Boston Flora

Tag: Michael Pollan

  • Wednesday, May 16, 6:30 pm – Michael Pollan

    Harvard Book Store welcomes renowned writer Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, for a discussion of his latest book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. He will be joined in conversation by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind. The event will take place at the First Parish Church, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge on Wednesday, May 16.

    When Michael Pollan set out to research how LSD and psilocybin (the active ingredient in magic mushrooms) are being used to provide relief to people suffering from difficult-to-treat conditions such as depression, addiction, and anxiety, he did not intend to write what is undoubtedly his most personal book. But upon discovering how these remarkable substances are improving the lives not only of the mentally ill but also of healthy people coming to grips with the challenges of everyday life, he decided to explore the landscape of the mind in the first person as well as the third. Thus began a singular adventure into the experience of various altered states of consciousness, along with a dive deep into both the latest brain science and the thriving underground community of psychedelic therapists. Pollan sifts the historical record to separate the truth about these mysterious drugs from the myths that have surrounded them since the 1960s when a handful of psychedelic evangelists catalyzed a powerful backlash against what was then a promising field of research.

    A unique and elegant blend of science, memoir, travel writing, history, and medicine, How to Change Your Mind is a triumph of participatory journalism. By turns dazzling and edifying, it is the gripping account of a journey to an exciting and unexpected new frontier in our understanding of the mind, the self, and our place in the world. The true subject of Pollan’s “mental travelogue” is not just psychedelic drugs but also the eternal puzzle of human consciousness and how, in a world that offers us both struggle and beauty, we can do our best to be fully present and find meaning in our lives.

    Tickets, $28.75, includes a book, and will also be available at Harvard Book Store and over the phone at 617-661-1515. Unless the event is sold out, any remaining tickets will be on sale at the door of the venue when doors open. Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.

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  • Sunday, December 4 – Tuesday, December 6 – 6th Annual Soil and Nutrition Conference

    The 6th Annual Soil & Nutrition Conference, sponsored by the Bionutrient Food Association, explores how the intersection of farm and human ecosystems holds the key to environmental sustainability, quality food and overall well-being. The conference will take place December 4 – 6 at the Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Registration is $225 ($200 for BFA members.) Register online at http://bionutrient.org/soil-and-nutrition-conference

    Bringing together the collective knowledge of the food movement from the perspectives of successful farmers, cutting-edge researchers, enlightening health practitioners, and pioneers of food quality, this conference is a nexus of information and networking for all interested in delving deeper into the connections and importance of soil and nutrition.

    Integrating these diverse viewpoints, this year’s program engages growers and gardeners with principles, practices and innovations for ecologically and financially sound farming, and presents the health-conscious consumer and medical professional valuable skills to effectively advocate and select for quality in their local region and food supply.

    Conference Topics:

    Successful applications of biological (ecological) management, from garden to wholesale scale
    Improving public health through agriculture, education and local capacity building
    Effectively using nutrition to mitigate disease across the landscape
    Regenerating ecological systems to provide environmental stability and weather climate change
    Flavor as a focal point in the food quality conversation
    Implementation and development of techniques for grower success including seed establishment, emergence and in season monitoring solutions
    Growing and marketing your farm business with an eye to quality
    Improving human health through conscientious food production and cultivation of soil health

    The BFA is proud to announce that grass-farmer, author and lecturer Joel Salatin will be the keynote speaker at its 6th Annual Conference. His family’s Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley is a multi-generational, pasture-based and “beyond organic” enterprise. At Polyface, Salatin follows the guiding principles of transparency, grass-based agriculture, individuality, valuing community, following nature’s template, and embracing earthworms. Featured in Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Salatin is widely-known throughout the alternative and sustainable farming world for promoting ecologically friendly and economically viable farming strategies and methods. He is the author of numerous works, including: Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal: War stories from the local food front, Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A farmer’s advice for happier hens, healthier people, and a better world, and The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer.

    With over 30 additional speakers currently scheduled to present at this year’s conference, all widely considered experts in their respective fields, choosing between which sessions to attend will be a wonderful problem to have!

  • Friday, July 24, 7:00 pm – Unprocessed

    In the tradition of Michael Pollan’s bestselling In Defense of Food comes this remarkable chronicle, from a founding editor of Edible Baja Arizona, of a young woman’s year-long journey of eating only whole, unprocessed foods–intertwined with a journalistic exploration of what “unprocessed” really means, why it matters, and how to afford it.

    In January of 2012, Megan Kimble was a twenty-six-year-old living in a small apartment without even a garden plot to her name. But she cared about where food came from, how it was made, and what it did to her body: so she decided to go an entire year without eating processed foods. Unprocessed is the narrative of Megan’s extraordinary year, in which she milled wheat, extracted salt from the sea, milked a goat, slaughtered a sheep, and more–all while earning an income that fell well below the federal poverty line.

    What makes a food processed? As Megan would soon realize, the answer to that question went far beyond cutting out snacks and sodas, and became a fascinating journey through America’s food system, past and present. She learned how wheat became white; how fresh produce was globalized and animals industrialized. But she also discovered that in daily life, as she attempted to balance her project with a normal social life–which included dating–the question of what made a food processed was inextricably tied to gender and economy, politics and money, work and play.

    Backed by extensive research and wide-ranging interviews–and including tips on how to ditch processed food and transition to a real-food lifestyle–Unprocessed offers provocative insights not only on the process of food, but also the processes that shape our habits, communities, and day-to-day lives.

    Megan Kimble is a food writer living in Tucson, Arizona, and the managing editor of Edible Baja Arizona, a local foods magazine serving Tucson and the borderlands. She will appear at Porter Square Books, 25 White Street in Cambridge, on Friday, July 24 at 7 pm for a talk and book signing. For more information visit http://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/megan-kimble-unprocessed.

  • Tuesday, November 10, 6:30pm – 9:00 pm – FRESH

    The Upton 4-H applied for funding from the Upton Cultural Council, a local agency which is itself supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, in order to present a free screening of the movie FRESH on Tuesday, November 10, beginning at 6:30 pm at the Nipmuc Regional High School Auditorium, 90 Pleasant Street, in Upton, Massachusetts.

    FRESH celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the rapid transformation of our agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources, and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet.

    Among several main characters, FRESH features urban farmer and activist Will Allen, the recipient of MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer and entrepreneur, Joel Salatin, made famous by Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma; and supermarket owner, David Ball, challenging our Wal-Mart dominated economy.

    Please bring non-perishable items and  grocery store gift cards for donation to local food pantries, as part of the MA 4-H Cares About Community Statewide Annual Food Drive.

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  • Wednesday, September 30, 2:00 – 3:30 pm – Food, Inc.

    Harvard Pilgrim Health Care has teamed up with the Museum of Science to present a free screening of the critically acclaimed film FOOD, INC., by noted documentarian Robert Kenner.  Narrated by experts Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto), and featuring interviews with forward-thinking entrepreneurs such as Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm and Joel Salatin of Pollyface, Inc,, FOOD, INC. reveals surprising, shocking truths about what we eat, how it is produced, who we become as a nation, and where we go from here.  The screening will be at the Museum of Science’s Cahners Theater, and the doors will open at 1:15 pm.  A panel discussion will follow with Gary Hirshberg, Chairman, President, and CEO of Stonyfield Farm, Jody Adams, James Beard award-winning Chef/Owner of Rialto, and Jessie Banhazl, Owner and Co-Founder of Green City Growers. This discussion will be moderated by Louisa Kasdon, writer and food editor of Stuff Magazine.  Registration is available through the Museum of Science , or you may email David Sittenfeld at forumrsvp@mos.org, or call 617-589-4258.

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