While Pollan referred to the Western diet as the “elephant in the room,” making people sick with its celebration of refined sugars and highly processed calorific “food-like substances” (note, for Pollan, this new ‘food’ is actually just an imitation of that which came before), his solution seems more grounded in traditions of the past than scientific analyses of the present. Somberly explaining how from the year 2000, an American child had a 1 in 3 chance of developing Type 2 Diabetes and the potential to die before his parents, Pollan prioritised a call to “culture” ( a “fancy word for your mum,” he quipped), over blind faith in the so-called experts of the day.

Pre-empting his latest book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (Penguin, 112 pages, $11)*, which will be published this December, Pollan shared some personal pearls of wisdom with the audience in an attempt to free them from the modern-day food dilemma. “Would you grandmother recognise a product as food?,” Pollan asked, holding up a tube of what could only be described as liquid goop. “If she wouldn’t, then I say don’t touch it,” he concluded. The rest of his advice was as follows: Avoid food that has ever been advertised on TV, food that has no sell-by date, and finally, “don’t get your fuel at the same place your car does.”

Jokes aside (and there were many), Pollan was less jovial as he turned to the subject of politics. Last year, Americans spent $880 billion dollars on food, he informed the crowd. Yet – and be ready for the cries of surprise – while a staggering $70 million was spent on packaging and designing these products, farmers received a mere $59 million of the total sum. While Pollan might not have concrete scientific knowledge flowing off the tongue, his snappy catchphrases (such as “Vote with your forks”) resonated with the crowd. His message was clear: A move away from this sort of processed food is a move away from unfair and inefficient politics. In short, politics and food are inextricably interlinked. Not a groundbreaking thought, but certainly persuasive.

Pollan praised farmer’s markets, and locally sourced and grown produce with as few pesticides added as possible. When questioned by an astute student if this theory was a little elitist, considering most Americans can not afford to pay in excess of $2 for a carrot, he agreed that, yes, it was. The only way it could change was through a change in policies, a change in thinking and ultimately, a change in the lifestyle of the American people. “If it’s still this way in 20 years, then that will be a problem,” he said. In other words – for now, this will have to do.

As Pollan’s hour came to an end, he concluded once more that health is not about good nutrients or bad, but rather about “a set of relations between people, plants, animals and soil.” If this seems a little airy-fairy, that’s probably because it was. Yes, health depends on the whole food chain, and we must shorten it to become not only more efficient but also more connected with our food. But, while Pollan might not have offered revolutionary alternatives to the current industrialized food market, he analysed, critiqued and evaluated its dilemma. If the central problem of the food market today is its asymmetry and its inaccessibility to many, then Pollan’s viewpoint should not be overlooked. Oratory skills and investigative journalism may not provide an answer to America’s food crisis, but it certainly got the Zellerbach crowd on their feet and talking about what they eat.

*Pollan appears in the 2008 documentary Food, Inc., and PBS TV is airing a 2 hour program based on his 2001 book The Botany of Desire this fall.