Great Program on PBS this Weekend Plus Additional Airings

Botany of Desire (PBS)
The Botany of Desire: Based on the book by Michael Pollan: About the Show | PBS
Friday, Oct 30, 2-4 pm
Monday, Nov 2, 3-5 am

Featuring Michael Pollan and based on his best-selling book, this special takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration of the human relationship with the plant world -- seen from the plants' point of view. Narrated by Frances McDormand, the program shows how four familiar species -- the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato -- evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control.

Michael Pollan is the author of The Botany of Desire, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, which was named one of the 10 best books of 2006 by The New York Times and The Washington Post. It won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, and the James Beard Award for Best Food Writing and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Pollan is also the author of A Place of My Own and Second Nature.
A contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, Pollan is the recipient of numerous journalistic awards, including the James Beard Award for Best Magazine Series in 2003 and the Reuters-I.U.C.N. 2000 Global Award for Environmental Journalism. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing, Best American Essays and The Norton Book of Nature Writing. Pollan servedfor many years as executive editor of Harper's Magazine and is now the Knight Professor of Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley.

2) Special: Michael Pollan - Deep Agriculture (LINK TV) Check local listings.

Special: Michael Pollan - Deep Agriculture | Link TV 

Saturday, Oct 31 at 11:30 pm
Sunday, November 1 at 3:30 am, 1:00 pm, and 8:00 pm

Category: Documentaries
Regions: North America
Topics: Environment, Health

This Link TV special brings you celebrated author Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food) as he takes on the industrialization of the U.S. food system, and proposes dramatic solutions to America's addiction to mechanized agriculture and processed foods. This national obsession has spawned a health care crisis, straining our medical system with epidemics of obesity and preventable illnesses like diabetes and heart disease. And it's not only our health that's suffering: the well-being of our planet is at risk from the massive amounts of oil, coal, and natural gas needed to produce, distribute, and refrigerate our food. "When we eat from the modern industrial food system," Pollan says, "we are eating fossil fuel and spewing greenhouse gas."

But Pollan doesn't just sound the alarm -- he provides us with real alternatives and answers. The movement for a healthier, safer, and more environmentally-friendly food supply, spurred on by Pollan's own influential writings, is already making positive change. "We suddenly find ourselves... no longer holding a sign outside on the granite steps of the USDA or the Capitol, but inside, with a seat at the table. The challenge now is to figure out what to say." Are YOU ready to speak out?