To Michael Pollan, good health begins with good food. If you want to change your diet, improve your health and fight the current industrial food system that contributes to chronic diseases such as obesity and diabetes, Mr. Pollan says, "eat food, not edible food-like substances." Mr. Pollan will speak at the Tivoli Theater on Thursday, as a part of the George T. Hunter Lecture Series.
Mr. Pollan’s lecture at the Tivoli will explore how changes to the food industry in the last century have affected our health and happiness as eaters. He will also examine the growing national movement to change how we produce and eat food.
The lecture is free and open to the public and seating will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. The lecture will begin at 7 p.m., with doors opening at 5:30 p.m.
The lecture is sponsored by the Benwood Foundation, in partnership with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Gaining Ground (growchattanooga.org), Chattanooga’s local food initiative. This event is also a part of the HATCHChatt Festival (hatchchatt.org)
Michael Pollan, who is the best-selling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, and Food Rules, focuses his work on the places where the humans and the natural world intersect. The Omnivore’s Dilemma was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. His most recent book is Food Rules was an immediate No. 1 New York Times bestseller upon publication.
In 2009, Mr. Pollan appeared in the documentary Food, Inc., which was nominated for an academy award; and, in 2010, he was chosen by TIME Magazine for the 2010 Time 100 in the Thinkers category.
In addition to publishing regularly in The New York Times Magazine, his articles have appeared in Harper’s Magazine (where he served as executive editor from 1984 to 1994), National Geographic, Mother Jones, The Nation, The New York Review of Books, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Gourmet, House & Garden and Gardens Illustrated. Pollan currently serves as the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at the UC Berkeley School of Journalism.
Now in its fourth year, the George T. Hunter Lecture Series brings renowned thinkers to Chattanooga to address important community issues. Previous speakers in the series have included Madeleine Albright, Malcolm Gladwell, Corey Booker and Michelle Rhee.
For more information on the 2011-2012 George T. Hunter Lecture Series, visit www.benwood.org.