New York Times best-selling author, Michael Pollan, to give keynote address
(Photo Courtesy of Colleen Butterfield)
By Will Lyons, Staff Writer -- lyons14@up.edu
Rarely does the University of Portland make national news, but today, Friday and Saturday it will. This weekend, UP will host the Food for Thought, conference on food and sustainability on campus.
The conference will begin with a presentation by UP alumnus Fedele Bauccio, founder of Bon Appétit, and will conclude with a keynote address by Michael Pollan, the New York Times best-selling author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," "In Defense of Food" and "The Botany of Desire." The Food For Thought conference is set to be a huge success," Associate Director of Media Relations Joe Kuffner said. "One of the premier conferences on food nationally is happening here."
The conference, which has been in the works since the conclusion of last year's "Water and Justice Symposium," according to Chief Organizer and Environmental Science Professor Steve Kolmes, will also contain a variety of activities, presentations and food tastings. Michael Pollan's keynote address at 7 p.m. on Saturday is sold out, but there is still a variety of ways students can be a part of the speech.
"We're going to have a rush ticket line set up, add seats on the floor of Chiles, add seats on the Mezzanine level of Chiles so students can see him on screen and we will screen (the speech) in BC Aud," Kolmes said. "We're trying to have every student be able to participate."
One of the major goals of the conference is student activism, according to Renee Heath, adviser of the Communication Department's Teaching Our Leaders Civil Discourse and Service (TOLCS) club.
"One of the major components of TOLCS is to train students in mediation," Heath said. "We're raising the bar on education. It's about engaging students in a call to action."
Heath's students will facilitate round table discussions relevant to food and sustainability at noon on Saturday.
"We will host engaging conversation that will create new ideas fostered by UP," junior and TOLCS secretary Megan Brown said.
Laura Goble, director of the Moreau Center for Service hopes the conferences will impact students.
"I'm excited for SLUG (Student Led Unity Garden), eco house, ecology club and other green club students," Goble said. "We're hoping they will move forward more publicly after this conference."
Kolmes agrees the key to the conference's success will be student involvement and action.
"If students get involved it's going to be incredibly exciting," Kolmes said.
