Author and reknowned food expert Michael Pollan will present a lecture at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14, 2010, in Denison University’s Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). In this talk, Pollan will explore his views of what the industrialization of food and agriculture has meant for the health and happiness of people as consumers, and will look at the growing national movement to renovate the food system. TICKETS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR THIS EVENT. For more information, contact academic events coordinator Marlaine Browning at 740-587-6206 or by e-mail at browningm@denison.edu..

Pollan claims that food is being undermined by science and the food industry, both of which focus on nutrients, good and bad, rather than on actual plants, animals and fungi. The rise of “nutritionism,” he says, has complicated the lives of American eaters without doing anything for their health, except possibly to make it worse.

Pollan notes that nutritionism arose to deal with a genuine problem: that the modern American diet is responsible for an epidemic of chronic diseases, from obesity and type II diabetes to heart disease and many cancers, but that nutritionism has obscured the roots of that problem and has stood in the way of a solution. He explains that the solution involves putting the focus back on foods and food chains, since personal health can’t be separated from the health of the soil, plants and animals that make up the food chains in which people take part.

Pollan’s lecture is the closing keynote for the campuswide “Consumption” theme lecture series.

Calendar Listing:

CALENDAR LISTING: Denison University, Granville — Lecture by author and food expert Michael Pollan at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 14, in Denison University’s Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). TICKETS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR THIS EVENT. For more information about this event, contact academic events coordinator Marlaine Browning at 740-587-6206 or by e-mail at browningm@denison.edu..

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

For press inquiries:

Name

Barbara Stambaugh

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Director, Media Relations

Primary Email

stambaughb@denison.edu

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(740) 587-8575