Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden

Download location information and maps (PDF)

Real food — the kind of food your great-grandmother would recognize as food — is being undermined by science on one side and the food industry on the other, both of whom want us to focus on nutrients, good and bad, rather than actual plants, animals and fungi. The rise of "nutritionism" has vastly complicated the lives of American eaters without doing anything for our health, except possibly to make it worse.

Nutritionism arose to deal with a genuine problem — the fact that the modern American diet is responsible for an epidemic of chronic diseases, from obesity and type II diabetes to heart disease and many cancers — but it has obscured the real roots of that problem and stood in the way of a solution. That solution involves putting the focus back on foods and food chains, for it turns out our personal health cannot be divorced from the health of the soil, plants, and animals that make up the food chains in which we take part.

In this talk, Pollan explores what the industrialization of food and agriculture has meant for our health and happiness as eaters, and looks at the growing national movement to renovate the food system.

The event will take place at the Martin Theatre at Ravinia Festival. The West Ravinia Festival parking lot will be open for parking. A book signing will follow the lecture. Preregistration is required. You may register online or by phone, by fax, or by mail. Phone the registration service at (847) 835-8261 and press 1 after the greeting.

READ ABOUT MICHAEL POLLAN

ARTICLES AND EXCERPTS FROM MICHAEL POLLAN'S BOOKS

VIEW A SAMPLE MICHAEL POLLAN LECTURE
(Note: This is not the same lecture he will present on Monday, September 21)

Submit a question for Michael Pollan's Lecture