(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert and chef/author Dan Barber will discuss “Beyond Farm to Table: The Future of Food,” at the Mahaiwe on Monday, August 18, 2014 at 7pm. The event is presented by Berkshire Grown.
“We’re thrilled to bring two provocative leaders together to talk about food and the environment,” says Barbara Zheutlin, Executive Director of Berkshire Grown. “These two writers inspire through their wisdom, wit and storytelling. This evening will be one of the highlights of this summer in the Berkshires – it’s not to be missed.”
Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff writer for the New Yorker and the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, which was based on a groundbreaking three-part series in the magazine on climate change for which she won American Association for the Advancement of Science’s magazine writing award and a National Academies communications award. Her recent book, The Sixth Extinction, acclaimed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show, was praised by National Geographic for its “combination of scientific rigor and wry humor that keeps you turning the pages.” Kolbert lives in Williamstown, Mass.
Chef Dan Barber, co-owner of Blue Hill in New York City and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., has just released The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food. Ruth Reichl, author of Garlic and Sapphires and Tender at the Bone, writes that in his new book, Barber “asks questions that nobody else has raised about what it means to be a chef, the nature of taste, and what ‘sustainable’ really means. He challenges everything you think you know about food; it will change the way you eat. If I could give every cook just one book, this would be the one.”
Barber has received multiple James Beard awards including Best Chef: New York City (2006) and the country’s Outstanding Chef (2009). In 2009 he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. For a decade Dan Barber has been investigating farming communities around the world in the pursuit of singular flavor. His conclusion: for the sake of food, our health and the future of our land, America’s cuisine requires a radical transformation.
Tickets are on sale at the Mahaiwe box office, 14 Castle Street, Gt. Barrington, 413-528-0100, and online at the Mahaiwe. Orchestra/ Front Mezzanine: $25 ($20 for Berkshire Grown members); Back Mezzanine and Balcony: $15.
Berkshire Grown, which organized the event, supports and promotes local agriculture as a vital part of the Berkshire community, economy and landscape to Keep Farmers Farming!