The Best American Food Writing 2019

“There’s a lot to commend here,” I tell Anzaldo, “but where does persuasion end and coercion begin?”

Digging in was its own wisdom, he discovered. Order finds itself through action. Just get started became one of his guiding principles.

For half my life I never stopped to wonder, how much was magic? How much was plunder?

The land to him isn’t real. It’s an economy of scale on a scale no one’s ever tried here.

Together the Resnicks have wedded the valley’s hidebound farming culture with L.A.’s celebrity culture. They don’t do agribusiness. Rather, they say, they’re “harvesting health and happiness around the world through our iconic consumer brands.” Their crops aren’t crops but heart-healthy snacks and life-extending elixirs.

Food writing is just another way of looking at the world,

What I learned from this exercise was that everyone has a story, and if presented well, it’s usually worth hearing out.