Last Thursday author, journalist, and activist, Michael Pollan addressed University of Vermont students and the greater Burlington community in a conversation with Nutrition and Food Science professor Amy Trubek.
Questions for this conversation were taken from various members of UVM’s community and were centered around three themes; his writing process, culture’s relationship with nature, and the food systems of the future.
Pollan spoke about his writing process specifically in relation to the book Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, which was the required reading for this year’s incoming freshmen.
His idea for this book came from the realization that we are implicated in the rise of fast and processed food. He stated that he wanted to take something that is, or at least should be, ordinary and an “everyday act”, and turn it into something more exciting by using his own “experiences and education as a narrative thread”.
One of the questions asked was which comes first, the story or the structure, to which the answer was the story. After coming up with his idea for “Cooked”. Pollan realized that it could be linked to the “four classical elements”, mentioning his love for a four-part structure, and for structure in general.
A theme throughout Pollan’s books is the relationship between culture and nature, which led to the next set of questions. He began by saying that “cooking is baked into our biology”, and that we should be especially conscious of decisions we make while food shopping because of how closely food is tied to nature. One example he gave of this idea was a humorous story of a war over his garden that he entered into with an antagonistic woodchuck.
The idea of nature and culture in food writing interests Pollan because he believes that we are more engaged with nature in regards to food and eating than we are at any other time. He is also interested because of how thoughtless we often are in our relationship with nature.
The final line of questions was about food systems of the future. In this theme Pollan posed interesting solutions to problems we currently face.
In regards to our food system he had very interesting views. He argued against the idea that we should work to lower costs of products, as this would hurt farmers and make sustainability nearly impossible. Instead, he said that we should increase wages so that people are able to afford “the real cost of food”. In essence this would be making food “affordable, not cheap” changing things in a way that Americans are not typically used to.
He also addressed the great importance of reforming food systems, telling students that our generation is lucky, saying, “You’ve got one big, scary issue. Climate change” as motivation to work towards sustainability.
Bonus questions:
Next project: Long article about psychedelic drugs.
Food he eats on the road: Nothing unusual, but finds things to eat at his destination. East coast apples are the best.
Guilty pleasure: Cracker Jacks and dark chocolate