Eating Better Thanks To Science

The name Musk is usually associated with science - the science of the electric car. Now there's another Musk, Elon's brother , Kimbal who is changing the food world. His style? Using science, of course. He wants to revolutionize the food world the way his brother revolutionized the auto world.

His was the main story in today's New York Times Food section. Food regular Kim Severson, conducted an interview with this innovator. Kimbal Musk's main idea is to promote a philosophy of  real food that will not only nourish the body but also the farmer and the planet.It's not really a new idea. Michael Pollan, a food writer, and author of Food Rules has been preaching this for years as others who have pushed and created a farmer's market and urban farms. What makes Mr. Musk's idea unique is that he wants to create a network of business, educational, and agricultural ventures  big enough to return the nation's food system back to healthy local foods, grown on pesticide free farms.It is the ideal dream and he does have have somewhat of a background in it, starting with his childhood. He cooked at his father's house for him along with for Elon and their sister, Tosca. Mr Musk does have restaurant experience too. He and his former wife, Jen Lewin, started Kitchen in 2004, in Colorado. It was a farm to table concept. A skiing accident that broke his neck and left him temporarily paralyzed got him to refocus his drive. He would devote his life to food.

This led him to be interested in school gardens. His ex wife designed a modular curved plastic planters that could be arranged in any school yard to hold produce yielding plants. They were first installed in the Denver school district in 2010, with the extra bonus of teaching kids about science.Other schools in Memphis, Los Angeles ,Pittsburgh and Chicago.He's also started a chain of hyperlocal restuarants, called Next Door,These feature wild salmon and local pasture raised beef, along with big Greek salads bursting with community vegetables. Not everyone is enamored of his efforts. There has been a lot of criticism, especially from Alice Waters, the pioneer of the American Slow Food Movement. and creator of the famed restaurant , Chez Panisse. To be fair, he has criticized her , proclaiming that she doens;t know how to scale a garden to fit a school. She in turn has accused of him the same thing. His Square Roots project has met with a lot of flak too. It's an idea that has young farmers growing greens with nothing but enhanced water and LEDs in shipping containers, It's hydroponic farming that has critics sniping about the lack of nutrient rich soil.

Will Kimbal Musk change the food industry the way his brother, Elon changed the auto industry? Can he change the way we eat ? He has the drive and determination to do so - just like his brother.

Healing And Hydroponic

The New York Times Dining section had two very interesting and diverse articles yesterday. One was on the healing powers of certain foods while the other was on hydroponic farming. Actually the first is sort of dependent on the second one, because it's all the leafy green stuff that can help a body. Any green, whether it be spinach or even lettuce, if grown hydroponically , can have a few more benefits than ones coming from the land.

The first article written by Jeff Gordinier tells the story of chef Seamus Mullen who was stricken with rheumatoid arthritis in his late thirties. The disease literally crippled him, leaving him in agony most of the time. For anybody this is bad news but for a chef even worse. Luckily he improved his diet which led to his new cookbook. Entitled "Seamus Mullen's Hero Food : How Cooking Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better ", it shows how certain foods can help with inflammatory disease s and boost the body's immune system. Some of the best foods for a person are olive oil, almonds and leafy green vegetables. Mr. Mullen uses these already in his Spanish tapas restaurant Boqueria.

No doubt hydroponically grown greens are also good for you. That was the other article, written by Glenn Collins, another long time Dining contributor. Hydroponic lettuce has received a bad rap over the last few years. Not so anymore. It's actually become more flavorful. This is due to new techniques in this dirt free farming. There's more technological sophistication where there are even weather stations installed to help with the sun and temperature conditions . This helps crops thrive without the usual worries about drought or too much rain. The ambiance is perfect in creating flavorful and tender leaves.

Leafy greens can help us. Just ask Seamus Mullen who greatly benefited from them. Even better are the hydroponically grown ones. They're not only good for us but good tasting thanks to modern, soil free farming methods.