Michael Pollan

(born February 6, 1955) is a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also the director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism.

Pollan is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine, a former executive editor for Harper's Magazine, and author of four books: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (2006), The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World (2001), A Place of My Own (1997), and Second Nature: A Gardener's Education (1991). He is married to painter Judith Belzer.

Pollan received a BA from Bennington College, and continued his studies at Mansfield College at Oxford University and Columbia University, where he earned his master's degree in English in 1981.
His recent work has dealt with the practices of the meat industry, and he has written a number of articles regarding the trends of American agriculture.

He has received the Reuters World Conservation Union Global Awards in environmental journalism, the James Beard Foundation Awards for best magazine series in 2003, and the Genesis Award from the American Humane Association. His articles have been anthologized in Best American Science Writing (2004), Best American Essays (1990 and 2003), and the Norton Book of Nature Writing.

Pollan is the son of author and financial consultant Stephen Pollan, the brother of actress Tracy Pollan and the brother-in-law of Michael J. Fox, Tracy's husband.