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The Omnivore's Dilemma
by Michael Pollan

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3109.The_Omnivore_s_Dilemma?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Omnivore's Dilemma" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1192945129m/3109.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3109.The_Omnivore_s_Dilemma?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Omnivore's Dilemma</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2121.Michael_Pollan">Michael Pollan</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6903743?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 4 of 5 stars 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.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/405638?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Bobbi's review
rating:
recommended 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).

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 ...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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