Kathleen Squires: What are the major stumbling blocks to eating locally and sustainably, and what can consumers do to transcend them?
Alton Brown: Education is still a real problem. The biggest challenge is to get people to understand seasonality. Getting plugged into farmer's markets and CSAs [Community Supported Agriculture] is a great education because if you go to a farmer's market and you see tomatoes in August, then you understand it is the season. Or you will notice how the squash really do change from soft squashes to hard squashes right around September... And just pay attention to what's going on. If a truck goes by full of concord grapes, well guess what? They are growing around here someplace. One common rule to go by is: when does the price of something go down? And when do they taste good? I'm a blueberry fanatic. We grow a lot of blueberries in the south and there's a beautiful time in summer when it is two pints for $3. And they taste good. Well, that tells you something. That's when you buy those.
KS: What should we be eating that we aren't?
AB: Americans, still for all the food that we have, eat a very narrow range of foods. We eat a very narrow range of meats and a very narrow range of fruits and vegetables and we eat a lot of processed food, and I mean heavily processed -- I don't mean frozen vegetables or juice in a jar -- I'm talking manufactured food. We have such a problem with things like purple foods. Only 3 percent of the produce we eat is actually purple, which is one of the most valuable nutritional colors that you can get into you, along with green and orange. I like to tell people to eat more color. And if I had to bring it down to one food group, I would say legumes. I don't know why we are not eating our weight in beans and legos every day because they are so powerful from a nutritional standpoint, and we grow a lot of them.
KS: How far has cooking TV has come since you started?
AB: Well, when I started, the Food Network was just a baby. What we've learned is that food is a universal subject that provides a commonality and heightens the commonality between people in a time when culture is very fractured and fragmented and we don't have a lot in common. Food ties us together. It not only ties us to each other but to our heritage. So I think what we've seen more and more is food being used as a communication tool. Not just cooking shows.
KS: Do you feel that there is too much emphasis on celebrity on food television today?
AB: Yes. And too much emphasis on actual food itself. I think it is very easy to idolize the food out of context of the farmer. I'm a big fan of farmers and the fishermen and the act of cooking and the act of eating together. I think we focus way too much on the star, and on the food. And when you take those things out of context I think that's one of the reasons we have an obesity problem. People tend to idolize food that doesn't have a lot of nourishment.
KS: You've been getting a lot of press for your "Fanifesto," which I imagine was a result of your wife's Twitter imposter?
AB: You know, I didn't think anyone would pay attention to it and the next thing I know it's on the Huffington Post! Now people are coming up to me and saying, "Yeah right on!" Or some Food Network people are asking, "Can I borrow that?" Some people get really upset about it, thinking that I'm so self-important.... I look at it as, these are the rules of common courtesy, how I want to play the game, and if you don't like it, don't come. I'm OK with that. There has been more support for it than lack of support. But I didn't realize that I was writing something so incendiary. If I don't hug you or if we seem grumpy about your Blackberry, there are reasons. And I do have people come up and talk to me when I'm at the urinal and that is just not cool. And it's not cool to take pictures of my family when you see me on the streets; that's crossing the line. People think that celebrities are public property. If you are a super-big celebrity you may have to play that game, but there are a lot of us now who are not -- we are just regular folks who are in that funny gray area of celebrity.
KS: Who is influencing American palates the most?
AB: Michael Pollan certainly is. As well he should, though I tend to find his work overly-politicized. He is certainly getting to people. And anybody who is doing gluten-free because even people who aren't gluten intolerant like to pretend they are because it makes them special.
KS: I have a friend who calls them "glutards...."
AB: Well, it is like, how all of a sudden did you all become so handicapped? How did that happen so quickly? But people are going gaga for that.
KS: We're coming up on an indulgent time of year. What is your favorite Halloween candy?
AB: I make my own gummy bears with Welch's grape juice. And I make these spectacular popcorn balls that are flavored with molasses and within each one I hide either a clove of garlic or a piece of broccoli. I love seeing kids go, "Ewwwww, which one did you get?" It's my little trick.
