Michael Pollan speaking in Ohio

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma (which I am currently reading) is speaking at Oberlin College on Tuesday, October 28. I don't think I'll be able to make it. Oberlin is a 2+ hour drive from Columbus.

But I do encourage anyone else out there to go see him if you can. I am really enjoying his book. I can only read a little at a time because he's so in depth--there is a lot to learn and think about. I'm still on the first part of the book --Corn. He covers everything from the history of farming in the U.S., the invention of chemical fertilizers and the boom of corn production to factory farms and feedlots. It's so fascinating...and moderately horrifying. A few of my friends have read or are currently reading this book also. We're all amazed at Mr. Pollan's story.

I found this on the Penguin Books website:

A few facts and figures from The Omnivore's Dilemma

• Of the 38 ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, there are at least 13
  that are derived from corn.

  One in every five American meals today is eaten in the car.

  
  The food industry burns nearly a fifth of all the petroleum consumed in
  the United States¯more than we burn with our cars and more than any other
  industry consumes.

  
  It takes ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of
  food energy to an American plate.

  
  Industrial fertilizer and industrial pesticides both owe their existence
  to the conversion of the World War II munitions industry to civilian uses—nerve
  gases became pesticides, and ammonium nitrate explosives became nitrogen
  fertilizers.

  
  Because of the obesity epidemic, today’s generation of children will be
  the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter
  than their parents’ life expectancy.