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Controversy erupts over Michael Pollan's Poly lecture
Harris Ranch Beef chairman calls for 'balanced forum'
BY KATHY JOHNSTON
Award-winning environmental journalist Kathy
Johnston can be reached
at <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected].
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Nationally known sustainable food expert Michael
Pollan will now be part of a panel discussion at
Cal Poly on Oct. 15 rather than giving his
planned one-hour lecture. The recently announced
format change comes on the heels of a letter to
Cal Poly President Warren Baker from Harris
Ranch Beef Company Chairman David E. Wood,
threatening to withdraw a pledged $500,000
donation for a new meat processing facility on
the campus.
"I find it unacceptable that the university
would provide Michael Pollan an unchallenged
forum to promote his stand against conventional
agricultural practices," Wood wrote in a Sept.
23 letter to Baker. The invitation "caused me to
rethink my continued financial support of the
university," he wrote.
Pollan is the award-winning author of "An
Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food,"
and appears in a recent documentary, Food, Inc.
He is a Knight Professor of Journalism at
University of California, Berkeley, Graduate
School of Journalism.
The Sustainable Agriculture Resource Consortium,
which invited Pollan to speak at a free lecture
at 11 a.m. on Oct. 15 at the Performing Arts
Center on campus, will now present "A
Conversation with Michael Pollan," which will
also include Gary Smith, Monfort Endowed Chair
in meat science at Colorado State University,
and Myra Goodman, cofounder of organic vegetable
company Earthbound Farms.
Baker replied to Wood in a Sept. 28 letter, "We
are diligently working to create a more balanced
forum for October 15. Our singular goal is to
provide our students with a full perspective on
how the agriculture industry is working to be
efficient in its production techniques, and to
make sure that our students are familiar with
the full range of ideas that are being advanced
today."
Baker's letter also stated his appreciation for
Harris Ranch's financial support, noting, "It's
your prerogative to direct it elsewhere if you
are so inclined. It is possible such a decision
may result in the delay of Cal Poly's
construction of a meat processing center In
the end, I fervently hope that you choose to
support Cal Poly."
According to the dean of the College of
Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences,
David Wehner, the decision to change Pollan's
lecture format to include a representative from
the beef production industry did not necessarily
result from the Harris Ranch letter.
"We had planned to have some kind of panel,
whether it was on the same day, the next day, or
a week later," he told New Times.
Wehner said he is "not worried" about Harris
Ranch withdrawing funding from Cal Poly, adding,
"It's their prerogative. If they pull it, they
pull it." The new $5 million meat processing
facility is about to go out for construction
bids, he said.
It was Pollan's decision to join a panel
discussion, rather than speaking beforehand, the
dean said.
"A fair number of students will already have
read Michael Pollan's writings. Having a
discussion with him is actually going to be more
valuable," Wehner said. "It's a sustainability
event, and we wanted to hear about how the
industry is doing more with less-less water,
less fertilizer, less pesticide."
Each speaker will make opening comments before
accepting written questions from the audience.
Harris Ranch spokesman Michael Smith, assistant
to Wood, said in a phone interview from the beef
company's headquarters in Selma that a decision
about funding for Cal Poly's meat facility "has
yet to be made." Smith, a Cal Poly agriculture
alumnus, said many alumni will be coming to the
forum "as a show of force about the direction
the College of Agriculture is taking."
Smith said, "People across the nation are upset.
They are saying enough is enough. This is bigger
than Michael Pollan."
The Sustainable Agriculture Resource
Consortium's director, Hunter Francis, said with
the new format, "the audience will hear
something they won't hear anywhere else." The
newly added industry representatives, he said,
will attract a wider audience to the event.
"Our goal is to involve as many people as
possible in discussions on how to improve the
sustainability of our agriculture production and
food system. People really seem ready to have
this discussion. Michael Pollan has raised many
people's awareness," Francis said.
The letter from Harris Ranch Beef Company did
not surprise him, since Pollan is critical of
production agriculture. "Harris Ranch is facing
their own challenges with regulations, water
resources, and the economy," he added.
In a follow-up letter to President Baker dated
Sept. 30, Wood and Smith of Harris Ranch wrote,
"We applaud Cal Poly for negotiating a
'compromise format' for the exchange of ideas
and representation of opposing views. The
views of elitists like Michael Pollan can no
longer go unchallenged."
Their letter also stated, "We find it
incredulous that the Sustainable Agriculture
Resource Consortium has been allowed to
operate as an autonomous entity" that made an
independent decision to invite Pollan to speak.
The Harris Ranch representatives pointed out,
"Effective September 25th, SARC now officially
answers to CAFES [College of Agriculture, Food
and Environmental Sciences]."
The sustainability group has been working for
some time to become an official Sustainability
Center under the agriculture college, according
to Francis. That process is nearing completion.
Wood's letter to Baker also criticized the
viewpoint of Animal Science Department professor
Rob Rutherford, a sheep specialist who is
chairman of the California Sheep Commission and
president of the California Wool Growers
Association. Smith of Harris Ranch had a phone
conversation with Rutherford about
sustainability, and Rutherford's opinions
"provided me with both displeasure and outright
anger towards the university," Wood wrote.
"I have shared Mr. Rutherford's opinions with a
number of Cal Poly graduates, donors, and others
in the ag industry. They are uniformly shocked
They have likewise questioned whether they
should continue to support the university," his
letter stated.
Wood suggested that Rutherford should be removed
from teaching a required class called "Issues in
Animal Agriculture."
Rutherford later told New Times the faculty
recently voted, in an unrelated action, to
eliminate the requirement for that class but to
keep offering it.
Regarding the evolving word "sustainability,"
Rutherford said, "We're trying to sustain
civilization. It's a matter of using the tools
at our disposal in an effective fashion, to feed
people and all organisms far, far into the
future."
He added, "The purpose of a university-the root
word is universe-is to explore as many different
ideas as we can. Students ought to be capable of
critical thinking and analysis."
Rutherford welcomes the idea of a Sustainability
Center at Cal Poly, not just for organic farming
but also for architecture and engineering.
"I'm certain it will cause conversations. I think that's what we're about."
>>
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