NYT’s Mark Bittman’s Iowa City lecture canceled

UPDATE: The University of Iowa Lecture Committee and the UI's Food for Thought Committee scheduled event with Mark Bittman on Feb. 2 has been canceled.

Bittman was scheduled to address the community at the Englert Theater at 7:30 p.m.

The Lecture Committee and the UI Food for Thought Committee will work to reschedule his visit this spring pending the speaker's availability.

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When it comes to the way our food systems work, Iowa is at center stage.

That's not news to most of us here in the Hawkeye State, but New York Times food writer Mark Bittman says Iowa's outsize impact on the world of agriculture makes something like the University of Iowa's 'Food for Thought” themed semester all the more important.

The semester is designed to unite different departments on campus around one topic with dedicated programming.

Bittman's visit, sponsored by the UI Lecture Committee, is part of that programming - you can find additional upcoming events at foodforthought.uiowa.edu. The author of books including 'How to Cook Everything,” 'VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00,” and 'How to Cook Everything Fast,” Bittman has written for the New York Times for 30 years, where he currently writes an opinion column on food.

He will give a free lecture, 'The Future of Food,” on Monday at the Englert Theatre.

Much of what he writes about centers on the need to improve our food systems for the sake of our health and the planet's health. He says his talk Monday will center on what residents - here in the Heartland - can do about it.

'In my experience, what people want to know is, what can I do in my life to help make food better?” he says. 'I don't mean only eat grass-fed beef and stop this and stop that. There are a lot of things I hope will happen in 30 or 50 years, and it's kind of step-by-step until that point.”

For example, he would like to see Americans creating more sustainable food systems. This will take work to transform policy at the top as well as changes at the ground level by consumers and producers who can reduce the amount of chemicals used in commercial agriculture.

'Iowa is super important,” he says. 'It's kind of ground zero for industrial agriculture. Monoculture is not the best thing for the soil or water or air or diet. Things have got to change.”

He says more and more people are paying attention to food issues, and that's a good thing.

'People understand that it matters,” he says. 'It's not so much that it's trendy, it's that people recognize that this stuff matters.”

Bittman also advocates for healthier eating habits - his 'Eat Vegan Before 6:00” book helped him turn around his own health after finding out he was prediabetic. As a food writer, he didn't want to completely give up meat, eggs and dairy but needed a way to stay motivated about improving his diet.

He found that balance by letting himself indulge after 6 p.m.

The key, he says, isn't to give up everything, but to strive for moderation.

'I eat junk food. What you do on any individual day isn't that important. It's what's in your big picture,” he says. 'Having a Big Mac once in a while isn't a big deal. Having a Big Mac six times a week is the problem.”

That approach - thinking about food's big picture - is partially what inspired the UI's Food for Thought semester, says Linda Snetselaar, UI associate provost for outreach and engagement, who has helped lead the themed semester efforts. She also studies nutrition as a faculty member in the College of Public Health and will give this year's UI Presidential Lecture, which will focus on food, Feb. 22.

'Everyone has some connection to food,” she says. 'Food is one of those things that unites us as a culture and can unite across cultures.”

Mark Bittman's The Future of Food

l Where: The Englert, 221 E. Washington St., Iowa City

l When: 7:30 p.m. Monday (Feb. 2)

l Cost: Free and open to the public. Patrons asked to bring a canned food donation to benefit HACAP and local food pantries.

Presidential Lecture: Food, Culture and Community

l Where: Levitt Center for University Advancement, fourth floor assembly hall, 1 E. Park Rd., Iowa City

l When: 3:30 p.m. Feb. 22

l Cost: Free and open to the public