The Omnivore's Dilemma

by Michael Pollan
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
date added
10-31-06



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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 16446)



Anita
Anita rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
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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  3 comments

Tony
Tony rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
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
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  1 comments

Bobbi
Bobbi rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
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
Like this review?   yes   (6 people liked it)
  1 comments

Lisa Vegan
Lisa rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
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
Like this review?   yes   (10 people liked it)
  7 comments

Sara
Sara rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
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
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Tracy
Tracy rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
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
Like this review?   yes   (5 people liked it)
  2 comments

Patrick
Patrick rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
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
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Peter
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
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  6 comments

Lauren
Lauren rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
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
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Ginny
Ginny rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
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
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Beth
Beth rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
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
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Marigold
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
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Tripp
Tripp rated it: 5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
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
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Gwen
Gwen rated it: 3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars
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
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India
India rated it: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
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
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