Community | May 23, 2009 | 22 comments

Burn before reading: Omnivore's Dilemma a banned book?

source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/05/pollan-censored-washington.php

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pjacobs51
Huck Finn, The Grapes of Wrath and the Omnivore's Dilemma? Yes, Michael Pollan's popular rebuke of agri-business seems to have joined those other great works on the list of censored books. Officials at Washington State University have removed Pollan's work for what some are saying are political reasons.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the book was dropped from the common reading list for incoming freshman. The university is citing budget constraints as the reason, but those seems dubious at best. After all, Washington State, a well known agriculture school, has already purchased 4,000 copies of the book.

According to the Chronicle:

But some people on the campus say that the university faced political pressure after selecting the book.
"What we were told is that when the committee picked The Omnivore's Dilemma, because of the politics of the agriculture industry, we would not be having a common reading, and that President Floyd decided that this was not a battle he wanted to wage," said one person who had knowledge of the program and asked not to be named because of fear of job loss.

Jeff Sellen, an instructor at the university who sat on a committee in charge of implementing the reading program, says members of that panel were told "we could not call it a 'common reading.'"

"I think that was important because it would be less official and would maybe fly underneath the radar," he says. "It was obvious that it was political."

He says that there was never a substantial budget for events around the book—certainly not enough to bring in Mr. Pollan as a speaker—so he dismisses the idea that there was a financial rationale for the changes in the program.

If anything, perhaps the controversy generated over the university's decision will spark greater interest with the students and they'll seek out the book for themselves. If you haven't read it, it's a highly readable smackdown of just how so much corn got in our food products, the meat industry, and how Big Ag has so much control over what gets on our plates and in our stomachs. President Obama even seems to be a fan. He referenced Pollan's work during his campaign for the presidency.
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22 comments // Burn before reading: Omnivore's Dilemma a banned book?

  • twitterbot
    • 0
      twitterbot  

    • @tomsfeed on twitter says "trehugger: Pollan Censored at Washington State?: Photo via Flickr Huck Finn, The Grapes of Wrath and.."

    • 3 years ago
  • ChiaPetPetter
  • larkjl86
    • larkjl86  
    • This comment was removed by its owner.
  • bombastinator
    • 0
      bombastinator  
    • larkjl86:

      I wonder what the respective tuitions are... First unsubstantiated figures scraped off google are:
      In-state: Berkley ~18k, WSU ~7k.
      Berkley also isn't very well known for their ag program iirc.

      I think its amberaa FTW here.

    • 3 years ago
  • carmalite
    • 0
      carmalite  

    • I read the contents because my hubby is on a restricted diet and I have found that high fructose corn syrup which he can not have even in Cambell's soup!!!!!!!!!!!!
      They are making children obese and making diabetics sicer with this poisen.

    • 3 years ago
  • amberaa
    • 0
      amberaa  

    • I go to Washington State and what should really be news is how they are raising our tuition by a third, and budget cuts have cut the schools budget by about that much too. I believe them when they say it's budget cuts and not because of being in bed with agri-business. Washington State has always presented agriculture to its students in a responsible manner, trying to teach the goals of modern environmentalists for sustainability and the demands of the population at large need for healthy food. I can see the possibility of this, but trust me when I say that I'm sure this book is still going to be taught, and that it's probably going to sell out at the Bookie and all the bookstores around campus.

    • 3 years ago
  • pjacobs51
  • AveryMoore
    • 0
      AveryMoore  
    • amberaa:

      amberaa,

      Welcome to the Third World Mentality run amok.

      What do military juntas and dictatorships most fear? An educated population. Such people whether African or Chinese know when they are being lied to during another round of Economic Cleansing..

      What is a quick way to kill a healthy economic system? Gut the school system. Foster mass ignorance.

      Voila! Welcome to the old Soviet Union where science is whatever former altar choir boy, Marshall Stalin, says it is.. Disagree? You die.

      Well golly, we're not about to be left behind. We're just as actively engaged in wrecking the foundation of our economy as possible, while claiming - 'LOOK! At the money we're saving!'

      In our mythology only the Tigers get to eat. That's a begrudged virtue of Nature, which otherwise is ignored when not savaged. But Tigers have a two-fold problem. How do you sleep when --

      a/ you're fair game for other Tigers?

      b/ maybe those you've abused will change to Tigers.

      So no one points out, 'LOOK at the students who never get to step up to a better life! Whose employment would spread wealth horizontally and add multiples of value to the nation.'

      Forget that. Because now the richest corporations (the ones not yet self-bankrupted) can run everything exactly as they please!

      Looks like that's how it will remain until this economic scam disintegrates from corruption and incompetence. It may never have been this clear before but both corruption and incompetence yield the same results - chaos. All are now characteristics of a model which combines reckless business and the most spineless imaginable governance. "We believe in De-Regulation! De-Education, Dis-Employment"

      The fact that their economy is sinking in self-invented quicksand hasn't yet registered on the thralls who refuse to understand that their bean-counter fetishes and fantasies never worked, and don't belong anywhere in this century -- and never in the choice of what a student should be offered as texts...

    • 3 years ago
  • amberaa
  • Mikeysfake1
  • bombastinator
    • 0
      bombastinator  

    • in other news: "land grant state college gets pushed around by basically everyone"

      The book was not banned. It was taken off the required reading list.

      This place is probably a cow college. I wouldn't be surprised if half the farmers in the state got their degrees there. I doubt they make PETA literature required reading in meat packing school either.
      Deliberately pissing on most of your rich alumni a large part of the student body, and the industry you were created by the government to help support is never good business.

      That said I suspect he actually increased the number of students who will read the book. And I doubt he minds at all.

    • 3 years ago
  • artemis6
  • Thargor19
    • 0
      Thargor19  

    • it's a good thing this book has been highly publicized and talked about since its publishing, i havent met anyone who has read it and has remained impartial to the issue. one school will not stop the change this important look into the food industry is causing. books like this are the modern day "Jungle" by upton sinclair.

    • 3 years ago
  • photochick
    • 0
      photochick  

    • compelling and horrifying all in the same breath.....

      One of the fastest aging agents on the planet is sugar...and corn fructose is nothing short of toxic!

      Sugar is also one of the easiest of addictions to kick...3-5 days without added sugar, eating natural foods makes you wonder why you tolerated it being added.

      Want to feel good? Throw out processed foods. Eggs, bacon, potatoes...all good for breakfast... tuna with a little red wine vinegar, chopped onion, chopped apple on a few lettuce leaves for lunch....and some grilled shrimp with grilled veggies, along with some brown rice for dinner.... and don't forget the wine....haha just try it....

    • 3 years ago
  • krush_productions
  • jahona42
  • AveryMoore
    • 0
      AveryMoore  

    • Is it time to review where Washington State gets its funding and whether any grants from the federal level should be reconsidered or withheld?

      And Jan? Monsanto has it's fingers in this?

      Gosh. What an almost surprise...

      boywhocould? and Scarabus. Nice insight. By causing the book to be shelved they've probably multiplied reader interest.

      You can imagine everyone from New York Review of Books on down diving into the controversy - specifically because of interference meant to reduce popular exposure to the book.

      God, these people are DUMB.

    • 3 years ago
  • amberaa
    • 0
      amberaa  
    • AveryMoore:

      Our funding just got cut by over a third, and our tuitions have risen that much too. Agriculture industries have funded our school, but it's mostly in the business of mass organic farming and how to make it sustainable... I'm not saying that there could be some conspiracy in all this, but i'm guessing a lot of our school's agricultural donors would be more upset than happy over this.

    • 3 years ago
  • boywhocould
    • 0
      boywhocould  

    • Did it occur to anyone that who ever put this book on the naughty list was going for increased exposure in spite of higher directives?

    • 3 years ago
  • Scarabus
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • Looks like Washington State is in bed with Monsanto. And so is this current USDA that funded this research to find something "good" about their Round Up POISON. Monsanto is spreading their evil tentacles into our universities, schools, schools abroad, and even into the Vatican (you know, the Vatican that is against stem cell research but for fake bacteria food.) It is then no surprise this has happened. If their gestapo tactics can work to silence farmers and scientists, it is obvious that anyone who writes a book about big AG and the truth of the crap they peddle could be silenced as well. I recommend every student buy a copy of Mr. Pollan's book and give them all the finger.

    • 3 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • 'it's a highly readable smackdown of just how so much corn got in our food products, the meat industry, and how Big Ag has so much control over what gets on our plates and in our stomachs. President Obama even seems to be a fan. He referenced Pollan's work during his campaign for the presidency.'
      __
      Really? What happened since? Hmmm, were the American Corn Growers Association and Monsanto involved in this?

    • 3 years ago
  • Scarabus
  • wirehedd
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