"Including this one" goes the phrase attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Last night's library book discussion group took up THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA by Michael Pollan. The author is a journalism professor in California, an avid gardner, and the author of several books and numerous articles on botany, gardening, and a wide range of other subjects. Our discussion choice is divided into three main sections, one on the current US "industrial agriculture" and the resulting impact on food available for purchase in stores and fast food restaurants; a second section examining the "organic" movement; and a third section in which he plans a meal in which all the courses serve food he has hunted, foraged for, or grown himself.

Pollan's writing style is pleasant and easy to follow, never weighted down by the extensive research he weaves into the narrative.

So I was prepared for a pleasant evening. When the discussion began, a woman who had never attended before enthusiastically distributed several fliers about "natural" foods and sustainable agriculture and more or less proceeded to monopolize the first 15-20 minutes. She finally got a rise out of me when she announced that "no Iowa farmers have their own vegetable gardens anymore. THEY don't have room or time." Since I have several family members who currently live in Iowa or are less than one generation removed from living there, I challenged her on that comment. She disagreed, of course. And I continued to press her, and stated that I would not allow such sweeping generalizations to go unanswered.

She obviously came to the discussion evening, not to discuss the book, but to convert all of us to her cause. While I agree with much of what she had to say, I regretted that we didn't spend as much time as we usually do on the book itself.

As she and I continued to spar with each other, I noticed other regulars grinning at me from across the table and winking at me on occasion. So I didn't feel alone, at any rate!