1. Michael Pollan publishes Omnivore's Dilemma

At the beginning of 2006, Michael Pollan was known as a prolific and respected writer of thoughtful magazine articles and introspective non-fiction books. He'd made a name for himself in some food circles, especially with his book Botany of Desire, which detailed the interconnected relationship between plants and people. But Omnivore's Dilemma was another thing entirely.

In Omnivore, Pollan pointed a thoughtful and unalloyed eye on the dysfunctional food system that had developed in the United States over the past century. Many of those issues had been bandied about by food activists and scientists in previous years, but never before in such a user-friendly and understandable way: The role of corn in shaping both our foods and our health; how industrialization has turned animals into products; how government policy took a wrong turn 50 years ago and never looked back; and much, much more.

The real power of Omnivore came not from the laundry list of shocking problems, but how it was presented. Pollan wove science, philosophy, history and narrative into a coherent, often beautiful, and always compelling package that made it difficult for readers to shy away from the knowledge presented. In the process, he sold a lot of copies to mainstream America. Well, the part of mainstream America that still reads long, non-fiction books.

This article appears in Dec 23-29, 2009.