Interviews & Profiles
Table Talk: A Conversation with Michael Pollan
In his 1996 book Tasting Food, Tasting Freedom, the great food anthropologist Sidney Mintz concluded that the United States had no cuisine. Interestingly, Mintz’s definition of cuisine came down to conversation. For Mintz, Americans just didn’t engage in passionate talk about food. Unlike the southwest French and their cassoulet, most Americans don’t obsess and quarrel
New Grub Street
Time was, a war of words between a food writer and an organic-foods retailer would have attracted the interest of maybe seven people in your local food co-op””a bit of chatter over the brown-rice bin and everyone would move on. Those of us in a Safeway with our Perdue roasters and our broccoli avec a
Michael Pollan: The Believer Interview
Michael Pollan is a nature writer of sorts. Throughout his career, his subjects have been places where people live and work, where humans take part in nature instead of just watching passively. This stands in distinction to a strain of nature writing that concentrates on wilderness. To put the contrast in simple terms: while someone
It’s All Storytelling: An Interview with Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan is, among other things, a writer, editor, gardener, and teacher. He spent 10 years as Executive Editor at Harpers Magazine (1984–94), is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, and has published four books: Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (1991), A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder
Engaging with the Omnivore
Over the past several years, journalist Michael Pollan has been assessing what he calls “our national eating disorder.”? Subsidies on corn fuel this epidemic as they cheaply allow factory farm feedlots to flourish. Pollan documented the life of one steer in particular, showing this cheap food comes with a high cost. In addition to exploring
Voting With Their Forks
SUMMER is supposed to be the mindless season, with nothing deeper to contemplate than the instant gratification of barbecues and ice cream. But something is different this year. America is getting serious about eating. In the last couple of months a choir of disparate voices has been sending the same message through books, magazines and
Taking a Bite out of ‘Organics’
For organic farmer Judith Redmond and others like her, Michael Pollan, who wrote “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,” is more than a bestselling author. “In our world,” she said, “he’s a rock star.” That’s why the balding, bespectacled Pollan cannot shop at his Berkeley farmers market without being approached by adoring
A Tussle, Of Sorts, Over Organics
A few weeks ago, I was alerted to a fascinating online exchange involving two people who care passionately about organic food. In one corner sat Michael Pollan, the well-known author who, in April, published “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” In the other sat John P. Mackey, the co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market, which, with
Q&A with Michael Pollan: Think Global, Eat Local
You’re standing in the supermarket contemplating a nice warm-weather meal — maybe grilled fish or chicken and salad. But you worry: Is there any local or organic produce, or does that even matter? Is the salmon wild, or does it come from those fish farms that you hear might not be clean? Were the chickens
The Colbert Report Interview
Author Michael Pollan explains how modern food choices will make future generations have shorter lives.