The Silence of the Yams.

Thanks to a last-minute ticket offer from Tom, I got to see Michael Pollan speak last week at the Capitola Book Cafe. I came toting my copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma (In its pristine, uncracked condition it looked shameful next to Tom's dog-eared copy complete with phone number and "Please Return This Book!!!!" inside the front cover. I hope someday someone brings a copy of one of my books to a signing and it is one half as destroyed.) and picked up a copy of his new book, In Defense of Food. Pollan is a charismatic, engaging speaker, and a funny one to boot. This post's title comes from one of the pun-nier moments of the night when he talked about the deafening assertions of labeled food ("Omega-3s!!!" "Fat free!!!!" "Lowers cholesterol!!!") drowning out the natural goodness of the produce aisle.

Pollan's career straddles the academic world and the "real" one; his books are brilliant and accessible; he teaches at Berkeley but steps outside academia to write about things like the Farm Bill. He has an intellectually challenging career that makes an impact, and I'd say that's exactly what I want. Food writing is all well and good - there's a part of me that wants to bicker over porcinis and portobellas and debate the merits of salted versus unsalted butter - but Pollan proves that food writing goes beyond truffles and saffron, that it can and should try to change the way our world looks.

Come back and marry me, Michael Pollan.