This Sunday, writer and sustainable food guru Michael Pollan spoke at the Zingerman’s Roadhouse as a fundraiser for Ann Arbor’s Homegrown Festival as well as Edible Avalon, a community gardening program for those living in Avalon Housing. Pollan is best known for his rule of thumb, “Eat food. Not too Much. Mostly Plants”, which encourages people to eat local, sustainable, and most importantly real food. Sunday’s event echoed this theme, discussing everything from the current status of the slow food movement to microwaves to the hunger for a feeling of community.

The event began with Roadhouse Chef Alex Young discussing all of the locally-sourced appetizers from Zingerman’s own Cornman Farms, followed by introductions and thank-yous from Kim Bayer of the Homegrown Festival and Kris Kaul of Edible Avalon. Pollan hosted the discussion with filmmaker and local food advocate Chris Bedford, who opened by asking Pollan about the state of food. To this, Pollan showed his excitement that the food movement in the United States is constantly growing stronger, while also expressing his concern that it’s still a dark time for food, and there are huge strides that still need to be taken in the future. As he explained, there are only a few key players in the food production system, and how eaters are threatened the control that these players have over the market place. 

When asked what can be done locally and across the nation about these issues, Pollan brought up supporting the tax on high fructose corn syrup, while lamenting the current subsidization of corn syrup in some areas. As Chef Alex Young joked, “it’s probably the same money being moved around.” He also encouraged voting with your wallet by shopping at farmers markets, and suggested implementing programs to allow food stamps to be used at farmers markets all over the country.

Pollan then moved onto a discussion about the choices one makes when eating, and how food is fundamental because it offers eaters a choice that many other aspects of one’s life do not. He urged the audience to think through the consequences of what they eat, saying that while he is not one himself, he has the highest respect for vegetarians and vegans because of their awareness of what they are consuming.  He asked the audience to have the same kind of awareness in all of their food choices, no matter if they feel that animals should be in our diet or not. 

One of the biggest themes in Pollan’s talk was the role of food in building communities. As he explained, people feel an inherent hunger for communities, and sharing meals is one of the strongest acts to create this sense of community. As he said, most mortal enemies have never shared a meal together. He then went on to say that the microwave is one of the most destructive forces to this sense of community, as it makes it so that not everyone is eating the same thing at the same time. When meals are cooked in the microwave, they have to be cooked one at a time, which leads to what he called “serial eating” rather than shared.

Pollan closed on a darker note, explaining that the current food system is bound for a breakdown at some point in the near future, whether it be with oil prices, water, or something more difficult to predict. And in order to evade this kind of breakdown, consumers needed to build up alternatives to the commercial food system. While apologizing for his switching of metaphors, Pollan closed by asking the audience to “let a thousand flowers bloom and see what works, and don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” And with that, Pollan’s words left me inspired, a little bit scared for the future, and definitely heading to the farmer’s market on Saturday.