Michael Pollan

Starting out as a certified Manhattan slob (ask any woodchuck), Michael Pollan worked his way up to the happy estate of civilized gardener in only a few years. He is now, one might say, one of nature's noblemen, but when he began his garden in the middle of nowhere in the hard climate of far Connecticut he flew into an unworthy rage the first time a woodchuck, dear little fellow, ate a few of his lettuces.

When officials at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo scheduled a free lecture by bestselling author Michael Pollan, they envisioned a lively talk about sustainable food, along with Pollan's customary critiques of agribusiness. What they didn't expect was a wave of denunciations from angry farming and ranching alumni who rank Pollan as a force only slightly less damaging to agriculture than the Mediterranean fruit fly. Threatening to pull his donations, the head of one of California's biggest ranching operations succeeded in turning today's planned lecture into a panel discussion involving Pollan, a meat-science expert, and a major grower of organic lettuce.

When officials at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo scheduled a free lecture by bestselling author Michael Pollan, they envisioned a lively talk about sustainable food, along with Pollan's customary critiques of agribusiness. What they didn't expect was a wave of denunciations from angry farming and ranching alumni who rank Pollan as a force only slightly less damaging to agriculture than the Mediterranean fruit fly. Threatening to pull his donations, the head of one of California's biggest ranching operations succeeded in turning today's planned lecture into a panel discussion involving Pollan, a meat-science expert, and a major grower of organic lettuce.

IN a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, Michael Pollan quotes Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, on the farm bill now before Congress: "This is not just a farm bill. It's a food bill, and Americans who eat want a stake in it."

THE LOOK OF ARCHITECTURE By Witold Rybczynski, Oxford University Press: 130 pp., $22 "It seems to me that style is one of the enduring--and endearing--aspects of architecture." Witold Rybczynski, not the humblest of critics, sets himself apart from the mainstream architects (practitioners and academics) who insist that serious architecture has "nothing to do with style." They're just being "dishonest," he says dismissively.

For organic farmer Judith Redmond and others like her, Michael Pollan, who wrote "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," is more than a bestselling author. "In our world," she said, "he's a rock star." That's why the balding, bespectacled Pollan cannot shop at his Berkeley farmers market without being approached by adoring fans who thank him for bringing debates about green living and the "sustainable food movement" into the mainstream.

IN a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times, Michael Pollan quotes Tom Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, on the farm bill now before Congress: "This is not just a farm bill. It's a food bill, and Americans who eat want a stake in it."

MICHAEL POLLAN has perfected a tone -- one of gleeful irony and barely suppressed outrage -- and a way of inserting himself into a narrative so that a subject comes alive through what he's feeling and thinking. He is a master at drawing back to reveal the greater issues.

During the course of researching his latest book, "The Botany of Desire," Michael Pollan spent a delightful evening smoking pot in an Amsterdam cafe and made an important discovery about himself and America's $20 billion war on drugs: Marijuana didn't make him feel "stupid or paranoid" anymore.

For organic farmer Judith Redmond and others like her, Michael Pollan, who wrote "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," is more than a bestselling author. "In our world," she said, "he's a rock star." That's why the balding, bespectacled Pollan cannot shop at his Berkeley farmers market without being approached by adoring fans who thank him for bringing debates about green living and the "sustainable food movement" into the mainstream.

MICHAEL POLLAN has perfected a tone -- one of gleeful irony and barely suppressed outrage -- and a way of inserting himself into a narrative so that a subject comes alive through what he's feeling and thinking. He is a master at drawing back to reveal the greater issues.

THE LOOK OF ARCHITECTURE By Witold Rybczynski, Oxford University Press: 130 pp., $22 "It seems to me that style is one of the enduring--and endearing--aspects of architecture." Witold Rybczynski, not the humblest of critics, sets himself apart from the mainstream architects (practitioners and academics) who insist that serious architecture has "nothing to do with style." They're just being "dishonest," he says dismissively.

During the course of researching his latest book, "The Botany of Desire," Michael Pollan spent a delightful evening smoking pot in an Amsterdam cafe and made an important discovery about himself and America's $20 billion war on drugs: Marijuana didn't make him feel "stupid or paranoid" anymore.

Starting out as a certified Manhattan slob (ask any woodchuck), Michael Pollan worked his way up to the happy estate of civilized gardener in only a few years. He is now, one might say, one of nature's noblemen, but when he began his garden in the middle of nowhere in the hard climate of far Connecticut he flew into an unworthy rage the first time a woodchuck, dear little fellow, ate a few of his lettuces.

As most veteran customers know, it takes a pretty thick skin to successfully navigate the Berkeley Bowl, this strident city's most popular grocery store. Outside, petitioners seeking signatures for ballot measures have come to blows with opinionated residents. In the tiny parking lot, nicknamed the Berkeley Brawl, frustrated motorists have been known to ram one another's cars. At the checkout, people have thrown punches and unripened avocados at suspected line-cutters.

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