Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism - Faculty

Michael Pollan

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Phone: (510) 642-8240
More info: michaelpollan.com

Michael Pollan is the author, most recently, of "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto." His previous book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals", was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. It also won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of "The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World", "A Place of My Own", and "Second Nature". A contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, Pollan is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing, Best American Essays and the Norton Book of Nature Writing. Pollan served for many years as executive editor of Harper's Magazine and is now the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley.

Articles by and About Michael Pollan

Farmer In Chief
In a memo for the New York Times Magazine, Knight Professor Michael Pollan advises the president-elect on what's sure to be a prickly policy issue for the next administration: food.
Posted October 17, 2008

Our Decrepit Food Factories
For the The New York Times Magazine, Michael Pollan takes a closer look at two stories in the news--disease-resistant staph and Colony Collapse Disorder-- that may point to an imminent breakdown in the way we're growing food today.
Posted January 1, 2008

Five J-School Students In NY Times Magazine' Ideas Issue
Five North Gate students were published in The New York Times Magazine's annual round-up of 2007's most intriguing new ideas and technologies. Read Andi McDaniel on DIY Democracy; David Gelles on Floating Wind Turbines; Charlie Foster on Fish-Flavored Fish; April Dembosky on Biodegradable Coffins; and Malia Wollan on DNA Based Social Networking. The project has become an annual undertaking of the Knight Program under the direction of Professor Michael Pollan.
Posted December 9, 2007

You Are What You Grow
For the New York Times Magazine, Professor Michael Pollan takes a close look at the Farm Bill -- a "head-hurtingly complicated piece of legislation" that sets the rules for the American food system--and argues that it needs to be rewritten with the interests of eaters placed first.
Posted August 4, 2007

Unhappy Meals
For the New York Times Magazine, Professor Michael Pollan looks at how basic questions about what to eat got so complicated, traces the rise of nutritionism, and reveals a great deal about the institutional imperatives of the food industry.
Posted August 4, 2007

Mass Natural
In this week's New York Times Magazine, Professor Michael Pollan addresses the question: with Wal-Mart going organic, where will organic go?
Posted June 5, 2006

Six Rules For Eating Wisely
For TIME magazine, professor Michael Pollan lays out six rules of thumb for navigating what he calls the "omnivore's dilemma."
Posted June 5, 2006

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Restaurant critic Patric Kuh reviews Michael Pollan's new book for the The Los Angeles Times.
Posted May 6, 2006

Deconstructing Dinner
David Camp reviews Michael Pollan's new book The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals for the The New York Times Book Review.
Posted May 6, 2006

We Are What We (Blindly) Eat
For Business Week, John Carey reviews Michael Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, "a far-reaching and disturbing exploration of America's food production and consumption" and "a penetrating account by an engaging guide."
Posted May 6, 2006

No Bar Code
In Mother Jones, an evangelical Virginia farmer says a revolution against industrial agriculture is just down the road. An excerpt from Michael Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma.
Posted May 6, 2006

The Modern Hunter-Gatherer
An excerpt from The Omnivore's Dilemma is available online.
Posted May 6, 2006

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