If you’ve lost your appetite for the current state of two-party politics in the wake of this month’s general election, perhaps you might be persuaded to consider joining the Dinner Party.

The Dinner Party is a catch phrase offered up in Michael Pollan’s pre-election take on California’s Proposition 37. In it, Pollan mused that passage might present a tipping point and take measure of the food movement’s political will. We now know that the initiative was defeated 53%-47%, but that’s not half bad when you consider that a group led by Monsanto and DuPont spent about $45 million to get that outcome. Given the frustrations expressed on election night, perhaps the Dinner Party’s time has come.

The platform of the Dinner Party might be as simple as this choice: do we want goods and services at the best value possible (read “lowest price”), or do we want those things, including food, that reflect our best values – of fairness, transparency, and a strong contribution to our health and well-being. We are indeed what we consume. If we consume with values-based consideration, mindful of the environment that sustains us, then perhaps we can find our place in it. If we choose otherwise, who knows?