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This will be the second weekend appearance for the former Cornwall resident and frequent visitor to town. He plans to read from his 2008 book "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto," and will also be a guest at the Cornwall Farmers Market in West Cornwall Saturday morning.
The author's most recent book weighs the contemporary obsession with diets and its consequence of viewing food scientifically against traditional and ecologically inclined attitudes toward what Americans put in their mouths.
"He's such a strong proponent of eating food that is grown locally," Ms. Cady said, ticking off the physical, environmental and cultural benefits of the practice. "I think he's been such a source of the food movement in this country."
Mr. Pollan has indeed become a major voice within America's movement toward the organic and the local, and away from the mass-produced, over-processed factory food. His first exploration of food, "The Botany of Desire" from 2001, chronicled how man's relationship with apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes has developed over the centuries from early agriculture to genetic engineering.
"The Omnivore's Dilemma," published in 2006, analyzed the four methods man used, or now uses, to feed himself, namely hunting and gathering, smaller local farms, major organic farms and an industrial food system, dissecting how each underscores man's tenuous or compelling relationship with the natural world.
Mr. Pollan teaches journalism at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine. The author will sign books at both the farmers market at 11:30 a.m. and the lecture at 1 p.m. at the school located at 5 Cream Hill Road in West Cornwall.
All of his books will also be available for sale. Tickets to the afternoon talk are $25 for adults and $5 for students. All proceeds benefit The Cornwall Library's general fund. Tickets may be purchased at the door or by calling 860-672-6874.
