Culinary Contemplations

Culinary Contemplations
Re “Thanks Be to the Gods of Food” [Nov. 18]: I have great respect for the editors’ gods of food, who are influencing what and how we eat. But with the global population increasing by 200,000 every day — meaning more people at dinner each night — I’m more worried about if we’ll eat. Farmers, businesses and organizations that make this sustainability possible are my gods — worthy to be worshipped.
Taiwo Danjuma,
Egerkingen, Switzerland

I was particularly taken by the “Prophet of Boom and Doom,” Vandana Shiva. Increasingly, GMOs and the controversy that surrounds them are making headlines worldwide, and all too often it’s about another Big Agriculture victory. The world needs people like Shiva more than we know. People like her offer a bit of hope in this increasingly ugly business of growing food. She hit the hammer on the nail when she wrote, “Nature shrinks as capital grows.”
Christina McBeth,
Havelock North, New Zealand

Re “Got Milk? India Does”: Everyone knows Verghese Kurien, who passed away recently, was the father of the “white revolution” and the farmers’ cooperative movement in India. Most do not even know of Amrita Patel. She only inherited a robust farmer-centric organization — the National Dairy Development Board — from Kurien, who was its founder. Today, if any one entity is to be given credit for the country’s success in this field, it is the NDDB — the institution. It’s time we realized that institutions can be heroes too. There is no need to put a face on every success story.
P.T. Krishnan,
Chennai, India

I am extremely worried about the report that an obscure company linked to the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon dominates the distribution of raw fish. Bluefin tuna continues to be the most important fish used for preparing sushi. Some species are threatened by extinction, and attempts to grow bluefin tuna in aquaculture thus far have been unsuccessful. Unless immediate action is taken to protect bluefin tuna, this profitable economic sector will collapse. Much, much worse, though, this majestic fish will be lost forever.
Max von Tilzer,
Konstanz, Germany

Memento Moral
Re “Nothing to See Here” [Nov. 18]: I do not entirely concur with what Hannah Beech advocates; she seems to conveniently brush aside a long-established Chinese value system. By reprojecting the image of and restressing Lei Feng as an icon of morality, China is deliberately trying to remind the public that the immorality that goes with the extravagant lifestyles of the rich and upper middle class must be curtailed. For a few thousand years, Chinese have been stressing the value of morality and striving for moral life. This must continue.
Phu Lusou,
Shanghai

Germany Boosts Europe
Re “Frenemies: A Trade Story” [Nov. 18]: Although considerable steps still have to be taken to reach a fiscally and politically united Europe, Germany’s labor market is liberalized and open to young talent and job seekers from the whole E.U. In addition, multilateral cross-ownerships of European companies are common. A German trade surplus that is not the result of an easy-money policy must be therefore interpreted in a European context, i.e., as a part of a European trade balance.
Andreas Stiepak,
Weissenburg, Germany

State of Mind Control
Re “China Makes Everything. Why Can’t It Create Anything?” [Nov. 11]: A whole article about the lack of inventiveness, daring, originality and entrepreneurship in China, and not one word about the country being an oppressive, one-party state for over 60 years. You’d think there’d be a connection between the two, wouldn’t you? How can you expect people to think outside the box and innovate when they’ve been brainwashed into toeing the party line and avoiding discussion of sensitive issues like Tibet and the Tiananmen massacre?
Shuki Raz,
Ramat Gan, Israel