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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

Michael Pollan

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Mar 29, 2018 Michael Jandrok rated it really liked it

I have always been interested in food culture, though I would have never considered myself to be a “foodie” in the strictest sense. That term always carried a bit of hipster baggage to my mind. I would tend to picture modern U.S. food culture as a sort of hummus-slathered menu dominated by low-fat recipes meant to reflect the popular diet trends of the day. Those attitudes began to change for me when I was diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly food became a big deal for me, first as something that I a I have always been interested in food culture, though I would have never considered myself to be a “foodie” in the strictest sense. That term always carried a bit of hipster baggage to my mind. I would tend to picture modern U.S. food culture as a sort of hummus-slathered menu dominated by low-fat recipes meant to reflect the popular diet trends of the day. Those attitudes began to change for me when I was diagnosed with cancer. Suddenly food became a big deal for me, first as something that I actively avoided as my appetite dwindled and my daily routine ran to getting as many calories in my body as I could, regardless of the delivery system. As someone living with colorectal cancer, food was a tough sell for me as the disease progressed. My tastes changed and most foods that I used to love became alien to me.

But a funny thing happened as my treatment started to take hold and my appetite slowly began to return. I began to consciously embrace “foodie” culture with an eye towards expanding my palate and eating healthier. A big part of this ongoing effort has been educating myself on what would be the “right” things to eat given that I had a disease that directly affected my tastes and digestive functions. I didn’t want specific “diet” books, per se. What I wanted and needed was comprehensive information on what constitutes food itself, with an eye towards the science and sociology of developing better food habits and cooking techniques.

Before my disease took hold, I was a 5’5”, 165 pound ball of muscle and muffin top, still trying to fit into size 34 jeans. At the peak of the cancer, when I was at my lowest point physically, I was 106 pounds and looked like a shell of my former self. After a year and a half of treatment, I am back up to 140 pounds, due in large part to eating better and making more informed choices as to the food that I put into my body. I can thank books like “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” for giving me a respectable knowledge base to make those wise culinary decisions.

Author Michael Pollan has been writing about food for many years now. This book was originally published in 2006 and was one of his earlier efforts at culinary writing. The material has aged well. I do think that we have become a bit smarter as a food culture in the intervening years, but the basic information presented here is still valid and useful. I will take a moment here to caution prospective readers that Pollan’s visit to a large-scale feedlot and the rendering plant is graphic and somewhat disturbing. One can’t read these sections and not begin to question what it means to consume beef.

The premise of the text is pretty simple and the nature of the "omnivore's dilemma" can be summed up quite nicely: as creatures that can eat virtually anything, the big question can be defined as "what SHOULD we eat?” Pollan sets out to find the answer to this question by tracing 4 meals back to their sources. IN the course of the book he dissects a fast food meal, a store-bought organic entree, a "beyond organic" meal produced entirely at a polyculture farm, and a meal that he hunts and gathers (almost) entirely by himself. Along the way, he asks the reader to join him in his quest for a more thorough knowledge of the food that we eat and a better understanding of how the decisions that we make as food consumers help to shape our cultural and physical landscape.

This is an intensely interesting book, and an important addition to the bookshelf for anyone interested in becoming more "food-aware". Pollan's journey is always engaging, sometimes spiritual ("we are what we eat…." takes on a new dimension when one stops to look at it with this much depth), and occasionally frightening. He is always respectful of his cast of characters, and he is willing to challenge his own preconceptions and ideas as he gathers knowledge and experience. Note that there are no recipes to be found within these pages, nor any specific information on the art of cooking. This is a book that is fully invested in talking about food as a consumer product; what it is, where it comes from, and what the impacts and implications are when you decide to make a food consumption choice.

Michael Pollan strikes me as a fairly engaging and nice guy. I’d like to sit down to a meal with him and talk shop. I learned a lot from this book that I can actively put into practice as I seek to modify my eating habits with an eye towards maximum health benefits. Along with that I gained some ways to make more responsible choices as a food consumer, and that’s just as important as the health angle for me. I’ll be seeking out more of Pollan’s food writing.

Coda #1: After reading a number of reviews for this book, I can honestly say that this is a pretty polarizing piece of writing. A substantial number of vegetarians and vegans panned the book because of its acceptance of what Pollan would call “responsible” meat consumption. And there is no doubt that the author does indeed support the idea that eating meat can be done in an ethical fashion. I won’t rehash the arguments in the reviews here. Having a background in anthropology I can tell you that from a biological perspective humans have absolutely evolved as omnivores. Those canine teeth in your mouth didn’t appear because primates had an exclusively vegetarian diet, they are there specifically for the catching of prey and the tearing of meat. That said, we would do well as a species to eat a lot LESS meat, and there is no denying the environmental damage that is done by widespread meat consumption.

Coda #2: That idea of responsible meat consumption is central to Pollan’s ideas. But it’s larger than just meat. The whole idea here is to gain a more thorough understanding of where our food comes from and from there develop better and more responsible food habits. Modern supermarket culture has taken away a lot of the basic knowledge of food...where it comes from, how it is grown or raised, etc. Pollan states outright that we would all be better off if we once again gained a real connection to our food, one that goes well beyond opening a can or a package and dropping something into a pot to warm it up. That concept alone makes “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” valuable and worthwhile.

Coda #3: Another criticism of the book centered on Pollan himself, and the idea that the concepts in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” can only be absorbed and put into action by an affluent audience. I’m not really sure I buy this argument. It’s true that “foodie” culture seems to have a footprint squarely in a sort of urban-hipster vibe, but the fact is that lower-income folks can put any of the ideas in this book into action just the same as any other demographic. In point, much has been made in the news lately of the current regime’s idea to hand out “food boxes” in place of letting assistance recipients make their own food choices. That would mean a direct impact on the farmer’s markets who accept assistance payments. That tells me that plenty of lower-income people have learned how to make healthy and ethical culinary choices that stretch their food dollars to the max.

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