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

by Michael Pollan

When we mistake what we can know for all there is to know, a healthy appreciation of one’s ignorance in the face of a mystery like soil fertility gives way to the hubris that we can treat nature as a machine.

“Farming is not adapted to large-scale operations because of the following reasons: Farming is concerned with plants and animals that live, grow, and die.”

Joel believes transparency is a more powerful disinfectant than any regulation or technology.

Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing.

We don’t need a law against McDonald’s or a law against slaughterhouse abuse—we ask for too much salvation by legislation.

All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse.