Field Trip to see Michael Pollan!

When I first got the email that Michael Pollan was coming to the Twin Cities to speak, I was immediately intrigued. I hadn't personally read any of his books cover to cover, but I had definitely heard of his work, listened to some of his Ted Talks, and listened to various friends and family discuss their opinions of his work.

This class has caused me to actually dig deeper into issues/perspectives I have never given much thought to; almost more so than any other class I have taken. I never thought I would be a vegetarian, and yet I now find myself not having eaten meat in the past three or four months. I never knew much about the food system, nor did I make an effort to get to know it, and now I find myself digging into controversial issues. The same goes for this Michael Pollan talk; prior to this course, I would have maybe thought, "Oh, that would be cool", and left it at that. But because of this class, I thought, "Wow... I would learn a lot by going to this. I need to make that happen." The next thing I knew, I was buying a, in my cheap opinion, more expensive ticket than I should have. It was so great to hear Michael discuss some real issues about our food system, and how the practice of cooking has changed so drastically- for the worse- in our country. I was genuinely interested in every word he spoke!

The experience of hearing Michael Pollan speak on behalf of his new book, "Cooked", was really great. Besides waiting in the huge line wrapping around outside the synagogue in 35 degree weather for 30 minutes, and the fact that the man sitting next to me was trying not to fall asleep the entire time (which was very distracting), I found my experience to be wonderful! I thought that Pollan to be extremely intelligent, witty, and entertaining. Though I may not have read any of his books, getting to hear him speak about one was all the more amazing! After he spoke, there was a great Q&A session.