David Roedl | Human-Computer Interaction Design

I am currently reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan’s illuminating account of the industrial food system. The book provides an excellent explanation of where food comes from and the journey it travels before we eat it. What makes the book so powerful is that Pollan really connects all the dots; he manages to examine every piece of a long and complex chain connecting the farmer’s field to our dinner plates. This kind of analysis + synthesis is rare in our modern era as we tend to want to separate issues and deal with them in isolation. Pollan’s writing reveals the contradictory nature of such compartmentalized thinking: Continue »

While I’m a little late getting in on blog action day, I want take the occasion to give attention to an issue of sustainability that I find really important: agriculture and food production. Joel Salatin is an innovative farmer and author whose practices were heavily featured in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In this 2003 essay, Salatin describes the frustrating conflicts between sustainable farming practices and government regulations.

In addition to revealing the darker side of industrial food production, I think his essay also speaks to a larger conflict in achieving sustainability: modern industry (and infrastructure and bureaucracy) is large scale and highly compartmentalized. In contrast, sustainable systems informed by ecology should be small scale and tightly integrated. Developing sustainment means adopting this ecological model in our political, cultural, and economic practices.

One of things I look forward to about Christmas break is the chance to read some books for pleasure. Though its a bit premature, I recently launched into The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan. Continue »