If you happened to find yourself on the banks of the Ohio River on a particular afternoon in the springs of 1806-somewhere just to the north of Wheeling, West Virginia, say-you would probably have noticed a strange makeshift craft drifting lazily down the river.
Michael Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. He writes about the places where nature and culture intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in the built environment.