Earth Week 2012 at Knox College

Knox College celebrates Earth Week 2012 with a series of events, including a lecture by best-selling author Paul Greenberg and a dinner open to the community showcasing sustainably raised seafood.

One of our country's most influential environmental thinkers, Greenberg will give a talk, "Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food," at 5 p.m., Monday, April 16 in Harbach Theatre, Ford Center for the Fine Arts, on the Knox campus in Galesburg, Illinois. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Following the lecture, there will be a "Sustainable Seafood Dinner" open to the public in the Oak Room, Seymour Union. Reservations are not required, and tickets for the dinner are available at the door at a cost of $9.95 per person. The dinner, which serves from 6:30 until 7:30 p.m., will feature a menu of sustainably-caught salmon, cod, and albacore -- three of the four species of fish that Greenberg has studied.

In addition to his lecture, Greenberg also is scheduled to meet with Knox students in environmental studies, English and journalism.

Immediately prior to Greenberg's lecture, a number of student and community organizations will have displays in the lobby of the Ford Center for the Fine Arts. Autographed copies of Greenberg's book will be available for purchase.

In the week leading up to the lecture, local restaurants will offer special items inspired by Greenberg's work, and hold a drawing for a free signed copy of his book.

The day following Greenberg's lecture, a student organization, Knox College Democrats, will present a panel discussion by Knox faculty on the topic of resource politics. The discussion at 7 p.m., Tuesday, April 17, is free and open to the public in the Alumni Room, Old Main.

During the week after the lecture, starting with the official celebration of Earth Day on April 21, Knox College students will join students from Augustana College for a picnic and bike ride, and with students from Monmouth College to discuss Greenberg's book and work on each other's campus gardens.

Greenberg is the author of "Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food," a New York Times bestseller and winner of the James Beard Award for food writing. The New York Times praised "Four Fish" as "a necessary book for anyone truly interested in what we take from the sea to eat, and how, and why." Greenberg is a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, Book Review, and Opinion Page. He has also written for National Geographic Magazine, GQ, The Times of London, Vogue, and many other publications. In the last five years he has been both a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow and a W. K. Kellogg Foundation Food and Society Policy Fellow.

Greenberg's lecture is sponsored by several Knox student organizations: Friends of Green Oaks, KARES, Alliance for Peaceful Action, Garden Club, Knox College Green Fee, Phi Gamma Delta, and Student Senate; also the Finley Fund, Eleanor Stellyes Center for Global Studies, Environmental Studies Department, English Department, and the Journalism Program's Joe W. Morgan Fund; and from the community, the Book Nook Club of Galesburg.