Bill Marler Addresses the WSU - Pollan Controversy

Here is an update to the previous blog post about Washington State University's decision to pull the Michael Pollan book, Omnivore's Dilemma from its mandatory freshman read.

It turns out that noted food safety lawyer Bill Marler is an alumnus of WSU. Anxious to provide his "Cougars" with a chance to do right by this issue, Mr. Marler publicly offered to pay to bring Michael Pollan to speak at the university. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that WSU accepted his generous offer. Looks like the students will have lots to talk about, with food and agriculture at the forefront of the discussion.

Pollan Book Selected, Dropped from WSU "Common Reading"

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a faculty committee at Washington State University selected Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" as a common-reading text for freshmen next fall.

[F]aculty members effusively praised the award-winning book and hoped that people at the land-grant university were ready to have a serious debate about the practice of agriculture in America.

“Because this book deals with the food we eat today, it is likely to engender lively discussion and even disagreement,” wrote one professor who had recommended it to the committee. “But discussion and disagreement are the bread and butter of academic discourse.”

Well, nevermind. The book has been dropped as a mandatory read. According to the WSU website notice:

This year, given the circumstances currently facing our institution, changes must be made to the program. Instead of distributing the current selection, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, at the Alive! summer orientation sessions as was previously done, program staff will contact faculty to ascertain whether they wish to use the book in their classes, and then will arrange for distribution.

Some faculty suspect pressure from agribusiness interests.

Read about it at Washington State's Dilemma: How to Serve Up a Book Criticizing the Food Industry.

Post Script - just received an email from someone at Western Washington University. Omnivore's Dilemma is their selection for "Western Reads" and they are sticking with it!

Recent Headlines from Nebraska Department of Ag

Food, The Environment, and Civilization in Peril

We desperately need a new way of thinking, a new mind-set. The thinking that got us into this bind will not get us out. When Elizabeth Kolbert, a writer for the New Yorker, asked energy guru Amory Lovins about thinking outside the box, Lovins responded: "There is no box."

There is no box. That is the mind-set we need if civilization is to survive.

These are the concluding words of an essay Could Food Shortages Bring Down Civilization? published in the May 2009 Scientific American. The author, Lester Brown, heralded as "one of the world's most influential thinkers" is deeply concerned about the direction of our food, fuel and environmental policies. He writes that, "[o]ur continuing failure to deal with the environmental declines that are undermining the world food economy—most important, falling water tables, eroding soils and rising temperatures—forces me to conclude that such a collapse is possible."

In this thought-provoking essay, Brown notes our inability to increase food production on par with increases in population and highlights the stress that this causes on societies that are already in turmoil. Demand for grain stocks for human food now competes with other less efficient uses - fuel and livestock feed for meat production. Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production, and they are getting worse. Brown advocates for urgent action to stem these three environmental emergencies before it is too late.

He lays out the framework for his plan - Plan B.

Similar in scale and urgency to the U.S. mobilization for World War II, Plan B has four components: a massive effort to cut carbon emissions by 80 percent from their 2006 levels by 2020; the stabilization of the world’s population at eight billion by 2040; the eradication of poverty; and the restoration of forests, soils and aquifers.

A significant agenda, no doubt. I encourage all to read this sobering assessment and to consider "there is no box."

Investing in Food Security - in Other Countries

Bloomberg news recently reported Japan's efforts to promote farm investment overseas to enhance food security.

Japan is considering providing loans from a government-owned bank for companies to purchase and lease farmland abroad, Munemitsu Hirano, counsellor at the international affairs department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said. The government may also use foreign aid to improve infrastructure such as storage and port facilities in developing countries, he said. . . . Japan relies on imports for 60 percent of its food and last year purchased almost all its corn requirements from the U.S., the world’s largest exporter.

Grain imports are indispensable for Japan as we don’t have enough arable land to satisfy domestic needs,” Hirano said in an April 24 interview. “We also need to diversify supply sources as we are heavily dependent on imports from the U.S.

The article reported that the investments are likely to focus on Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Romania and Hungary as possible investment targets.

Japan's efforts are part of an increasing trend.


The map above is associated with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) report issued in April titled, Land-grabbing by Foreign Investors in Developing Countries. The report notes the risk of "second-generation colonialism" in such deals. The report concludes:

Foreign investment can provide key resources for agriculture, including development of needed infrastructure and expansion of livelihood options for local people. If large-scale land acquisitions cause land expropriation or unsustainable use, however, foreign investments in agricultural land can become politically unacceptable. It is therefore in the long-run interest of investors, host governments, and the local people involved to ensure that these arrangements are properly negotiated, practices are sustainable, and benefits are shared. Because of the transnational nature of such arrangements, no single institutional mechanism will ensure this outcome. Rather, a combination of international law, government policies, and the involvement of civil society, the media, and local communities is needed to minimize the threats and realize the benefits.

NY Times Graphics on Organic Farming

The May 2, 2009 New York Times includes an interesting article, Hot Spots for Organics on farming in America. Graphical maps depict the location of organic farms, overall farms, vegetable farms, orchards, and dairy farms.
The article notes that, "[o]rganic vegetables now account for 5 percent of all vegetable sales; organic dairies, which are the fastest-growing sector, now produce 1 percent of the nation's milk."