titled No Justice, No ... Anything.
As expect, he starts by writing about food, about talking about food.
But as he makes clear, even as he returns to food again and again, the real issues are poverty and inequality and injustice.
As he notes early in the column
Without economic justice there is no nutritional literacy, there is no good eating, there is no health.
And ultimately the result is
murder by a thousand cuts.
You should read the whole column.
It is 1.30 in the morning, and I just had to help my wife with a dead car battery after working late, so I am not that coherent. Rather than try to analyze the piece in greater detail, I will push fair use and give you Bittman's final four grafs, and then urge you to yes, read the whole thing, and also, pass it on.
Not long ago African-Americans were enslaved; until recently they were lynched. Isolated racist murders still occur, but they are no longer sanctioned or tolerated, and we’re seeing the vestiges of that as both national and local attention is paid to violence by the police against black people.
But oppression and inequality are violence in another form. When people are undereducated, impoverished, malnourished, un- or under-employed, or underpaid and working three jobs, their lives are diminished, as are their opportunities. As are the opportunities of their children.
This is unjust and intolerable. The bad news is that we should be ashamed of ourselves: As long as these things are true, this is not the country we say it is or the country we want it to be.
The good news is that it’s fixable, not by “market forces” but by policies that fund equal education, good-paying jobs, and a good food, health and well-being program for all Americans.