Readers of Hell Food might be interested in this DawnWatch alert (copied below). Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, will be on NPR’s “Fresh Air” today. The segment will be available online later today; see the alert for details.

Given that the book was just released today, I haven’t heard much about it, but it looks interesting. Here’s an excerpt of the book’s description from its Amazon listing:

“What should we have for dinner?” To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore’s dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn’t-which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore’s dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we’re realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore’s Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan’s brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America.

Read more….

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch
Date: Apr 11, 2006 10:45 AM
Subject: DawnWatch tip: Pollan on NPR today discussing “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” 4/11/06

Coming up on “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross on NPR, Tuesday April 11.

“Michael Pollan
April 11 · Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, offers his examination of industrial food, the organic food industry and the organic food movement.”

From the Fresh Air home page, at http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13 you can click “Broadcast Schedule” to find your local station and air time. And after 3pm Eastern you will be able to listen on line, from that page, to today’s show. If you are looking for it after today, click on “Past Shows.”

If you listen, please send a comment. It is important that the station knows that shows about these issues are of interest to the audience. Go to http://www.npr.org/contact/, click on “NPR Program” and then choose “Fresh Air with Terry Gross” from the pull-down menu.

Yours and the animals’,
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi If you forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited — leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)