Michael Pollan and John Mackey LIVE AND IN CONCERT
Posted on | February 27, 2007 | 3 Comments
Tonight I saw Michael Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and his arch-nemesis John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, live on stage in Berkeley.
At some point, the webcast will be made available here.
Okay, so I’m overplaying the arch-nemesis bit, the series of open letters between Michael Pollan and John Mackey, begun by Mackey in response to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, suggested that all was not sympatico. (Michael Pollan’s first letter, and his second letter.)
Mackey’s Powerpoint
For the first 45 minutes of the event, Mackey gave a (remarkably poorly designed) Powerpoint presentation covering what he calls the 6 ages of food production. He focused on the last two — the Industrial Age (which we’re still in, but he hopes we’re getting out of) and the Ecological Age (which he sees Whole Foods as a leader in engaging).
Mackey also showed remarkably disturbing video of factory animal husbandry. While the conditions are clearly terrible for animals, my primary thought was, “What does this do to the psyches of the people who work with these animals?”
The Powerpoint was followed by a discussion between Pollan and Mackey on stage. Not surprisingly, the two by-and-large agree on everything.
Some interesting new developments at Whole Foods
Whole Foods has started a $30 million venture capital fund to support unique food artisans around the world.
Whole Foods will be collaborating with Transfair (the Fair Trade certifiers) to develop a “Whole Trade Guarantee,” so you can feel better about the sourcing of your food.
Some thoughts inspired by the discussion
Originally, the event was supposed to be in a 700 person auditorium, but it sold out in a matter of hours. So it moved to a 2,200 theater, and sold out in less than a week. Now, part of this is that we’re in Berkeley, which probably is the city that has been most serious about it’s food for the longest time. But there’s clearly something going on here.
Pollan and Mackey talked about a desire to bring complete transparency to the food your eating. Pollan alluded to what Denmark has done, where, with a second bar code on your food, you can call up highly specific information about where your food came from — specific feed lots, etc. (Pollan mentions this in this article.) All I could think about was food as spime, and the challenges information architects would have in making this immense about of information about what we eat, um, digestible (ha!) by consumers.
Comments
3 Responses to “Michael Pollan and John Mackey LIVE AND IN CONCERT”
Leave a Reply
Hello
Archives
- February 2012 (1)
- January 2012 (9)
- December 2011 (7)
- September 2011 (1)
- June 2011 (4)
- May 2011 (8)
- April 2011 (5)
- March 2011 (1)
- February 2011 (2)
- January 2011 (3)
- December 2010 (4)
- October 2010 (2)
- September 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- June 2010 (2)
- May 2010 (7)
- April 2010 (4)
- March 2010 (4)
- February 2010 (16)
- January 2010 (35)
- December 2009 (4)
- October 2009 (1)
- September 2009 (4)
- August 2009 (4)
- July 2009 (7)
- June 2009 (7)
- May 2009 (3)
- April 2009 (2)
- March 2009 (5)
- February 2009 (6)
- January 2009 (7)
- December 2008 (5)
- November 2008 (7)
- October 2008 (5)
- September 2008 (8)
- August 2008 (5)
- July 2008 (15)
- June 2008 (8)
- May 2008 (7)
- April 2008 (4)
- March 2008 (14)
- February 2008 (6)
- January 2008 (8)
- December 2007 (14)
- November 2007 (3)
- October 2007 (9)
- September 2007 (6)
- August 2007 (8)
- July 2007 (11)
- June 2007 (8)
- May 2007 (8)
- April 2007 (9)
- March 2007 (12)
- February 2007 (10)
- January 2007 (9)
- December 2006 (8)
- November 2006 (17)
- October 2006 (9)
- September 2006 (12)
- August 2006 (8)
- July 2006 (12)
- June 2006 (12)
- May 2006 (8)
- April 2006 (18)
- March 2006 (12)
- February 2006 (14)
- January 2006 (9)
- December 2005 (19)
- November 2005 (10)
- October 2005 (10)
- September 2005 (18)
- August 2005 (21)
- July 2005 (12)
- June 2005 (9)
- May 2005 (16)
- April 2005 (11)
- March 2005 (12)
- February 2005 (7)
- January 2005 (8)
- December 2004 (15)
- November 2004 (12)
- October 2004 (13)
- September 2004 (3)
- August 2004 (13)
- July 2004 (9)
- June 2004 (11)
- May 2004 (6)
- April 2004 (9)
- March 2004 (8)
- February 2004 (7)
- January 2004 (9)
- December 2003 (7)
- November 2003 (6)
- October 2003 (19)
- September 2003 (12)
- August 2003 (16)
- July 2003 (10)
- June 2003 (6)
- May 2003 (7)
- April 2003 (7)
- March 2003 (4)
February 28th, 2007 @ 12:04 am
Spimes, or QR codes?
http://mike.teczno.com/notes/transparency-codes.html
February 28th, 2007 @ 11:24 am
I listened to the webcast last night and John Mackey is such an inspiration. I love the way he ended his Power Point with the words of Michelangelo: Criticize by Creating. John went on to say it is the duty of entrepreneurs to create the products that allow the consumer to have a choice. Then he sets up a fund to allow these entrepreneurs to create these products. This guy gets it …..
Ric
November 29th, 2007 @ 9:56 am
Buy xanax dakota message board….
Buy xanax. Buy xanax without a prescription….