Oh poor blog! Oh sad neglected blog! How I’ve ignored you. And oh my cooking skills how I’ve ignored you too. Despite my vows I’m still living on a diet of take-out (though it must be said some of that take out is pretty good: tonight falafel and babaganoush from Waterfalls, with sides of labney, baked kibbe, and salad. But that, I think, is the subject for another post).

But though my knives sit restless in their knife block, and as my skillets gather dust in the cupboard, there’s still much to blog about in the world of food. The cover article on today’s New York Times food section, for example, is a great hub for curious exploration of the strands winding through the world of food these days. The story tells of the food and health policies of the Bloomberg Administration, and though the author, Kim Severson, is careful to say that Mayor Bloomberg is no crusading health food paladin, she lays out a cast of characters and initiatives at work in the city that seek to promote easier access to healthier food, and are part of a nationwide trend of similar efforts. A quick roster — if only as a reference point for further study:

Benjamin Thomases – the “Food Czar” charged with “coordinating the city’s policies on food”

Linda I. Gibbs – deputy mayor, “tough and experienced bureaucrat” and Mr. Thomases’ boss.

Christine C. Quinn – the City Council Speaker, “a Greenmarket regular who has a strong following among New York health and food advocacy groups and who pressed the mayor for the (food czar) position.”

Toni Liquori – “an educator who has worked on food and public health projects in New York City for more than 20 years.”

Joel Berg – executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger and former member of the (Bill) Clinton administration.

Dr. Thomas R. Frieden – the smoking-ban-in-bars guy, head of the Department of Health and — get this — Mental Hygiene. What exactly, Dr. Frieden, is mental hygiene, and what is your department doing about it?

What I love about an article like this — and what frustrates me about it at the same time — is the number of stories that spin off of it so easily and obviously. To wit:

“In many American cities, agricultural politics are being argued at the bar and alpha moms are organizing to take back school cafeterias. Chefs are making heroes out of cattle ranchers and the obesity crisis has prompted a new look at how and what to feed the poor. In an effort to build a cohesive public policy that brings all those food-related movements together, a handful of cities began forming food policy councils in the late 1990s.”

Those cities, Ms. Severson goes on to write, include Berkeley, San Francisco, and Portland (big surprise there), along with Hartford and Toronto. A state-level food-policy council is apparently in the works for Spitzer-era New York state, as “agricultural officials” recently announced.

So here’s the part I’m frustrated — or enticed, or curious — about. Who are these ‘agricultural officials’? Why do health-and-food advocates love Christine Quinn? What has Toni Liquori done over the past decades that makes her notable? Which chefs are lionizing which cattle ranchers? What else is Benjamin Thomases up to? Why was Ed Koch quoted in this article?

Here’s hoping that my curiosity extends beyond this rambling blog post, and bends itself to research and real knowledge. Google, here I come!

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