Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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California agribusiness pressures school to nix Michael Pollan lecture
October 14, 2009 | 12:07 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/10/california-agribusiness-pressures-school-to-nix-michael-pollan-speech.html

Agribusinesses across the U.S. have a beef with sustainable food guru Michael 
Pollan, but at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo it has taken on a definite sizzle.

Threatening to pull donations from the school, a major California 
agribusiness has succeeded in turning what was to be a campus lecture by 
Pollan tomorrow into a panel discussion involving Pollan, a meat-science 
expert and one of the largest organic growers in the U.S.

"While I understand the need to expose students to alternative views, I find 
it unacceptable that the university would provide Michael Pollan an 
unchallenged forum to promote his stand against conventional agricultural 
practices,'' David E. Wood, chairman of the Harris Ranch Beef Co., wrote in a 
scathing Sept. 23 letter to the Cal Poly president.

Wood has pledged $150,000 toward a new meat processing plant on campus. In 
his letter, he said Pollan's scheduled solo appearance had prompted him to 
"rethink my continued financial support of the university.'' He also 
criticized an animal sciences professor who said that conventional feedlots 
like the one run by Harris Ranch were not a form of sustainable agriculture.

Cal Poly officials said they had contemplated using Pollan's talk as the 
basis for a panel discussion at some point, but the negative reaction to the 
scheduled lecture from Harris and other agricultural interests propelled the 
plan onto the front burner.

"When we realized how significant a backlash was coming, we thought of having 
the panel right after his speech," said David Wehner, a Cal Poly dean.

"I'm frustrated and saddened by some people's attitudes,'' he said. "They've 
looked at this as us supporting his views and not supporting them. We don't 
have a political position -- we only educate students.''

In an interview, Pollan said he rejected the idea of appearing on a panel 
after his scheduled talk.

"I thought, 'Wow! You're going to add some whole other event at the behest of 
some cranky donors?' " he said of his response to the change. Pollan said he 
offered the university a choice of either having him lecture or participate 
in a panel.

Pollan, who teaches in the journalism program at UC Berkeley, has encountered 
resistance to his campus appearances from farm businesses in Washington and 
Wisconsin. "It's part of what appears to be a more aggressive industry 
pushback against critics of industrial agriculture,'' he said in an interview.

He said the Harris letter raised troubling questions about academic freedom.

"The issue is about whether the school is really free to explore diverse 
ideas about farming,'' he said. "Is the principle of balance going to apply 
across the board? The next time Monsanto comes to speak at Cal Poly about why 
we need [genetically modified organisms] to feed the world, will there be a 
similar effort? Will I be invited back for that show?"