We've been so disconnected agriculturally and culturally from food. We spend more time on dieting than on cooking.

I think Americas food culture is embedded in fast-food culture. And the real question that we have is: How are we going to teach slow-food values in a fast-food world? Of course, its very, very difficult to do, especially when children have grown up eating fast food and the values that go with that.

Let things taste of what they are.

It's a comfort to always find pasta in the cupboard and garlic and parsley in the garden.

I think the biggest impediment to fixing the food system in the United States is that we expect food to be cheap. We want to by other things with our money. We're so disconnected from agriculture - from the culture in agriculture.

Create a garden; bring children to farms for field trips. I think its important that parents and teachers get together to do one or two things they can accomplish well - a teaching garden, connecting with farms nearby, weave food into the curriculum.

I feel it is an obligation to help people understand the relation of food to agriculture and the relationship of food to culture.