Michael Pollan: Foodie Philosopher

All that was needed to confirm that you were a member of the tribe was a glance at the book cover sticking out of your canvas bag as you browsed organic arugula at the farmers’ market. Michael Pollan’s 2006 treatise The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals wasn’t the first to deconstruct America’s supersize industrial food system, but no other can claim its enormous influence, both as a literary work of high-foodie writing and as the nucleus for a movement. He traced the ills of factory food–obesity, environmental destruction, animal cruelty–to the government-mandated overproduction of a single staple crop: corn. He made readers understand what was wrong, pointing them toward a healthier, more sustainable future.

And a tastier one. Because Pollan the muckraker has the soul of a gourmet chef. It’s not just that organic, local fare is better for the earth; it’s simply better, period. In his 2008 follow-up, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, Pollan made the convincing case that eating for true, lasting pleasure, not the quick hit of fast food, can be better for you than slavishly following fad diets. He boiled down the philosophy into three simple sentences–“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”–the basic commandments of the sustainable-food movement.

That movement is his real legacy. Pollan brought food writing–once the province of haute cuisine–to the masses, or at least the masses willing to spend an extra dollar at the nearest Whole Foods. It could be a vote for a better planet, a sign that you were a better person, and a member of the tribe.

–BRYAN WALSH