A conversation with
Michael Pollan

Author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" and "In Defense of Food: Solutions to the Omnivore's Dilemma" on stage with Bonnie Azab Powell

Solano County Library Foundation and Slow Food Solano are co-sponsoring a program featuring Michael Pollan at the Vacaville Performing Arts Theatre on Thursday, February 7, 2008 from 7 - 9 p.m. Michael Pollan is the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," which was named one of the ten best books of 2006 by both The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Tickets will go on sale at the VPAT box office on December 4, 2007. Ticket prices will range from $20 - $35. General Admission tickets will be $25 and premium seating tickets will be $35. To order tickets call the VPAT Box Office at 707.449.6217 or visit online at www.vpat.net. Tickets are also available in person at VPAT Box Office at 1010 Ulatis Drive, Vacaville during Box Office Hours: Tues - Sat. 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. (Members of Slow Food and Solano County Library Foundation will receive a $5.00 discount on both general and premium seating tickets only when they purchase their tickets directly from the VPAT box office via telephone or in person. Discounted tickets are not available online.)

During the program "In Defense of Food: Solutions to the Omnivore's Dilemma," Pollan will discuss the themes from his best-selling The Omnivore's Dilemma as well as the ideas and strategies covered in his newest book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto which is due to be released in January 2008. Pollan will be interviewed onstage by Bonnie Azab Powell, a freelance journalist, deputy editor of Edible San Francisco, and self-described born-again carnivore and farm groupie. Following the interview between Pollan and Powell, there will be an opportunity for questions from the audience. The evening will end with Pollan signing books. Michael Pollan's books will be available for sale at the theatre before and after the program.

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan poses the question "What should we have for dinner?" The answers he uncovers have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us. This runaway best seller has changed the way we think about the politics and pleasure of eating. His book due to be released in January 2008, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, promises to provide strategies for navigating the ethical and political dilemmas of nutritious and delicious dining.

Michael Pollan has been a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine since 1987 and his articles have also appeared in Harper's, Mother Jones, Gourmet, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, Gardens Illustrated, and House & Garden. His writing has been recognized with numerous awards including the James Beard Award, the John Burroughs prize and the QPB New Vision Award (for his first book, Second Nature.) His other books include The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (also a New York Times bestseller and recipient of the Borders Original Voices Award for the best non-fiction work of 2001) and A Place of my Own.

In 2003, Pollan was appointed the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and the Director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism. In addition to teaching, he lectures widely on food, agriculture, and gardening.

In May, 20006 Bonnie Powell founded The Ethicurean, a food-politics group blog about chewing the right thing; its ten contributors from around the United States and Canada cover the factors that affect sustainable, organic, local, and ethical (SOLE) food. She is also the founder of the Bay Area Meat CSA, now a project of Slow Food Berkeley with 300 members and 60 active shareholders. Powell has been a fan of Michael Pollan's since his book The Botany of Desire and first interviewed him in July 2003.

This event is a fundraiser for Slow Food Solano and the Solano County Library Foundation. The Solano County Library Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the programs of the Solano County Library and the literacy and lifelong learning needs of the community it serves. It provides funding for special projects that the Library cannot fund with public dollars, enabling the Library to reach those who need its services the most.

For more information about the event and the Library Foundation, see www.solanolibraryfoundation.org, call 707.421.8075, or email libraryfoundation@sbcglobal.net.

Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

There are more than 80,000 members all over the world. Slow Food USA oversees the U.S. membership of 15,000 who are organized in local chapters or Convivia. The Solano Convivium is focusing its fundraising efforts this year on school gardens. See www.slowfoodusa.org for more information.

For more information about Michael Pollan see www.michaelpollan.com.

For more information about Bonnie Powell see www.bonniepowell.com.