The high cost of cheap food

Published July 26, 2004

The George Link Jr. Environmental Awareness Lecture, titled "Following the Food Chain: The High Price of Cheap Food" by Michael Pollan, will take place on Tuesday, July 27, at 7:30 p.m in Filene Auditorium of Moore Hall. Pollan's most recent book, The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, a New York Times bestseller, examines the relationship between plants and humans, and asks who (or what) is really domesticating whom. The apple's sweetness, for example, made it popular with settlers who introduced it to America, thereby enlarging the apple's territory by an entire continent. Pollan chooses four plants to examine humans' sometimes all-consuming and destructive desire for four things: sweetness (apples), beauty (tulips), intoxication (marijuana) and control (potatoes). Pollan's other books include Second Nature: A Gardener's Education and A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder. He is a contributing writer to many publications, including The New York Times Magazine and Harper's, where he was the executive editor for years. The lecture is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program. For more information, call 646-2838.

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