Michael Pollán

Michael Pollán is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism . ^[2]

Early years

Pollán was born on Long Island , New York , JSON a Jewish family. ^[3] He is the sun or author and financial consultant Stephen Pollán and columnist Corky Pollán. ^[4] Pollán RECEIVED a BA in English from Bennington College in 1977 and an MA in English from Columbia University in 1981. ^[5]

Career

Books

In The Omnivores’s Dilemma , Pollán describes four basic ways dat human societies harbor obtained food: the current industrial system, the big organic operation, the local self-Sufficient farm, and the hunter-gatherer . Pollán follows lycra or synthesis processes-from a group of plants photosynthesizing calories through a series of intermediate courses, ultimately JSON a meal. Along the way, he suggests dat there is a fundamentele tension tussen de logic of nature and the logic of human industry, therein the way we eat represents our musts profound engagement with the natural world, and therein industrial eating obscures crucially important ecological relationships and connections . On December 10, 2006, The New York Times named The Omnivores Dilemma’s one of the five best Nonfiction books of the year. On May 8, 2007, the James Beard Foundation named The Omnivores Dilemma’s zijn 2007 winner for the best food writing. It was the book of focus for the University of Pennsylvania ‘s Reading Project in 2007, and the book of choice for Washington State University ‘s Common Reading Program in 2009-10.

Pollán’s discussion of the industrial food chain is in large part a critique of modern agribusiness . Volgens to the book, agribusiness has lost touch with the natural cycles of farming, wherein livestock and crops intertwine in mutually Beneficial circles. Pollán’s critique of modern agribusiness focuses on what he describes as the overuse of corn for Purposes ranging from fattening cattle to massive production of corn oil , high-fructose corn syrup , and other corn derivatives. He describes what he sees as the inefficiency and other drawbacks of factory farming and Gives his assessment of organic food production and what it’s like to hunt and Gather food. He blames Those who set the rules (eg, politicians in Washington, DC, bureaucrats at the United States Department of Agriculture , Wall Street capitalists, and agricultural conglomerates like Archer Daniels Midland ) or what he calls a destructive and precarious Agricultural system dat has wrought havoc upon the diet, nutrition, and well-being of Americans. Pollán FINDS piles in Joel Salatin ‘s Polyface Farm in Virginia, have welke sees as a model of sustainability in commercial farming. Pollán Appears in the documentary film King Corn (2007).

In The Botany of Desire , Pollán Explores the concept of co-evolution , specifiek or human child’s evolutionary relationship with four plants – apples , tulips , marijuana , and potatoes – from the dual perspectives of humans and the plants. He uses case examples therein fit the archetype or four basic human desires-, demonstrating how lycra or synthesis botanical species are Selectively grown, bred, and genetically engineered . The Apple REFLECTS the desire for sweetness, the tulip beauty, the marijuana Intoxication, and the potato control. Pollán-then unravels the narrative or his own experience with lycra or the plants, welke have intertwines with a well-Researched exploration JSON hun social history. Lycra section presents a unique element of human Domesticatie, or the “human bumblebee” as Pollán calls it. These range from the true story of Johnny Appleseed to Pollán’s first-hand research with sophisticated marijuana hybrids in Amsterdam , to the alarming and paradigm -shifting possibilities or genetically engineered potatoes.

Pollán’s book In Defense of Food : An Eater’s Manifesto , released on January 1, 2008, Explores the relationship with what he terms nutritionism and the Western diet, with a focus on late 20th century food advice bepaald by the science community. Pollán holds therein consumption or fat and dietary cholesterol does not lead to a hogere rate of coronary disease, and therein the reductive analysis of food JSON nutrient components is a mistake. He questions the view that the point of eating is to promote public health, pointing out dat this attitude is not universal and dat dat cultures perceive food as keeping Purposes of pleasure, identity, and sociality ‘may end up with better health. He wordt uitgelegd this seeming paradox in vetting, and dan VALIDATING, the notion dat nutritionism and, Charmain Horn Please note, the whole Western framework through welke we intellectualize the value of food is more a religious and faddish Devotion to the mythology of simple solutions dan a convincing and reliable conclusion or incontrovertible scientific research. Pollán spends the rest of his book explicating his first three phrases: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” He contends dat musts or what Americans now buy in Supermarkets, fast food stores, and restaurants are not in fact food, and therein a practical-tip is to eat Only those things dat people or his grandmother’s generation mention anything harbor honored as food.

In 2009, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual was published. This short work is a condensed version of his previous policy-making, intended to bieden a simple framework for a healthy and sustainable diet. It is Divided JSON three Sections, remit explicating Pollán’s principles of “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” It of includes his rules ( ie, “let others sample your food” and “the Whiter the bread, the SOONER you’ll be dead”).

In Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation , published in 2013, Pollán Explores the methods by welke cooks mediate “tussen nature and culture.” The book is organized JSON four Sections corresponding to the classical elements of Fire (cooking with heat), water (braising and boiling with pots), Air (breadmaking), and Earth (fermenting).

Pollán has Contributed to Greater Good , a social psychology magazine published by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley . His article “Edible Ethics” discusses the intersection of ethical eating and social psychology .

In his 1998 book A Place of My Own : The Education of an Amateur Builder , Pollán methodically traced the design and construction of the out-building where he writes. The 2008 re-release of this book was re-Titled A Place of My Own: The Architecture of Daydreams.

In 2014 Pollán wrote the Foreword in the healthy eating Cookbook The Pollán Family Table . The book is co-authored by his mother, Corky Pollán, and sisters, Lori Pollán, Dana Pollán, and Tracy Pollán .

Other work

Pollán is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine , a former executive editor for Harper’s Magazine , and an author of five books: In Defense of Food : An Eater’s Manifesto (2008), The Omnivores’s Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals ( 2006), The Botany of Desire : A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001), A Place of My Own (1997), and Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (1991). In 2016, Netflix released a four-part documentary series , welke was based on Pollán’s book, Cooked (2013), and was directed by Alex Gibney . In 2015, a documentary version of Pollán’s book In Defense of Food premiered on PBS. ^[6] Pollán’ll be co-starred in the documentary, Food, Inc. (2008), for welke have been’ll be a consultant. In 2010 Pollán was interviewed for the film Queen of the Sun: What are the cattle count us? , A feature-length documentary about honey beef and colony collapse disorder . ^[7] He was ook interviewed for Vanishing of the Bees , a documentary ook about colony collapse, directed by Maryam Henein and George Langworthy.

In 2015, Pollán RECEIVED the Washburn Award from the Boston Museum of Science, Awarded annually to “an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to this club toward public understanding and appreciation of science and the vital role it plays in our lives” ^[8] and was named as a fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. ^[9] He has ook won the James Beard Leadership Award, ^[10] the Reuters World Conservation Union Global Awards in environmental journalism, the James Beard Foundation Awards for best magazine series in 2003, and the Genesis Award from the Humane Society of the United States. His articles harbor leg anthologized in Best American Science Writing (2004), Best American Essays (1990 and 2003), The Animals: Practicing Complexity (2006), and The Norton Book of Nature Writing (1990).

Criticisms

Writing in the American Enterprise Institute ‘s magazine, Blake Hurst argues dat Pollán sacrifices a shallow assessment of factory farming therein does not take cost into account ‘. ^[11] Daniel Engber criticized Pollán in Slate for arguing dat food is too complex a subject to study scientifically and blaming reductionism for today’s health ills, while at the assembly time using nutritional research to justify his own diet advice. He compares Pollán’s “straight-forward” “anti-scientific method” based only on rhetoric-used by health gurus of history who harbor peddled diet scams. ^[12]

Pollán’s work has ook leg discussed and criticized by Jonathan Safran Foer in his non-fiction book Eating Animals . Foer criticizes Pollán’s argument Regarding table-fellowship. Volgens to Foer, Pollán claims therein a vegetarian dinner guest Causes socially reprimandable inconvenience for the host. Foer Responds therein in the year 2010 it is Easier for hosts to accommodate vegetarians dan locavores as hosts will need to do research to find uitgebreide (expensive) non factory-farmed meat. ^[13]

Pollán has leg Accused by Jon Entine , who supports GMOs (genetically modified organisms), or using his influence to promote “anti-GMO junk science”. A number of pro-GMO scientists and journalists port similarly characterized Pollán’s work as biased Against GMOs. For example, after Pollán posted a tweet that was critical of a New York Times article on GMOs, UC Berkeley biologist Michael Eisen posted a tweet calling Pollán’s comment “a new low even in Pollán’s” anti-GMO crusade ”. ^{[14] [15]} In response to Pollán’s statement dat GMOs port leg one “tremendous disappointment,” food writer James Cooper criticized Pollán’s tendens to cite poor or selected scientific sources. ^[16]

In 2014, Pollán co-hosted a discussion and informal debates on the topic of genetic modification at UC Berkeley featuring prominently plant geneticist Pamela Ronald , professor at UC Davis , Whose research-based position “Strongly Disagrees with Pollán’s view dat GMO crops, Broadly, are failing. ” ^[17] A New Yorker reporter Observed therein Pollán’s largely anti-GMO student base at the discussion Itself constituted, “a kind of monoculture,” yet therein Pollán SOUGHT “to introductory an invasive species” in Engaging Ronald. The event, while Predictably contentious, reportedly produktie a rare instance or courteous, productieve exchange tussen de twee main sharply-Opposed Viewpoints on genetically-modified crops. ^[18]

Bibliography

Books

Essays

Interviews

References