Pollan vs. Mackey 2/27 Via Live Webcast

Get a ringside seat. Michael Pollan spars with John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market at Wheeler Auditorium at UC Berkeley where Pollan is Knight Professor of Journalism, Tuesday evening, 2/27.

This should be one exciting event. Tickets are available, but I will forgo the drive across the bridge and watch via live webcast. Check the UC Berkeley Graduate School Of Journalism's web site for details.

For those of you who don't know the history preceding the face-off, in his book Omnivores Dilemma, Pollan was highly critical of Whole Foods for misleading customers with "supermarket pastoral" photography and design which tries to sugar-coat their almost exclusive support of industrial organic where monoculture crops, long transportation chains, and sub-par animal care practices reign. Mackey responded by posting a long letter to Pollan on his blog defending Whole Foods as a leader and pioneer in the organic-food movement, and criticized Pollan for not talking to him first.

Mackey eventually announced in- and out-of-store programs to promote local farming, and the conversation has been going on between the two men ever since.

Their correspondence is available on John Mackey's blog and Michael Pollan's web site.