The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Feb 29, 2008 Martin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009books, favorites

The Omnivore's Dilemma is 2/3rds of an extremely fascinating book. The central conceit of the book -- that author Michael Pollan will eat (and document) four very different meals for himself -- gets pretty lost in the eye-opening reporting about the different food chains we omnivorous humans enjoy.

The first third of the book describes in sad, stark terms the unpleasant, unsustainable, biologically unimaginable processes of industrial food production. Corn and "monoculture" in general get raked The Omnivore's Dilemma is 2/3rds of an extremely fascinating book. The central conceit of the book -- that author Michael Pollan will eat (and document) four very different meals for himself -- gets pretty lost in the eye-opening reporting about the different food chains we omnivorous humans enjoy.

The first third of the book describes in sad, stark terms the unpleasant, unsustainable, biologically unimaginable processes of industrial food production. Corn and "monoculture" in general get raked over the coals pretty successfully in this first third. Supermarkets like Jewel and Safeway and "restaurants" like McDonald's don't come out looking so good. The second third of the book -- and certainly the most interesting -- discuss "organic" food, splitting the organic world into two camps: industrial-organic (typified by Whole Foods), and organic-organic (typified by a family farm called Polyface Farms, located coincidentally about half an hour (I would guess) away from where Greg grew in up the Shenandoah valley of Virginia).

Learning about industrial farming processes was pretty appalling and sad, whereas learning about industrial-organic and organic-organic practices was thought-provoking and fascinating. Both of these sections, however, towered over the final third of the book, wherein Pollan hunts and gathers his final meal for himself -- as a kind of atavistic "back to basics" exploration. Yet, it is at this point in the book when we realize (when I realized) that I was no longer interested in Pollan's personal experiences or travails, but rather craved more reporting on different types of current food chains. Those first two sections positively bulged with startling information and insight -- applicable and pertinent information to how each of us shops and eats today -- while the third sagged with self-indulgence and tedious personal grappling. Pollan's personal and highly emotional soul-searching after shooting a wild pig paled in comparison with his reporting on how industrial organic practices differ from those of a traditional "family farm," like Polyface.

I'm giving this book four stars because I was so riveted by the first 2/3rds. Even more specifically, I can say that the first 333 pages (of 411 total) were wonderful -- this includes the fist chapter of the final section, which discussed evenhandedly the ethics of eating animals. The last 78 pages, however, were eminently skimmable (and I'm not ashamed to say that many of them were, in fact, skimmed by me).

I would argue that the journalistic (some might say political) parts of this book ought to be read by everybody. One of the chief strengths (of the first 333pgs) of the book is the lack of obnoxiously political rhetoric. While Pollan certainly has a point of view and doesn't need to hide it, he also presents the issues with a degree of restraint; this isn't a book version of a gross-sign-waving militant vegetarian protest. Yet it is important to know -- as Pollan notes again and again -- where the food you eat comes from -- how it is created, biologically, economically, politically. The personal, navel-gazing stuff you can skip. The rest (the majority), though, feels both timely and important. ...more

Like · see review

Jun 17, 2008 Lianne rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, audiobooks, 2009

Fascinating and very informative. Some parts were kind of technical. That probably makes it not the best choice for an audiobook, since it's not always easy to focus on a book when driving, but I imagine my mind would have wandered when reading those parts anyway. Really made me think about what I'm choosing to put in my body! ...more

Like · see review

Mar 05, 2010 Eunice rated it really liked it

I'm a bit late in reading this, but I finally did. I think since this book has been published, there has been a lot of media surrounding the food industry, so much of the information was no longer a big surprise to me. However, it's still a great book with great info. A must read for anyone who eats. ...more

Like · see review