sausage making

I first met nutrition advocate Nancy Becker at a round table of dietitians, nutrition advocates and politicians rallying for a new, statewide menu labeling bill. They talked about calorie counts at Subway and praised Multnomah County's new food labeling law. What struck me about the meeting had less to do with the actual debate (opponents call menu labeling intrusive big government while proponents take the access-to-information route) than the mechanics of law making.

Since moving to Oregon, I've had few chances to report on the state's legislative process, but writing about Nancy Becker for the spring issue of Edible Portland magazine launched me back into the world of policy making. Becker's story reminded me just how long it can take to turn an idea into a law: decades, at times. Still, there's room for all of us in the process. But don't get involved without taking some of my mother's advice: Patience is a virtue.