Michael Pollan Interview at the Herbst Theatre
No more sour grapes! Food is back in the limelight as the documentary “The Botany of Desire” premieres at the Herbst Theatre, Wednesday, September 16th featuring a Q&A with Michael Pollan. The film explores the coevolution of domesticated plants and humans tracing how we grow, cultivate, and genetically engineer our food. The main protagonists are the apple, tulip, marijuana and potato symbolically representing the desire of sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control, respectively. Food hasn’t a played such a starring role since the Miller Park Sausage Races.
In a rare local address, Michael Pollan harvests a breadth of research and experiences in challenging our basic assumptions about home cooking, the food supply chain, and organic food. For example, Pollan contends that the meaning of “cooking” has been co-opted by corporations eliminating the key step of assembling ingredients in order to sell their ready-made heat and serve meals. With corporations as the chef, “they’re bound to go heavy on sugar, fat and salt; these are three tastes we’re hard-wired to like, which happen to be dirt cheap to add and do a good job masking the shortcomings of processed food.” His alternative recommendation: cook it yourself!
If you are unable to see Michael Pollan live, “The Botany of Desire” will be broadcast on your local PBS station, airing October 28, 2009.
Till next time!
~Mister Archer
Documentary
“The Botany of Desire”
September 16, 2009
Herbst Theatre, San Francisco
(415) 392-4400 for tickets
Movie
“Food Inc”
Red Vic, September 22nd – 24th, 2009
RedVicMovieHouse.com
Cover Story
“Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch”
Michael Pollan
NY Times Magazine, July 29, 2009
