Meryl Streep Says Julia Child Was Initially Against Organic Foods

August 12th 2009

julia child

In promotion of their new film Julia and Julia, Meryl Streep and Nora Ephron recently had an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS. Streep in particular was asked if she ever met the late great chef Julia Child and shared an interesting “organic” tidbit. While we’re having trouble finding an exact clip, we did get this nice summation off of a Google groups forum:

“Caught Charlie Rose on PBS last night interviewing Streep and Nora Ephron about the film. Both regretted never having actually met Julia and a story Streep told surprised me a bit. I think most of us think of Julia Child as a rather jolly, kind woman, but many years ago Streep contacted her hoping for her support with an organization she’d started for the purpose of encouraging people to raise & eat organic foods. She was quite stunned upon receiving a fairly cranky and dismissive letter in reply from Julia herself…”

“…Streep explained that she contacted Julia because she’d foolishly assumed that as a chef who encouraged the use of the very best ingredients, she’d have an appreciation for organic foods and might wish to publicly endorse the idea. At that time, Streep said the concept of raising/marketing organic foods was pretty new and Child wasn’t interested. She made a point of saying that years later – after Alice Waters came along – Julia changed her mind about “organic” foods and embraced the philosophy.”

For those that didn’t hear, it was also revealed several years ago that Child was a spy in a secret organization formed by President Franklin Roosevelt during the Second World War. It’s true! Of all things, she also helped work on a project to develop a shark repellent, to stop sharks from exploding underwater mines.

And now, you know.

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7 Responses to “Meryl Streep Says Julia Child Was Initially Against Organic Foods”

  1. Not very surprising. She also always said the key to a long life is red meat and gin. She was a firecracker, she was.

  2. Given the total lack of scientific evidence in support of organic farming I’d be willing to bet that Julia Childs went to her grave not supporting organic.

  3. I have not seen the movie, but the promo has a sequence that involves boiling a lobster alive…total turn off…If Streep is so “in tune” how come?

  4. Aaaand, she didn’t like vegetarians. Check this out from vegan.com: http://www.vegan.com/blog/2009/08/11/julia-child-on-vegetarians/

  5. i was just about to point out the vegan.com article too lol

  6. I was going to bring that up as well. And yes, I do look forward to dinner. Anyone who’s had more than five minutes of conversation with me knows I am obsessed with food.

  7. That generation was the one who turned their back on the old ways of farming and embraced toxic chemicals.

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