In the Washington Post, Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac put forth this suggestion:

Sean-Paul, on the spot, reports.

Michael Pollan for Secretary of Agriculture! Pollan wrote a letter to Obama on food policy (posted on here: "Sun food is local food"), and it turns out (kudos to the staff) that Obama actually read it. I'll start with the exchange, and through circuitous paths arrive at some suggestions on method for a critique of the coming Obama administration, ending where I started: with food.

Pollan's letter is worth re-reading in full, but here's an excerpt:

It may surprise you [Obama] to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food.

You will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on — but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them. Let me explain.

[1] After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent. And while the experts disagree about the exact amount, the way we feed ourselves contributes more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere than anything else we do — as much as 37 percent, according to one study.

[2] You cannot expect to reform the health care system, much less expand coverage, without confronting the public-health catastrophe that is the modern American diet.

[3] The impact of the American food system on the rest of the world will have implications for your foreign and trade policies as well. In the past several months more than 30 nations have experienced food riots, and so far one government has fallen. Should high grain prices persist and shortages develop, you can expect to see the pendulum shift decisively away from free trade, at least in food.

And (via Green Daily) we read Obama's response in his interview with Joe Klein:

What are you reading? I just finished Passchendaele, about the World War I battle of that name. Trench warefare is alwyas so cheery and optimistic!