The writer talks about the virtues of eating locally grown food and what foods he considers guilty pleasures.

Question: How important are organic foods, andrnhow truthful is the labeling?

MarkrnBittman: One has tornhope that things that are certified organic are organic.  But what does organic mean?  It's a term that’s defined by thernUnited States Department of Agriculture. rnIt doesn’t mean anything or it doesn’t mean much about how the animals arerntreated.  It doesn’t really meanrnmuch about what kind or what breed of the animals there are.  It doesn't mean anything in terms ofrnhow the workers who are raising these animals or farming these crops arerntreated.  Doesn’t mean anythingrnabout where the food is from. 

So does organicrnhave some meaning?  Yes, I thinkrnthe term organic has some meaning. rnBut I think that it's not the most important thing.  I won't go so far as to say it’s a redrnherring because I think there are some important things about it but I will sayrnthis.  The most important divisionrnin our style of eating right now is not organic versus non-organic and it's notrnlocal versus non-local.  It's plantsrnversus anything else and I don’t mean to be repetitive but the message is very,rnvery clear. 

The way thatrnpeople can eat best is to eat less crap to put it bluntly.  And crap is processed food and junkrnfood and you can have organic processed food and you have organic junk food andrnthat food is maybe a little better than non-organic processed and junk food butrnit's not good food and that's the most important lesson we could learn, Irnthink.

Question: Is it important to eat locally grown,rnseasonal foods?

MarkrnBittman:  Well, again, I think the clear answerrnis that, as far as your body is concerned, a grape from Chile is better than arncheeseburger from around the corner. If you're willing to eat turnips, carrots,rnbread you bake yourself, frozen meat, a very limited diet, you can eat locallyrnalmost anywhere, at least in this country, all year round and that's great butrnit's expensive, it's inconvenient, and it takes dedication.

I think it's arnswell idea and I think that ultimately for food to make sense in this country Irnthink we're going to see more regionalism and less food coming out of California.  But I don’t think we'll ever be at arnplace where we see no food coming out of California, unless it falls into thernsea, of course.  And I think thatrnif you want to be truly a local eater, you're not going to be drinking it.  If you live in the northeast, as I do,rnyou're not going to be drinking any coffee.  You're not going to be drinking any caffeinated tea.  You're not going to be using any olivernoil.  There are a lot of thingsrnyou're just going to be missing out on. rnThat's fine if you think that that's the highest priority.  There are other priorities, Irnthink. 

I'm a fan ofrnlocal food.  I really like localrnfood, but to go back to the discussion of trendiness in food.  Everything need not be taken to anrnextreme and this is another thing that has been taken to an extreme.

Question: What foods are your guilty pleasures?

MarkrnBittman: If I'm drivingrnsay six hours and I decided to stop at Wendy's or whatever I guess there's arntwinge of guilt.  But there's alsornan excuse because you're away and, you know, you're busy and blah, blah, blahrnand I don’t exercise that excuse very often.  So I don’t really feel guilty about it.  I think what would make me feel guiltiest,rnand I don’t do it, is going to a supermarket and buying a huge bag of potatornchips and coming home and eating it but I don’t do it, so.

Question: What would you choose as a lastrnmeal?

MarkrnBittman:  Why do they choose -- because they wantrnsomething comfortable, they want something they're familiar with.  They all want bacon and eggs,rnright?  I mean I don’t -- that's myrnguess.  Everybody wants four friedrneggs in butter with unlimited supply of bacon and really, really great toast.  I would – am I being executed?  I have to get the scenario.  So assuming I'm being executed and Irnhave the – its not a last meal, like I don’t want to think about cancer lastrnmeals, I want to think about execution last meals.  I would call – I'm privileged I can do this -- I would callrnmy friend Jean-Georges Vongerichten and tell him I want to cook for me until Irntell him to stop.  That would be myrnlast meal.  But I do like the fourrnor six eggs cooked in a lot of butter with bacon and really good toast.  I like that, too.