“Eating is an agricultural act”—one linked back to the soil or sea in which your food grew. The philosopher- farmer Wendell Berry wrote that aphorism, often invoked these days, in his 1990 essay collection What Are People For? (North Point Press). We’re proud to be featuring Berry’s essay “The Pleasures of Eating” in this issue (Feb/March, page 17), and we’ve asked a few of our favorite eaters to come up with their version of his seminal quote.

Eating is nice work if you can get it.—Tom Philpott, Grist food editor and Maverick Farms cofounder.

…the next best way to use your mouth to effect political change.—Andrea Arria-Devoe, Daily Candy San Francisco editor and ESF contributor.

…something that feels good when nothing else does.—Catherine Nash, ESF contributor.

…what calms my baby, and when I get to look my wife in the eye.—Brian Halweil, Edible East End editor and World Watch Institute senior researcher.

…a political act; every time you eat, you vote with your fork.—Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, New York University.

…life.—Wayne Garcia, ESF contributor.

…never having to say you’re hungry.—Carol Ness, food reporter, San Francisco Chronicle.

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