Over 7,000 students, faculty and community members gathered in the Kohl Center Thursday to hear author Michael Pollan's lecture on nutrition in modern America.
As part of the first annual ‘Go Big Read,' UW-Madison's common reading program, Pollan's book ""In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto"" was chosen with the aim of connecting students, staff and community members and sparking discussion throughout campus.
According to Chancellor Biddy Martin, Go Big Read was designed to be more than just a book club.
""The purpose of the book project is to generate interest in reading, which is the heart of education, and to build intellectual community by focusing on issues that matter,"" she said.
On Thursday, Pollan used the subject of health and nutrition as the central theme of his lecture.
""What I want to do in this talk today is try to connect the dots between the problems of health in the American diet and the problem of health in the whole food system and see if we can't expand tonight our working definition of that beautiful word ‘health.'""
Pollan first identified what he believes to be the four false American beliefs about food—eating is solely for health, nutrients are exclusively bad or good, food is purely the sum of its nutrients and one must be dependent on experts to tell them about food.
In the remainder of his lecture, Pollan offered several ways in which Americans can overcome these ideas, including reducing the consumption of processed foods.
""If [Americans] turn their backs on processed food and begin to eat more real food, it would revolutionize our agriculture,"" he said.
Though many audience members applauded this statement, some were not in agreement with Pollan, who has been known to criticize modern agriculture.
Sue Crane, one of many area farmers in the audience who came to the lecture to present their side of the modern farming debate, said she disagreed with Pollan's viewpoint.
""I was surprised at how many people perhaps don't realize what's happening on farms,"" she said. ""We have to continue to talk about modern agriculture, how important it is and what we do on our farms.""
Crane added that society should recognize the many benefits of modern agriculture, rather than condemning it.
""One of the reasons [farmers] have large fields, milk many cows is so everyone—rich people, poor people, all sorts of people—are able to eat great food,"" she said.
A panel discussion on Pollan's book will conclude this year's Go Big Read program in the Union Theater at 3:30 p.m. Friday.
