Mesa Refuge, a writer’s retreat in Point Reyes Station, is kicking off a new fellowship in honor of Michael Pollan, the author of numerous books on the modern eater’s relationship with food. For two weeks every year, the Michael Pollan Fellowship for Journalism will bring to Point Reyes a writer who investigates the intersection of humans and nature; the first fellow will be Raj Patel, an author and academic whose work has focused on global food systems, poverty and the social and economic costs of the so-called free market. Mr. Pollan himself worked on his 2006 bestseller, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” at the refuge. He is well known not just for his exploration of food systems but for a phrase he coined in another of his books, “In Defense of Food.” “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” he wrote. In a recent interview with journalist Ezra Klein on vox.com, he reflected on the peculiarity of its popularity: “The fact that it was even noteworthy is what’s noteworthy about it. It’s a measure of how perplexed we’ve become about food as a result of what the food industry has done. You have to be pretty lost for that to come as news.”