threaten our continued comfort on this planet, “voting with our dollars” is simply not enough. Not that anyone ever said it was. In order to truly transform our food system from a water and gas-guzzling industrial monoculture that benefits only agribusiness executives into a more sustainable and humane polyculture, it is necessary to leverage the full range and force of private and public activity.