LotW

Sorry, it's a bit tardy (update on Why coming soon)

Michael Pollan

If you ever feel the urge to learn the fullest history of potatoes, I would recommend reading Michael Pollan. I learned of him in my Dance Class last year when we heard him lecture (via cassette tape) about corn and the corn industry. It was one of those truly moving events when you start off thinking "I can't believe I'm actually going to listen to someone lecture about corn", and eventually finding out why on earth someone would, to passionately understanding and changing your ways.

Since then, I have consumed two of his books ("Omnivore's Dilemma" and "Botany of Desire"), and have begun to appreciate the ground, the food we eat, its intelligence, and its necessity. Soon I will have "A Place of My Own" which follows a similar experience, but he helps us see and ask about where we live, how it is constructed, and the implications.

Along with his books, he has written extensively on the food industry, as well as gardening, bringing to the front much that we may take for granted (an early paper "Why Mow?" proclaims "For however democratic a lawn may be with respect to one's neighbors, with respect to nature it is authoritarian. Under the mower's brutal indiscriminate rotor, the landscape is subdued, homogenized, dominated utterly" Now isn't that pretty sweet, or what?!) BTW, due to a little HTML glitch, the articles cannot be seen except for small white marks on the right side of the "Writing" page.

Finally, the links. Oh, the links! As much as Google talks about putting all the information in the world online, I think a more important facet of contemporary communications is the chance to share and expand that information. (another facet being individual and group identity) Pollan maintains thorough lists, alphabetically(!), serving the agricultural community a real treat.

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