May 20, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Hunter Francis
Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium
805-756-5086; wfrancis@calpoly.edu
Cal Poly to Host Michael Pollan at Oct. 14 Fundraiser Dinner for Sustainable Agriculture
SAN LUIS OBISPO – The Cal Poly College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences’ Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium will hold its fifth annual fundraiser dinner, “A Taste of the Future,” on Wednesday, Oct. 14.
This year’s guest speaker will be nationally recognized author, journalist, teacher and sustainable foods advocate Michael Pollan. For 20 years, Pollan has written about the places where the human and natural worlds intersect: food, agriculture, gardens and architecture.
Pollan’s newest book is “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.”His previous book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” was named one of the 10 best books of the year by the New York Times and the Washington Post. It won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award for best food writing, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Pollan also is the author of “The Botany of Desire,” “A Place of My Own,” and “Second Nature.”
A contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine, Pollan is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for best magazine series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism. Pollan served for many years as executive editor of Harper’s Magazine and is now the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing, Best American Essays, and the Norton Book of Nature Writing. Pollan lectures widely on food, agriculture and gardening. More information is available at his Web site: www.michaelpollan.com.
The fundraiser event also features a gourmet dinner, with local and sustainably-raised ingredients prepared by some of the Central Coast’s finest chefs and vintners under the direction of the Park Restaurant’s Maegen Loring. The dinner will be at 5:30 p.m. at the Conway Family Vineyards at Rancho Arroyo Grande in southern San Luis Obispo County. Tickets to the fundraiser dinner are $150 per person.
In addition to appearing at the dinner, Pollan will give a free public lecture Thursday, Oct. 15 in Sidney Harman Hall in the Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center at 11 a.m. The public lecture will be preceded by a “Sustainability Showcase” hosted by the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences in the Performing Arts Center lobby and a “Sustainability Fair” organized by Cal Poly students on the PAC Plaza, both at 10 a.m.
For tickets or more information, call Hunter Francis at 805-756-5086 or visit the Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium Web site: www.sarc.calpoly.edu.
# # #