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Hearing Michael Pollan speak at the Brattle Theatre yesterday was a bit like going through a year of conferences and trainings with The Food Project’s BLAST Cadre. So many pieces of conversations we’ve had were woven through his talk - like his characterization of the US Farm Bill as something everyone thinks just involved a fight between Iowa and Kansas, but which affects everyone and would be more aptly named “the Food Bill”.
He talked also about the impact of big farms industrializing organic and how we look for the stories of where our food comes from…but where do the stories come from? His excerpts from the “whole foods literary experience” got the crowd chuckling, and the excerpts he read from his newest book, An Omnivore’s Dilemma, has me ready to go buy it - ostensibly for my interns but really so I can read it myself!
This was the first time that I have had the opportunity to see Michael Pollan speak and I appreciated that he communicated with the audience in the same accessible manner with which he writes. Though a professor at Berkeley , Pollan has the ability to speak to many of our important farm and food issues with a fresh voice, transcending the often difficult delivery found in the academic, scientific or political realm.
In both his new book and talk, Pollan addresses the issue of how our food system is, in great part, based on our ignorance of its operation. Pollan sheds light on how the system works, but he is also able to humanize our interaction with the system through his journey through the fast food, industrial organic, sustainable, and self created (DIY) food systems.
Pollan’s work is not groundbreaking, but, through his articles, public appearances and book writing, it seems that he is able to connect to a wider audience. Hopefully this will strengthen the local foods movement and open up our collective conscience about our role in the food system!