Edible Schoolyard, the new Cannonball Run?

Now and again, the blog and the day job collide. (With sexy results!) Via the Atlantic:

"This fall at the University of California, Berkeley, a new course surveys the political, social, environmental, and gustatory stakes of modern food production. In his Edible Education 101: The Rise and Future of the Food Movement, Berkeley journalism professor and best-selling author Michael Pollan yields the spotlight to other experts: Though he appears frequently as introducer, moderator, and panelist, the classes are focused on an all-star cast of guest lecturers. Taken together, these food A-listers and innovators provide a compelling, comprehensive portrait of 21st-century eating. Each lecture is available, for free and in full, via UC Berkeley's YouTube channel."

Call me finnicky, but an "all star cast of guest lecturers" sounds like taking the principles used for casting the Cannonball Run, and applying them to higher education.* It gets better:

Edible Education 101 commemorates the 40th anniversary of Chez Panisse, the Berkeley restaurant founded by chef Alice Waters, whose culinary approach -- fresh food, prepared simply and sourced well -- has influenced several generations of eaters. This year, Waters has rebranded her Chez Panisse Foundation as the Edible Schoolyard Project, which will seek to recreate the Foundation's Berkeley-based teaching garden in other school systems throughout the nation. Waters thought that a Berkeley course, taught by Pollan, would be a fitting way to usher in the new era of student outreach.

I know the Cod has a few readers in higher ed. As a favor, send your curriculum committee a course "commemorating" the anniversary of a popular local restaurant, and let me know what your colleagues, chairs, and deans have to say.

*That is to say, getting paid to hang out with your pals. Nice work if you can get it, but you can't usually get it at a university.

Comments

[Max]

Meh, it's just the j-school, not a real class. Blame Orville Schell.