The Omnivore's Dilemma

published	2006 by Penguin Press HC, The
binding	Hardcover
isbn	1594200823 (isbn13: 9781594200823)
pages	464
literary awards	2006 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
description	The bestselling author of The Botany of Desire explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first cent...more [close] The bestselling author of The Botany of Desire explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century "What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't-which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we're realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America. Pollan has divided The Omnivore's Dilemma into three parts, one for each of the food chains that sustain us: industrialized food, alternative or "organic" food, and food people obtain by dint of their own hunting, gathering, or gardening. Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on. He concludes each section by sitting down to a meal--at McDonald's, at home with his family sharing a dinner from Whole Foods, and in a revolutionary "beyond organic" farm in Virginia. For each meal he traces the provenance of everything consumed, revealing the hidden components we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods reflects our environmental and biological inheritance. We are indeed what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the profound consequences of the simplest everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world. The Omnivore's Dilemma is a long-overdue book and one that will become known for bringing a completely fresh perspective to a question as ordinary and yet momentous as What shall we have for dinner?
date added	10-31-06 edit book

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Anita rated it:

02/18/08

Read in February, 2008

recommended to Anita by: Book review on Salon.com
recommends it for: people who care about their health, animals, farmers, the environment, and humanity

Michael Pollan is a journalist, and an omnivore, curious about where the food he puts in his mouth comes from. In the book he follows four meals from the very beginning of the food chain to his plate. What he finds is that the food we put in our mouths turns out to be a big decision- a moral, political, and environmental one.

Part One- CORN
The discussion begins with CORN. Part one of this book is shocking. I knew corn was the main crop grown in America and that farmers growing it are in...more

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Tony rated it:

03/19/08

Read in March, 2008

What is your food eating? Mr. Pollan offers up this comment, and it may become the most important remark on food of the 20th century. The book covers three meals, all profoundly different. He eats fast-food from industrial cows and corn. He eats a meal from a farm that doesn't offend your sense of humanity and he gathers/hunts 'by himself' (Note: with the help of friends)

I am not sure who should read this book more. Americans should read this because I am guessing most of them have absolutel...more What is your food eating? Mr. Pollan offers up this comment, and it may become the most important remark on food of the 20th century. The book covers three meals, all profoundly different. He eats fast-food from industrial cows and corn. He eats a meal from a farm that doesn't offend your sense of humanity and he gathers/hunts 'by himself' (Note: with the help of friends)

I am not sure who should read this book more. Americans should read this because I am guessing most of them have absolutely no idea what is happening to their food...but perhaps we are already lost, corporations already own us....so maybe it should be read by Europeans...as a kind of clarion call of awareness...is this what you want your food to become?

This review is only going to focus on the contrastive first two meals: the industrially produced one verses the Polyface farm naturally delicious lovefest. For the final meal, him and some friends pretty much prepare an amazing meal from scratch, using their foresting/botanical knowledge. While it is fascinating, especially the part about how no one knows anything about mushrooms, it is just so far beyond the realm of anything you and I are going to do to be almost comical. Really....catching/growing your own bay area yeast to go with the bore you shot and the pate from the liver your friend is able to make. Does that sound like you? I thought so...so on to the crux of the book.

He starts off the typically brutal description of industrially produced US food: how corn is king, animals are being fed food they were never meant to eat while living in their own filth, and these choices were spawned to a large extend by rational choices on farm subsidies of corn (Thank you Nixon and Montisanto...think the evil firm in Michael Clayton) and the fact that we spay nitrogen due to a conscious choice of what to do with munitions works following WWII. There were several choice vignettes. When he goes to an industrial corn farm, the farmers bemoan the changes in Ag practices under Nixon which have gradually led to the dual facet of decreasing prices per bushel combined with the ever increasing (petroleum) inspired production of said corn to deal with said price deflation. Somewhere in there, the author, while discussing how many farmers now need to do something else to earn enough money to make ends meet, mentions how it may be possible to raise these petro-crops in only 50 days of labour a year. Now, if this is so (and I am not interested enough to find out from independent private research) then I do not ever again want to hear about farmers moaning about how they can't make ends meet. Save for a very few select people on the planet, most of us have to do more than 50 days of labour annually to cut it. (Again, to avoid evisceration I am only going to go off this un-footnoted comment and have no person experience on the subject.)

Against this contrast you hit the Polyface farms, run by an anti-city, Christian anti-government saviour who knows what he is doing. He has all the animals in a perfect symmetry: the cows much grass at the peak along the S-curve, followed by the chickens who break down the patties to rejuvenate the soil, followed by the....it is a staggeringly brilliant, natural and impressive system...what holds the book back in my opinion is a more brutal economic analysis of th comparative benefits.

The author and the subject guarantee that you feel disgust with the industry of food and respect for the farming of food. What is critically lacking is the 10 pages or so (20 perhaps) needed to really break down the costs. Yes, on per-dollar basis, the Polyface farm food is more expensive. Meat and chicken (he doesn't mention the eggs, pork or rabbits he also rears) cost between $ 1-2 dollars per pd. extra, a not insignificant cost. But what is needed is a more thorough analysis. Only an idiot would fail to note the staggering cost of externalities. The Polyface farm has healed the grass (the man himself claims to be a grass farmer and everything else just follows from that, so critical is this basic energy-transformational source) and uses no pollutants (while being fvcked over on meat processing policy that favours CAFOs) So industrial food is cheaper at the market, but what hidden costs make it thus? This is what is needed. Also, he describes the annual production on the 500 acre Polyface farms, but what is that relative to the alternatives? This is what keeps this book from being a 5. The Polyface farm food is much healthier and pricier at the store....but is it cheaper in the long run due to a decrease in externalities and would the farm (and theoretically others of its mindset) be able to produce enough food to feed us all? How much of a drop of, production-wise, would occur if we replicated his brilliant experiment? It is these lack of comparisons that keep this otherwise outstanding book from being a 5. I am more than happy to have a rational discuss about my food....this book just didn't quite give me enough analytical tools to have it. ...less

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Bobbi rated it:

10/01/07

Read in March, 2007

recommends it for: everyone

Pollan takes on fake food in a big way in Omnivore's Dilemma. If you can get through the first section on corn -- which is important and ultimately fascinating, but is so dense that many readers will give up rather than wade through it -- it is a great read. This book has already tipped off the "local food fad" almost single-handedly, although many other books and articles have followed on its heels (see my review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, for example).
...more Pollan takes on fake food in a big way in Omnivore's Dilemma. If you can get through the first section on corn -- which is important and ultimately fascinating, but is so dense that many readers will give up rather than wade through it -- it is a great read. This book has already tipped off the "local food fad" almost single-handedly, although many other books and articles have followed on its heels (see my review of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, for example).

Pollan is a foodie to the core and he traces the origins of four meals all the way back to their basic sources. As we follow his journeys, we learn that modern-day Americans eat much more corn than we realize, to our detriment. Everything, from meat to ethanol, is made up largely (and unnaturally) from corn that is grown in ways that deplete our soils, waste our resources, enrich the few and malnourish the many.

Pollan also explains, in great detail, why it really is worth it to grow a tomato or buy one at the farmer's market (from the farmer who grew it, not from a produce dealer who has carted it across the country and is renting a stall). It turns out that we are eating a lot of food that bears no real resemblance to the food eaten a couple of generations ago, even though it may look the same. Much of our food comes down to a pile of chemicals and corn that have been smooshed together to make up a cardboard-like representation of of food. Once you've tasted a peach that really tastes like a peach, you will forever associate it with summertime and you will never again settle for a rock-hard peach that was grown on the other side of the world and bred for durability and ease of travel instead of nutrition and flavor.

His section on Joel Salatan of Polyface Farms was absolutely fascinating. He explains, animal by animal and crop by crop, how interrelated every living thing on his farm is. I actually woke my husband up to read him the section about the hogs and the corn and how they make compost and heat the barn all at once (use your imagination). By the time Salatan explains why he doesn't cut down stands of trees when this would apparently improve his farm by giving him moore room to graze his animals and/or raise vegetables, it all makes sense (the trees help control the temperature, provide shade, and prevent soil erosion -- who knew?). The author so immerses us in Salatan's thinking and practices that we perfectly understand his refusal to FedEx a steak to Pollan, as well as his refusal to raise more hogs this year (he would have to grow extra corn, which would require using more land that needs to lay fallow this year, which would require a few more chickens to make the fertilizer, which would increase the number of eggs produced but require more space for them to roam, and then he might have to cut down some trees, which could upset the whole ecosystem of the farm by allowing too much erosion of the soil...you get the picture. I would guess that Omnivore's Dilemma is largely responsible for making Salatan a cult figure in the generally disparate worlds of Slow Food devotees and Christian homeschoolers.

As one might expect from a Berkeley professor, Mr. Pollan is not a fan of Wal-Mart. However, his readers would be surprised to see how he takes on Whole Foods and large-scale organic growers and livestock operations with equal ferocity. Last year's spinach scare proved many of Pollan's points.

By the time that Mr. Pollan gets around to hunting wild boar and truffles (he's not exactly the hunting type) to prepare a gourmet meal, he had me wrapped around his finger like a piece of bacon around a fresh-grown asparagus. Michael, call me, we'll do dinner. You can cook. Actually, I suspect that if Mr. Pollan and I sat down to dinner we would eat only great food and argue a lot, but we would have a good time....less

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Lisa rated it:

12/09/07

bookshelves: bookclubs-secondary, nonfiction-general-nature-biography, reviewed

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: omnivores & anyone interested in the state of agriculture in the U.S.

I was resistant to reading this book because I’m not an omnivore, and also I thought that Pollan’s book The Botany of Desire was brilliant and I suspected I would not feel as fond of this one, which is certainly true. He does write well, but I didn’t find that this book had the eloquence or elegance of the other.

The sub-title of this book could read: It’s Really Ok To Eat Dead Animals, Really It Is. Which I realize for most people it is. But eating flesh foods and other foods made fr...more I was resistant to reading this book because I’m not an omnivore, and also I thought that Pollan’s book The Botany of Desire was brilliant and I suspected I would not feel as fond of this one, which is certainly true. He does write well, but I didn’t find that this book had the eloquence or elegance of the other.

The sub-title of this book could read: It’s Really Ok To Eat Dead Animals, Really It Is. Which I realize for most people it is. But eating flesh foods and other foods made from animals such as dairy and eggs is simply what the vast majority of this book’s readers and the population as a whole do; it’s not an unique argument.

But, I loved the fungi chapter and the corn section. The chapter on mushrooms I’m sure I enjoyed so much because a close friend of mine has told stories of her rural Indiana upbringing and of the very small morel patch they have on their property. So it was really fun for me to read about the foraging/hunting of the mushrooms, including local morels. (The author lives about 30 minutes drive from me and I recognized many of the locations in the book.) The corn section (about the deliberate infusion of corn products into just about every processed food) made me determined to cut way down on the processed foods that I often eat: the one real way this book changed me, not an insignificant one.

A good part of this (apparently beloved) book seemed to me to be the author’s belabored argument that it’s perfectly fine to eat animals. His treatise looked like his attempt to avoid cognitive dissonance (his term although I was already thinking of it like that) so that he could continue to eat in peace as an omnivore, along with about 97% of the U.S. population; being omnivorous is the dominant paradigm. Anyway, his waxing poetic over the glories of killing and eating animals did not sway me. It’s interesting that Pollan continually rebuts his own arguments, but I wasn’t convinced his questioning was as honest as he wanted it to appear, as it seemed to me he already knew the answers he wanted to arrive at about being omnivorous. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he would agree with me about that.

Some of his facts and figures were off. When he talks about tens of millions of animals killed for food in the U.S. for instance; actually, the latest figures I’ve read are 11 billion every year, not including fish. Even the call to eat locally, which I usually subscribe to, is not to be so simplified. One contradictory example I can think of (this issue is not addressed in the book) is the consuming of products (chocolate, coffee, dried fruit, nuts) from the distant rainforest, which, in my opinion, is much preferable to continuing to cut down rainforest trees, and which the natives will allow if they can’t make their living from the rainforest in other ways.

I know my philosophy is shared by a relative few, but the fast food meals, the description which was intended to highlight the large amounts of corn products in all the foods, while I found that surprising and unfortunate, it was the cow and chicken parts of the meal that disturbed me the most. And, as far as the “idyllic” Polyface Farm, I truly wonder what they could do 100% plant products grown. ...less

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Sara rated it:

10/13/07

bookshelves: lifestyle

Read in January, 2006

recommends it for: Everyone I know

Man, this book is great. The best book I read last year, easily. Mushrooms, chicken slaughter, sustainability, french fries, soul-searching questions, it's all here. Just read it already.

Okay, if that didn't sell you, here's more info, from the review I wrote for my farm community (Stearns Farm, Framingham, MA):

The Omnivore’s Dilemma created a lot buzz since its publication in 2006, so you may have read it already. If you haven’t picked it up yet, consider checking it out. At 464 ...more Man, this book is great. The best book I read last year, easily. Mushrooms, chicken slaughter, sustainability, french fries, soul-searching questions, it's all here. Just read it already.

Okay, if that didn't sell you, here's more info, from the review I wrote for my farm community (Stearns Farm, Framingham, MA):

The Omnivore’s Dilemma created a lot buzz since its publication in 2006, so you may have read it already. If you haven’t picked it up yet, consider checking it out. At 464 pages, it is definitely on the long side, but it’s an engaging, easy read, and it puts the question “where do we get our food?” front and center in a fascinating way. Its four different sections break up the book nicely (you could read one section a month, for example, if your reading time is limited), and it is also coming out in convenient paperback form next month.

In the book, Michael Pollan traces the history and ingredients of four different meals: one from McDonald's, one from Whole Foods market, one from a small farm in Virginia, and one composed of ingredients that he gathered (and killed) on his own. The meal from McDonald’s (about 70% of which is derived from corn) allows him to take a trip down the rabbit-hole into the world of high fructose corn syrup and the massive, genetically-modified mono-farms that produce the majority of corn in this country. The Whole Foods meal is obviously a step up from this, although here Pollan explores the conundrum of eating organically if that means flying peaches in from Chile in December. This section of the book does a fine job explaining that “organic” does not necessarily mean sustainable. Next Pollan spends a week on a farm in Virginia that serves in many ways as an idyllic model for where to get your food. (Hello, Stearns!) Finally, in a section that is as much “adventure series” as it is agricultural critique, Pollan creates a gourmet meal for his friends using only items he gathered himself, including bread made with yeast collected from his backyard and sea salt procured from the Northern California coast on which he lives.

Hunting and gathering all of your own food these days may seem unfeasible, especially to create the kind of elaborate feast Pollan does. (Although Stearns provides the opportunity to get much closer to that goal). However, even if you are unable to rustle around in the woods for wild boar or visit a fire-blackened forest to pick morel mushrooms, as Pollan does, you will come away from the book re-energized with the commitment to eat locally and sustainably. Pollan may not have deliberately set out to promote CSAs such as Stearns Farm, but that is a happy side benefit of the work. He also writes sensitively and without a sense of moral superiority—it can feel unusual to read a book on this subject that doesn't make you feel bad about yourself. And yet, the information Pollan presents simply and persuasively will compel you to both thought and action, making The Omnivore’s Dilemma an excellent read and great inspiration for the next time you are out in the pick-your-own beds, gathering food for your family’s dinner.
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Tracy rated it:

06/26/07

bookshelves: nonfiction

Read in May, 2007

recommends it for: anyone who eats

I'll never look at corn the same way again.

This book provokes a lot of thought about the origins of our food and the biological, political, social and economic implications of those origins. I liked that Pollan approached the topic journalistically, with admirably little in the way of political agenda. To structure his book, he uses the format of following the path of four finished meals from origin to plate - one McDonald's meal, one comprised of supermarket organic products, one from a &...more I'll never look at corn the same way again.

This book provokes a lot of thought about the origins of our food and the biological, political, social and economic implications of those origins. I liked that Pollan approached the topic journalistically, with admirably little in the way of political agenda. To structure his book, he uses the format of following the path of four finished meals from origin to plate - one McDonald's meal, one comprised of supermarket organic products, one from a "beyond-organic" self-sustaining farm in Virgina, and one he forages almost entirely on his own.

Pollan goes into food science labs and discovers how ubiquitous the use of corn has become in modern diets, and how corn-derived food systems are synthesized and refined into ever more variations to increase our usage and meet industrial demands for market growth. The McDonald's meal he and his family share, for example, ends up being comprised of over 70% corn or corn-fed product (from beef and milk cows fed corn silage and loaded with antibiotics when it sickens them, to corn starches used in buns and chicken nugget fillers, to the high-fructose corn syrup used to sweeten soda and milkshakes). Pollan makes a strong case for how corn and its refined offspring have contributed to the ever-expending girths of Americans in recent decades.

Next he looks at the organic market, examining the compromises that many organic producers have had to make to support the demands of national chains like Whole Foods, and what "organic" does and does not necessarily mean. He contrasts corporate organic production with a week he spends working on a farm in Virginia run by a maverick Christian/libertarian farmer who carefully manages a "beyond organic" operation of interdependent, high-yielding crops and livestock on his land. The story of how this farmer guides his farm in a sustainable, symbiotic cycle is absolutely amazing.

Lastly, Pollan goes off the grid completely in growing and foraging the means for an entire omnivorous meal - not only growing vegetables/herbs and learning how to scout for edible mushrooms, but actually learning how to hunt and shoot a wild pig in N. California (something my own husband recently did, much to our culinary benefit). The vast majority of people who eat meat will never even lay eyes on the living body of an animal they eat, let alone take responsibility for its demise; so I find a lot of honesty in Pollan's having taken that step in his exploration of the food chain.

Overall, this book rocked my world in terms of understanding our modern food chain and its impact on all of us both individually and as a society. As a result, I've been doing a lot of thinking about how I can improve both my diet and my contribution to local/organic food sources. I'm determined to find more ways to eat locally and organically, and I feel lucky to live in one of the best places to do so....less

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Patrick rated it:

03/30/07

bookshelves: justfinished

Read in March, 2007

recommends it for: everyone

I thoroughly enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He's been one of my favorite writers, ever since I read A Place of My Own, some years ago. And I stumble across stories by him in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, often quite by accident, and then look at the byline to see who this talented writer is, and there's Pollan again.

The book has the distinct danger of making you annoying to your spouse/partner/children, because you'll be reading along and feel compelled to share a fa...more I thoroughly enjoyed The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. He's been one of my favorite writers, ever since I read A Place of My Own, some years ago. And I stumble across stories by him in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, often quite by accident, and then look at the byline to see who this talented writer is, and there's Pollan again.

The book has the distinct danger of making you annoying to your spouse/partner/children, because you'll be reading along and feel compelled to share a fact about how industrial corn production has wormed its way into nearly every aspect of the American diet. I know my 12-year-old daughter cringes when we go the store, and I inspect the ingredients, calling out, "Yep, there's corn in this, too."

Pollan is an immensely fun writer, because he enjoys learning about this stuff, and he's skilled at taking the reader along on the journey, not just through the facts, but through feedlots, and chicken slaughtering, and mushroom hunting. He takes a close look at the industrialization of food production (which depends heavily and crazily on corn), large scale organic farming, and then at a sustainable farming operation, and then around a meal that he assembles using his hunting and gathering skills (relying heavily on the skills of others).

For our family, this book seems perfectly timed, since we've been making huge dietary changes around here since Halloween, cutting out animal products and most refined and processed foods. We were doing it for health reasons, but this books adds an entirely new level of justification. Not that Pollan is saying you should become a vegan. Not at all. He's saying that we owe it to ourselves to become more conscious about what we actually put in our mouths, and the effects that its creation is having on us, our culture, and our planet.

My only disappointment is that in the final wrap-up, he focuses on the extreme distance between the industrialized food he and his family consumes and the meal that he makes through hunting and gathering, without mentioning enough of the sustainable farm that he'd visited. (That section made me want to go out and buy some land and start farming. Tomorrow.) We spent so much time with Pollan through this book, I wanted a stronger sense of whether all this had actually managed to change his day-to-day buying and eating habits. But those are really minor points.

(Also, don't miss a terrific essay Pollan wrote for the NY Times in January, Unhappy Meals, about what we really should eat. Really, it's the answer to what was bugging me about the end of his book. It should be included as an addendum to every copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma.)...less

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Peter rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038583)

12/03/07

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: people who want to understand what they are eating

I started into this worried it was going to force me into vegetarianism, that I was going to read some passage about calves born into rancid waste, and a blue light somewhere in my brain would turn green and a gag reflex would accompany the thought of meat moving forward.

...Which speaks either to my penchant for pessimism, or the ominous relationship we have to our food chain, where we _don't_ really want to know how food got there, we just want to eat it.

But read the book I did, fearful...more I started into this worried it was going to force me into vegetarianism, that I was going to read some passage about calves born into rancid waste, and a blue light somewhere in my brain would turn green and a gag reflex would accompany the thought of meat moving forward.

...Which speaks either to my penchant for pessimism, or the ominous relationship we have to our food chain, where we _don't_ really want to know how food got there, we just want to eat it.

But read the book I did, fearful to encounter that meat-snatching passage within the book. Thankfully, Pollan is not an alarmist, but rather a quite methodical inquisitor about the roots of our food. It sounds kind of..esoteric, but he makes it fascinating, like a great humanities teacher he tells the larger story of food: of why we grow so much fricking corn in America, and how it's bad for almost everyone involved: ourselves, our diet, farmers in other countries.

The good thing is that the book never descends into a polemic, unlike Michael Moore's work, Pollan's evenhandedness keeps the reader open to what he is saying. Nothing is extreme or revolutionary or incendiary.

I feel like this book will, in the long term, shape the way I think about food by giving me a vocabulary for considering my personal and our cultural relationship to food. He discusses how America as a nation of immigrants never developed a stable national cuisine (unlike France or Italy), and the absence of that makes us vulnerable to an endless array of fad diets (coughAdkinscough) and an overall menu that is out of balance.

There is a fascinating chapter on mushrooms and fungi, which details how they are utterly different from plants, and grow from this crazy underground symbiosis with decomposing nutrients and tree roots, taking a single drop of sugar from the tree root in exchange for processed minerals from the soil.

There is an extended look at a farm outside Charlottesville--Polyface Farm--which models itself after natural ecosystems and creates this method of rotating cattle and chickens with grass growth cycles to create this wonderful whirlwind of spreadsheets, efficiency, and microdata on growth patterns of grass.

To wit: it's better to have grass pasture surrounded by trees, because a blade of grass will burn X calories turning the face of it's blade toward the sun to receive solar energy. Planting forests around removes wind, allowing the grass to grow higher. Brilliant.

In the end, it's about food, but it's also about systems in general. It begins to feel like a universal look at the interrelationship of history and commerce, and how everything is this big interconnected fabric, but that you can begin to see some of those connections, and kind of surf those links to great personal and collective gain.

12/2007

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Lauren rated it:

04/01/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in March, 2008

recommended to Lauren by: lots of people in nutrition, Emily, V
recommends it for: everyone, especially w/interest in food, economics, farming, sociology

EVERYONE who eats in America, omnivore or not, should read this book or at least know most of what it describes. Even as an educated dietitian/foodie, I was surprised by many of the details, especially of agricultural or economical matters.

The first half was much easier to read and I found my head nodding in agreement or shaking in disbelief/disgust/fascination. The only critique of this part would be that Pollan's writing made virtually EVERYTHING, from the evolution of corn, to the inven...more EVERYONE who eats in America, omnivore or not, should read this book or at least know most of what it describes. Even as an educated dietitian/foodie, I was surprised by many of the details, especially of agricultural or economical matters.

The first half was much easier to read and I found my head nodding in agreement or shaking in disbelief/disgust/fascination. The only critique of this part would be that Pollan's writing made virtually EVERYTHING, from the evolution of corn, to the invention of a certain fertilizer, appear as the ONE ultimate occurence leading to the (arguably hateful) current food system (and in so doing, actually made the point that a number of things have contributed in different ways over many, many years).

The second half got a little bit less intriguing, but still a worthwhile read since it introduced concepts and experiences I'm less familiar with (sustainable farming, hunting), and definitely made me think more about these issues.

I tried to keep a mental tab of favorite quotes to post, but don't know if I can find them all, there were so many, but here are seven, a nice lucky or Biblical number.

1) "So violent a change in a culture's eating habits... would never have happened in a culture in possession of deeply rooted traditions surrounding food and eating.... A country with a stable culture of food would not... be apt to confuse protein bars and food supplements with meals or breakfast cereals with medicine...."

2) "To one degree or another, the question of what to have for dinner assails every omnivore... When you can eat just about anything nature has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety."

3) "By the 1980s the diversified family farm was history in Iowa, and corn was king." For more details, see the film "King Corn," produced by and starring two guys from Boston on WGBH/PBS April 16th!

4) "But we should at least acknowledge that the human desire to eat meat is not, as the animal rightists would have it, a trivial matter, a mere gastronomic preference. By the same token we might call sex- also now technically unnecessary for reproduction- a mere recreational preference. Rather, our meat eating is something very deep indeed."

5) "Predation is deeply woven into the fabric of nature, and that fabric would quickly unravel if it somehow ended, if humans somehow managed to 'do something about it.'" Interestingly, Ishmael, which I'm reading now, would argue that we have indeed already "done something about it," but in the opposite direction: preyed too much on everything, for non-food purposes but merely for conquest.

6) "Isn't it anthropocentric of us to assume that our moral system offers an adequate guide for what should happen in nature?"

7) "Such storied food can feed us both body and soul, the threads of a narrative knitting us together as a group, and knitting the group into the larger fabric of the given world."

Can't wait to read his "In Defense of Food" soon!...less

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Ginny rated it:

09/25/07

A truly important book by gifted writer and journalist Michael Pollan. It's not without its flaws, however, and for all the promise of the first two-thirds of the book, it kind of leaves the reader hanging at the end.

In the first part, Pollan exposes the damaging effects of industrial agriculture, and—-importantly—-this includes large-scale organic production which is not nearly as benign as most people would like to believe. Later in the book he addresses the inhumane aspect of indust...more A truly important book by gifted writer and journalist Michael Pollan. It's not without its flaws, however, and for all the promise of the first two-thirds of the book, it kind of leaves the reader hanging at the end.

In the first part, Pollan exposes the damaging effects of industrial agriculture, and—-importantly—-this includes large-scale organic production which is not nearly as benign as most people would like to believe. Later in the book he addresses the inhumane aspect of industrial agriculture as well—-organic production included. He puts it succinctly: you look away, or you stop eating meat.

In the second part of the book, we see farming as it should be, on Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley. Here, farming practices are closely tied to nature including the natural behavior of farm animals. While the system doesn't adhere completely to organic regulations, it is far more sustainable and humane than industrial organic agriculture and certainly more so than conventional agriculture. Polyface Farm is not able to separate itself from industrial agriculture completely (by law, the steer are killed in conventional slaughterhouses) but it still seems like a very nice place. Unfortunately, the scale on which it operates means that this type of sustainable farming can never produce enough food for the U.S. population. Food from farms like Polyface is likely to be available to only a privileged few.

The last part of the book struck me as downright nonsensical. Pollan explores the possibility of putting together the ultimate local meal—-one composed of food that he himself has hunted, gathered and grown. But don't try this at home, he says. It is not at all a realistic way to eat. Well—-no—-not if you do it by gathering chanterelle mushrooms with a bunch of chefs from Chez Panisse, hunting wild boar in the California woods, and diving for abalone along a rocky coast. Granted, most Americans would be hard-pressed to produce their own food, but Pollan doesn't even explore the option in any kind of realistic or meaningful fashion.

In the end, it appears that the problems associated with food production are insurmountable. Industrial agriculture provides most of the food in this country and is a wasteful and unsustainable system. But more sustainable systems are not realistic for feeding the population. Pollan does not offer any clear cut answers, much to my surprise. (I didn't expect him to solve the problem; I did expect a little guidance!) But the thoughtful reader can still pull together a plan of action to minimize the environmental and ethical cost of a meal. Reduce intake of animal foods. Buy locally-produced food. Grow or produce as much as is realistic for you. Pollan makes his readers think about where their meals come from and how to measure the true cost of our "inexpensive" food. This is a must-read for anyone who expresses a desire to live and eat responsibly.
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Beth rated it:

12/21/07

Read in December, 2007

Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan is an exploration of Wendell Berry’s statement, “Eating is an agricultural act” (11). Pollan views the practice of eating through three perspectives: the industrial complex, where corn is king; the pastoral, where the definition of organic is explored; and the personal, where one enters the forest as hunter and gatherer.

Pollan’s focus is based on the awareness that “Americans have never had a single, strong, stable culinary tradition to g...more Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan is an exploration of Wendell Berry’s statement, “Eating is an agricultural act” (11). Pollan views the practice of eating through three perspectives: the industrial complex, where corn is king; the pastoral, where the definition of organic is explored; and the personal, where one enters the forest as hunter and gatherer.

Pollan’s focus is based on the awareness that “Americans have never had a single, strong, stable culinary tradition to guide [them]” (5). Corn is a predominate character throughout the book with support on how the cheap and plentiful production of corn is more important than the individuals who produce it or the effects on those who consume it. The book is sprinkled with corn facts. Corn is a C-4 which means it takes in more C-13 (21). Human flesh can be measured for the amount of C-13 which indicates a high consumption of corn. Americans have a high C-13 measurement. “The biggest portion of a bushel of American commodity corn (about 60% of it…) goes to feeding livestock” (66). Cattle are engineered to be ruminants, grass eaters not grain eaters. Coca-Cola started using high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in 1980 (104) because it was cheaper than cane sugar. “Today it takes between 7 and 10 calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food to an American plate” (133). More than these facts, Pollan delves into some more fundamental issues that all readers grapple with.

When a culture only looks at the bare bones of the cost factor of food and not who produces it or how it was produced, “[t]he bare bones information travels in both directions, of course, and farmers who get the message that consumers care only about price will themselves care only about yield” (136). It becomes questionable how that yield was produced—through intensive synthetic fertilization, pesticides, cheap labor? When food systems are “strictly organized on industrial lines” (201), there is concern for everyone. A tension exists “between the capitalist imperative to maximize efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of a culture” (318). Pollan describes nightmarish situations of animal food production as well as the poor conditions of workers. This also supports his comments concerning globalization when logic treats food as a commodity; “food will come from wherever in the world it can be produced most cheaply. The iron law of competitive advantage dictates that if another country can grow something more efficiently—whether because its land or labor is cheaper or its environmental laws more lax …” (255).

Pollan recognizes we can not all be self-reliant hunters-gatherers or even gardeners, and that forays into self-reliance may even be a delicious luxury, but in the end eating is part of a whole process and system, natural and man-made that requires of us all to eat with “consciousness, ceremony, and respect” (333).
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Marigold rated it:

(review of isbn 0143038583)

01/22/08

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: Everyone who eats

As a previous reviewer here said, "I'll never look at corn the same way again!" This is a fabulous book and everyone, absolutely everyone, should read it. Pollan is a great writer with the ability to make all kinds of potentially dull, dry subjects interesting. I know a lot more about corn than I ever thought I would! Now I can understand some of the debate about farm subsidies! I came to know - and admire - a self-described Christian conservative libertarian environmentalist - the own...more As a previous reviewer here said, "I'll never look at corn the same way again!" This is a fabulous book and everyone, absolutely everyone, should read it. Pollan is a great writer with the ability to make all kinds of potentially dull, dry subjects interesting. I know a lot more about corn than I ever thought I would! Now I can understand some of the debate about farm subsidies! I came to know - and admire - a self-described Christian conservative libertarian environmentalist - the owner of a sustainably run "grass farm" in Virginia. (Oh, the things I know about grass now!) I learned some things about hunting that I had never before considered. (And yes I do eat meat - but yes, I've always known I was a hypocrite, & occasionally I forgive myself.) I learned about the eco-system of mushrooms & the community of those who hunt them.
What's great about this book, beyond the facts & figures, is the way Pollan makes you think about things in a different way, by showing many sides of the issues. I actually expected that this book would be an indictment of the cattle and chicken industries and that it would sort of "force" me into vegetarianism. But in fact what I have is a whole new set of questions & maybe a few semi-answers that I can think about & come to my own conclusions. Whether I'll become a vegetarian or not I don't know. I do know I'm going to become more aware & think more deeply about what I'm putting in my mouth & where it came from. And I'm going to buy free range eggs!! (Tho as Pollan points out, "free range" can mean a variety of things.) Pollan does a masterful job of showing us the inter-connectedness of our world - & how powerful it is when we choose sustainably - because we create a circle that continues to renew itself and nurture each one of us. As an agnostic liberal idealistic pessimist, I often fall prey to feelings of, "what difference does it make?" - & this book really showed me the results of some different choices & how to think about the choices in different ways. Yet the book is not at all political - or should I say partisan. It's a presentation of information & issues, including different sides of the issues & different feelings & opinions that Pollan includes both from his own thinking & from sources.
One thing I always really love about a book - when I can sort of feel my brain stretching as I'm reading it! What a great writer & teacher Mr. Pollan is. This is the kind of book I want to go out & buy for everyone I know! It's only January, but I bet this is going to be one of my favorite books I'll read all year.
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Tripp rated it:

02/03/08

Read in December, 2007

recommends it for: Americans that eat

Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma is a compelling, rich study of how America gets its food that blends a John McPhee like personal journey with probing and difficult philosophical questions about how we should eat.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is what should we have for dinner. In the past, the choices were limited, but today they are close to unlimited. Pollan charges that we should understand from whence our food comes. To do that, he traces the food sources of four meals, a fast food dinner, a...more Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma is a compelling, rich study of how America gets its food that blends a John McPhee like personal journey with probing and difficult philosophical questions about how we should eat.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is what should we have for dinner. In the past, the choices were limited, but today they are close to unlimited. Pollan charges that we should understand from whence our food comes. To do that, he traces the food sources of four meals, a fast food dinner, an organic meal from a national chain, a locals-only meal and finally a meal personally hunted and gathered.

The key to fast food, and by extension much of the grocery, is corn. His exploration of the role of corn in the modern diet is good enough to warrant buying the book. He describes how policy developed to support low corn prices and the deleterious effect on cow and human health that results. He also explains why farmers are stuck with the system.

In the organic chapters, Pollan questions the extent to which Big Organic is really better than what Whole Foods would term conventional growing. He argues it is better, especially due to great reduction in chemicals, but argues that the overall environmental impact is similar. Virginia's Poly Face Farms is the hero of the tale. Through rigorous rotations, the Salatin family produces a wide range of meats for locals and does so in one of the most environmentally friendly ways possible.

Pollan is very much part of the story, buying a cow to follow it through the nation's beef supply and working on the Salatin's farm to understand how they differ. He briefly becomes a vegetarian to understand that approach. In order to complete his study of food, Pollans goes on mushroom hunts, forages for fruit, grows vegetables and then goes hunting for wild boar. Although initially skeptical, he comes to understand the hunting mystiques but believes it must be felt to be understood.

His eventual pro-hunting stance is part of the complex food view he constructs which argues for eating as locally and as environmentally friendly as possible. He ends up opposing animal rights as being fixated on the rights of individual animals without thought to ecology. He vigorously and convincingly argues against the industrialization of agriculture which primarily helps the companies involved to the great detriment of health and the environment.

This is an excellent read and you will find yourself wanting to pass on your copy. At the airport this weekend, a man saw my copy and approached me to comment that he had just started and wondered what I thought about the book. It is that kind of book....less

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Gwen rated it:

01/06/08

Read in January, 2008

The first section of the book, in which Pollan follows the path of corn through the industrial food chain and discusses the effects of corn on our diets, supermarkets, and the environment, is fascinating. Despite being trained in the sociology of agriculture and specifically in the analysis of commodity chains, I learned a lot and found few details to quibble with (the main exception being his tendency to anthropomorphize corn, discussing it as though it intentionally chose to evolve in certain ...more The first section of the book, in which Pollan follows the path of corn through the industrial food chain and discusses the effects of corn on our diets, supermarkets, and the environment, is fascinating. Despite being trained in the sociology of agriculture and specifically in the analysis of commodity chains, I learned a lot and found few details to quibble with (the main exception being his tendency to anthropomorphize corn, discussing it as though it intentionally chose to evolve in certain ways). If I were teaching a class on food, I would totally assign that section of the book.

The second section of the book is also good, though not as great as the first. Probably this is because I already knew that "organic" and "sustainable" are not the same and that Horizon-brand organic dairy products come from huge dairies that, from the point of view of the cow, the quality of the milk, and the environment, are little better than regular non-organic ones.

But the final section is really annoying me. Most of the things that are irritating me are much more clearly discussed at http://www.powells.com/review/..., but there were a few other things as well. Pollan keeps talking about how only omnivores have any trouble deciding what to eat, using koalas and cows as examples of animals that, being specialists, don't need to worry about whether something is an acceptable food source or not. Anyone who raises cows will tell you he's highly underestimating cows' experimentation with non-grass foods. They eat weeds and poisonous plants; they get nails and wire and bones stuck in their throats. It's a pain in the ass to have to try to remove a deer vertebra some cow has managed to lodge in her throat. I suppose this seems like a minor detail, except his entire argument is that humans (and other omnivores) are unique in facing problems deciding what is and isn't safe to eat.

Connected to that is Pollan's reference to "human nature" from time to time, something that drives me nuts when my students do it and is even more exasperating from someone who at least ostensibly has the intellectual capacity and training to not fall back on such a simplistic explanation (that is, "humans do it, therefore it's human nature"). He seems to buy in to the popular conception that there's a "human nature" that we've just smeared a little civilization and culture on top of (think of frosting on a cake).

I don't think I can finish the book--I'm increasingly irritated by his tone and the problems with his argument. It's too bad, because the book really did start off well....less

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India rated it:

05/01/07

Read in April, 2007

recommends it for: Anyone interested in food

Knowing I was a food lover, my friend Clare lent me this book. I usually don't read a lot of this kind of stuff, but I thought this book was fabulous. It's highly readable, even if you know nothing about agriculture, and Michael Pollan asks many insigtful and thought provoking questions throughout the book...I was really struck by his attempt to figure out the true "cost" of the meal and the discrepencies between its price face value and in its hidden costs to taxpayers and the envir...more Knowing I was a food lover, my friend Clare lent me this book. I usually don't read a lot of this kind of stuff, but I thought this book was fabulous. It's highly readable, even if you know nothing about agriculture, and Michael Pollan asks many insigtful and thought provoking questions throughout the book...I was really struck by his attempt to figure out the true "cost" of the meal and the discrepencies between its price face value and in its hidden costs to taxpayers and the environment.

I think he's strongest when he's describing the omnipresence of corn in the American diet. This was pretty enlightening for me. I like can't eat any sort of processed food now without checking to see if there's high fructose corn syrup in it!

Pollan tries to be objective throughout the entire book, but his views on the industrial production of both conventional and organic foods are pretty obvious; that is, he's highly critical.

While I totally agree with that, one criticism I had was that he seems to implicitly advocate grazing on grass rather than in feedlots, where animals are fed corn... which according to Pollan is the root our problems).

While no one would really dispute the fact that feedlots are horrible both ethically and environmentally, and that grass is a healthier diet for the cattle, he never mentions how bad pasture grazing is for the environment! I was pretty surprised he never brought that up... its not exactly controversial and he doesn't hestitate to cite a whole slew of other environmental problems brought on by modern agriculture.

I think, as the Whole Foods CEO was right to point out in that recent town hall forum with Michael Pollan at UC Berkeley, (I followed the link from your review Clare!) that there never was a "golden age" in terms of food production. Personally, (and this is a point advocated by a lot of vegetarians/vegans) I think a lot of the problem is that there are too many freaking cows-- since it takes A TON of food just to fatten a cow, a ton of money/resources to transport them all over the country as livestock and as hamburgers, and only 50% of a cow's weight is actually eaten by humans. Pollan touches on this stuff, but I wish he had given it more time when he discusses his foray into vegetarianism. I'm sure there are plenty of people who ascribe to the whole Peter Singer thing, but I wish Pollan had said a little more about the environmental tolls of raising so many cattle, even if they are raised humanely.

But all in all, I think this book is definitely worth reading! ...less

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