Last night two of the most public voices on Organic food, met in a public forum for a discussion of their beliefs about small farm vs. large farm organic food production. The two had publicly traded sparring emails about Pollan’s tough take on Mackey’s Whole Foods model of organic meat and produce.

If you haven’t read the emails here’s a link to Mackey’s letter, and here to Pollan’s rebuttal. (Via Grist)

This was scheduled to be a verbal continuation of the letters that they had exchanged, but according to Chews Wise, the “smackdown” turned into a “love fest”.

SECOND COURSE: Smack-down Letdown

As the dialogue got under way, there was a rustling of expectation in the audience. The provocative debate was about to begin, right?

After all, these were the two men who disagreed so strongly about whether the organic food business was lapsing into industrialism that they conducted a heated, months-long online argument. (See our previous post for links on the debate)

In person, though, they were almost painfully gentle with one another. They sparred, a little, I guess, but it was more like couple’s counseling than a duel.

For starters, there were admissions of mutual gratitude and admiration. Mackey had learned from Pollan. Pollan appreciated Mackey.

[snip]

Pollan and Mackey originally did have their differences, but when Pollan came up with his eloquent critique, Mackey moved rapidly to turn Whole Foods’ sustainable battleship in line with Pollan’s vision—or to emphasize the ways it already was already doing so (sourcing more local foods in stores and moving forward with supporting domestic grass-fed meat, for example).

Pollan, for his part, politely closed ranks with perhaps the most influential man in organic and natural food circles, which is, you’ll recall, the alternative to 98 percent of the food supply.

Not all of the conversation was digested as easily as this. For example, could it be true that Michael Pollan said Organic Coca-Cola would be fine by him?

Read the review at Chews Wise, and the Webcast of the event is archived and can be found here [warning, requires real player].