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UPDATE: Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma Reinstated at WSU

Food Democracy Now has just spoken with Washington State University’s President’s office, congratulating them on the decision to reinstate Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, as part of their Common Reading Program. Quoting David Murphy, a founder of FDN:

Within hours of sending out our alert, we received the good news from a supporter named Lynn:

“The power of numbers! By the time I called, 3:21 Pacific, the president’s office told me that they’ve gotten so many calls about this  and, thanks to a generous donation by an alumni, the program and the book has been reinstated. Food Democracy Now! rocks!”

While we appreciate that sentiment, we’d also like to give credit where credit is due.

We understand that food safety lawyer Bill Marler, a WSU alum and former Regents of the university, had a conversation with President Elson Floyd about the reading program this afternoon and offered to pay for Michael Pollan’s trip as well as pay for the full cost to cover the Common Reading Program.

Food Democracy Now! wants to thank Mr. Marler for his extremely generous support on this issue and also everyone who responded to this alert. Three cheers for Pollan, Marler and WSU!

This is a testament to what we can accomplish when we all work together.

This entry was posted on May 27, 2009 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Fresh Dirt . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “UPDATE: Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma Reinstated at WSU”

  1. Bill Marler Says:
    May 27, 2009 at 11:41 pm

    Thanks – it is an honor

  2. Jeff Sellen Says:
    May 28, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    Last week when the Common Reading situation at WSU looked pretty bleak, some of us at WSU created a facebook site: “WSU wants to have a serious discussion about food . . . . no, really”:

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/WSU-wants-to-have-a-serious-discussion-about-food-no-really/101079583956?ref=mf

    Now, things have brightened and the program has been resurrected (although reasons for its temporary demise are still cloudy). The Facebook site can now take on a more important role of engaging participants with the food issues raised by Michael Pollan in his very thoughtful book. The site is not just for the WSU community: feel free to join the discussion.

    Jeff Sellen, Washington State University

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