big agribusiness pressures school curriculum in washington state

From the Washington Post: "Washington State University is drawing the wrath of the sustainable-food community after word leaked out that pressures from agribusiness had caused the school to pull Michael Pollan's best-selling book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" off the reading list for college freshmen."
According to the Spokesman Review, "political pressure apparently was brought to bear by a member of the board of regents, Harold Cochran, who disapproved of the author’s characterization of agribusiness. Cochran owns and operates a 5,500-acre farm near Walla Walla, is a founding stockholder in the Bank of the West in Walla Walla and is a member of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers."
As also noted by the Washington post, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, "an explanation on the university's Web site is vague and implies the withdrawal of the book was due to budget constraints. But some people on the campus say that the university, which has a prominent agriculture college, bowed to pressure from agribusiness interests."

Harold Cochran was appointed to the position on the Board of Regents at Washington State University (WSU) by Governor Chris Gregoire of Washington state in February of 2007.

Side note: One of the books that was also introduced into the reading curriculum in 2007 for the freshman was “Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It."written by Gina Kolata.