Best-Selling Author Michael Pollan to Appear at IU 2/26

To best-selling author Michael Pollan, good health begins with good food. If you want to change your diet, improve your health and fight a "Nutritional Industrial Complex" that fosters chronic diseases such as diabetes, Pollan says, "eat food, not edible food-like substances." Pollan will appear at IU Auditorium Friday, Feb. 26, in a signature event of Indiana University's 26th annual ArtsWeek.

In his autobiographical talk, titled "Out of the Garden and Onto the Plate: One Writer's Path," Pollan tells the story of the path his writing and thinking have taken since he first planted a (disastrous) vegetable garden under the influence of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The folly that ensued convinced him that all the great books about humans and nature he had read in school hadn't prepared him -- or our culture -- for practical work in nature. Pollan discovered that a literature of the garden and farm might offer a useful addition to the wilderness tradition, and that an exploration on the messy places where nature and culture mix it up -- including agriculture -- might help guide us through current challenges, especially those related to healthful eating and the environment. Pollan's talk includes brief readings from several of his books.

A contributing editor to the New York Times Magazine and the Knight Professor of Journalism at University of California, Berkeley, Pollan is also the author of three New York Times bestsellers about food: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.

IU Bloomington's Office of the Vice Provost for Research coordinates the ArtsWeek winter festival, with participation from the larger university and City of Bloomington communities. The theme of this year's ArtsWeek is "Arts and the Environment."

Named by Newsweek magazine as one of the top 10 new thought leaders of the 21st century's first decade, Pollan has won numerous awards for his writing. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing, Best American Essays, and the Norton Book of Nature. In 2009, Pollan appeared in the documentary Food, Inc. and the PBS documentary "The Botany of Desire." Most recently, he has been interviewed on "Good Morning America" and Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show." For more information, see www.michaelpollan.com.

Free general admission tickets for Pollan's lecture will be issued to IU Bloomington students with a valid student ID beginning this Thursday, Jan. 28, at 10 a.m. at the IU Auditorium Box Office. Non-students will be able to obtain free general admission tickets beginning on Monday, Feb. 1, at 10 a.m. at the IU Auditorium Box Office. There will be a ticket limit of four per person. The IU Auditorium Box Office is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ticket information is available for all Auditorium events by phone at 812-855-1103 and online at iuauditorium.com.