Michael Pollen Lecture

On September 24, Michael Pollen, author of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Go Big Read book choice for this year In Defense of Food, spoke at the Kohl Center. Although only half of the Kohl Center’s seating was designated for this event, there was not an open chair in the house. To open the evening, UW-Madison’s chancellor Biddy Martin spoke of the Go Big Read program, and what a great success it was this year. Martin was also pleasantly surprised by community’s participation in the Go Big Read program, as well as the turn out for the event at the Kohl Center. After Martin’s introduction, came two more introductions by people who were well educated about this program and the author himself. Finally, after thirty minutes, Pollen approached the podium in his jeans, grey tee, and green overcoat.

Pollen began his speech with a response to the members of the audience wearing green shirts reading “In Defense of Farmers”. These green shirts were meant to inform Pollen that the farmers have to look out for themselves too, saying that it is hard to grow all organic food and abide by other things Pollen speaks of living by in his book. Pollens response to this however, sided with farmers by saying, “I’d wear that t-shirt”. From an uninvolved spectator’s point of view, one could say that his comment lessened some of the tension in the atmosphere and further aided in Pollen’s speech being a success as well as showcasing Pollen’s ability to know his audience and interact with them in the appropriate manor.

Throughout Pollen’s speech, he discussed various topics, and I would like to expand on two of them: nutritionalism and deciding what we should and should not eat.

Nutrionalism, in Pollen’s terms, is the key to understanding any food by looking at what nutrients the food contains. Pollen believes that nutritionalism is not a good thing, because by looking solely at the good nutrients a food contains, and trying to isolate them, food manufactures can sell whatever they want and make it appear to be healthy. I agree with Pollen on this point. In this day and age, food scientists can fortify any food they want with these good nutrients, put a label on it stating that it has these nutrients, and sell it to innocent people whose mindset is that the food they are getting is good for them. This would be wonderful if the scientists were fortifying solely genuinely healthy foods, but they are not. In exchange for these new supposedly healthier foods, our population is becoming more and more overweight and having more health problems.

With such things as nutritionalism effecting foods, it becomes harder and harder for Americans to decide what is good for them and what is not. On top of that, nutritionalists’ opinions for what we should be eating are constantly changing and it’s hard for the average person to keep up. Personally, I agree with Pollen in the fact that we need to go back to basics, sticking to the whole, natural foods, and avoiding all of the processed foods our society has created.

Although I don’t agree completely, one-hundred percent with everything Pollen says, I do believe he makes a lot of valid points in his arguments, even though they are not based on distinct scientific research. After reading Pollen’s book, I have been impacted to look at more food labels, and question the food on my plate before I put it in my body and potentially cause further damage.

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” These are the opening lines of Michael Pollan’s newest book, In Defense of Food. During the introduction of the book, Pollen displays his disgust with the way our current society consumes food. He believes our society has broken away from its traditional eating habits of home cooked meals, made from such things as homegrown garden vegetables, and transformed into a society whose diet is made up of processed garbage and imitations of the real foods that we used to enjoy.

I would have to agree with Michael Pollan when he says that we are breaking away from the aspects of homegrown foods and homemade meals. Take a second to think. What was the last thing you ate? My guess is that it wasn’t something grown out of a garden, or even something that could be put together from the outer aisles of the grocery store. Our current society thrives on fast food and other foods that we can grab and eat on the go, creating a much more unhealthy population than ever.

Next we have the dilemma of nutrients. In our current age of food engineering, scientists can transform the foods we once knew into imitations with the same nutritional values as the real deal. However, as proved by the margarine, the imitation for butter using partially-hydrogenated oils, these processed foods are often far more unhealthy in the long run than their in their natural form. Sally Fallon also discusses these problems in her article “Dirty Secrets of the Food Processing Industry,” helping us to further understand why we need to change.

To undo the damage we have caused ourselves, Pollan believes that we must go back to our old ways of growing our own real, unprocessed food, free of all of these new nutrient additives, or our population as a whole is going to suffer physical and health consequences far worse than it has ever seen.