The day I saw Michael Pollan speak, I ate a Twix bar. I never eat Twix bars. And after I listened to one of the greatest food minds in North America speak, I felt shamed and full of corn syrup. Thankfully, the sugar rush made me forget about my shame about five minutes into his talk. Chicago may be the land of never-ending winter, but I’m lucky enough to live in a city that gathers great thinkers of the world and lets you listen to them for free. I had the pleasure of seeing Eric Schlosser speak a few years back when his book, Chew On This, came out. And this week, I was able to see the great Michael Pollan speak about his book, In Defense of Eating, and the current state of the food in the U.S. today. Here are some jewels of wisdom from the evening: *ME: I don’t know what was more awesome before the show: my older brother, Dilip, who joined me for the talk, making up a chant to bring Pollan on stage sooner: “Eat Food, Not too much, mostly greens, RAH! Eat Food, Not too much, mostly greens, RAH!” OR when he exclaimed loudly as he walked into the packed room, “So who is this Pollan guy now? Didn’t he invent the Atkins diet? Or was he the author of Eat, Drink, Man, Woman?” LOVE my family. Just can’t pretend to know some of them in public. *Me: Host Bill Kurtis has a velvet-y smooth voice, like melted brown sugar. An excellent surprise. *Pollan: While we all know the current Western diet is unhealthy and makes us sick, no one exactly knows WHY it makes us sick. *Pollan:Suggested that the nature of capitalism is one of the reasons why we are eating unhealthy food. The more processed a food is, the more money you can get for it, so of course we have an abundance of processed foods that we love to eat. *Pollan: Spoke about the dangers of the government working with the food industry to create food policy. Talked about George McGovern and his committee that created the first “Dietary Goals for the United States” in the 1970s. Originally, the document said “Eat less red meat”. Because of pressure from the food industry on the government, he was forced to change his message to read “Choose meat that will reduce your saturated fat intake.” This was significant b/c the government took an “eat less” message and turned it into an ” eat more” message. It also took something we knew, red meat, and replaced it with something unfamiliar, saturated fat, which made the process harder for the average consumer. *Pollan: You have to be careful, because once you critique food, the processed food companies will find a way around it. Example: In his latest book, Pollan suggested eating foods with 5 ingredients or less. Anymore and it wasn’t considered to be food anymore. Since then, Haagen Daas has come out with a 5 ingredient ice cream line, and Tostitos is advertising a 3 ingredient tortilla chip. *Kurtis: He shared some impressive stats about American agriculture, then reminded Pollan that he really knows nothing about food, he simply memorized Pollan’s books. Awesome. *Me: I finally realize that Bill Kurtis is also the man behind Tallgrass Beef Company, and presented at the very first Culinary Historians of Chicago Meeting! I ate his grass fed beef chili. No wonder he seemed so damn familiar. *Pollan: He feels there is an exciting social food movement going on in the U.S. today, and it is happening on many levels. *Pollan: We need to stop denigrating farming and start supporting it as a profession people actually want to do. *Pollan: We won’t be able to switch to an entirely local food system because there are not enough farmers in the U.S. and not enough usable land left. But we should still try to re-regionalize our food as much as possible. *Pollan: We really need policy changes that will make going organic an easier and more affordable process for a farmer. Currently takes 3 years to get certified, and many farmers cannot afford to wait that long. A person from the audience asked Pollan how people in places like Chicago are supposed to eat local all year round, when food cannot grow in Chicago for at least 6 months of the year. *Pollan: There are people out there who are working on making greenhouses more sustainable. One person is working with an unheated greenhouse, which can’t grow everything, but can still grow some vegetables. Another person is using heated fertilizer to keep his greenhouse warm, and both seem to be successful. As far as eating locally in the winter, you should start canning, freezing and preserving local food when it is in season. Not all foods have to be local, because they aren’t always sustainable in the off season. Meat is a good example. You wouldn’t want to buy grass-fed beef from Illinois in the dead of winter, because there is no good grass for the cattle to graze on that time of year. *Pollan: More things we need: more small slaughter houses, more mobile abattoirs. Convert more corn land into grazing land for cows, which will help improve more lands for sustainable farms as it replenishes soil. Another person from the audience asked how we can teach young children to eat properly and eat organic when many cannot afford to eat that way at home. *Pollan: From a grassroots level, one of the main focuses of everyone should be improving school food, which will help rebuild the culture of food in the U.S. and also help with public health. This could be done through creating school gardens that students work in, offering cooking classes to kids and parents, and literally teaching them how to eat, which means allowing more than 10 minutes for the kids to eat. *Pollan: Leena, I’m ashamed that you ate a Twix bar. I can smell the corn syrup dripping through your pores. If you were going to cheat, at least do it with a Snickers. SO much better than a Twix. *Pollan: From now on, everyone should vote with their fork! Thanks to The Chicago Public Library, The Book Cellar and Chicago Matters for putting this awesome event on! ~LTG!
