The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Book Review: Should win a Pulitzer
Summary: 5 Stars
This well-written and researched book teaches a tremendous amount about our food chains (pun intended). First is the Industrial Food Chain. I had no idea that the Industrial food chain existed, though in retrospect of course I must have been aware somehow. This chain leads to McDonald's. The second chain is the Industrial Organic -- the Whole Foods, Wild Oats suppliers. I will always think about Pollan wearing a moon suit when visiting organic chickens. And "free-range" no longer means anything to me. The Beyond Organic section looks at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm, and made me want to start my own farm. Finally, Hunting and Gathering--the shortest food chain. I didn't want to read about hunting, but Pollan got me there, too. I was fascinated throughout, and I am very thankful for this intelligent book.Book Review: Classy but a little preachy
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Omnivore's Dilemma" is great for people who care enough about their bodies, their food, and the planet already that such pop phenomena as the Atkins diet and "Fast Food Nation" seem somewhat facile. Rather than the standard organic horror-show diatribe against well-known (and ignored anyway) cruelties like too many chickens in too little space, Pollan presents the big picture behind many, many small food decisions we make every time we eat.
It's a beautiful book, admirably original in its conception. It loses a star for polemics, which first reared their heads when Pollan described a corn field as though it was a strip mall parking lot full of SUVs -- that is, the ugliest place on Earth. I find farmland really lovely, and though I understand that Pollan was just trying to paint corn as the bad guy, he occasionally goes a bit too far to make a point.
Though it is not the intent of the book, everyone I know who has read "Dilemma" is losing weight, because they actually think about everything they're putting in their mouths a bit more. In the overfed U.S., we could all stand some more of that.
Book Review: What a book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Very well written - holds your interest - and very, disturbingly, eye-opening.
For those of us with a conscience, this book is hard to take.
We are already a family that consumes Earth-produced foods, forsaking (obesity causing) processed and/or Fast food. But now I'm ruined for food that comes from hog hell, hen hell, CAFO hell. I am set upon obtaining our family's food from a local farmer, with the expectation that the inconvenience and extra expense will be off-set by the peace of mind of eating food that comes from animals that didn't suffer.
Ya know, it occurs to me, that with the all the money we could save by executing, rather than housing, feeding, and providing medical care to monsters from hell, like ye ol' Dennis Raider, we could afford (subsidize) raising our food animals under normal, rather than hellish conditions.
Dear God, it's all so screwed up.
Human intelligence: NOW THERE'S A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS!!!!
Book Review: Between Pollan and Spurlock, I never want to eat McDonald's again
Summary: 4 Stars
I heard this book discussed on NPR, then read an excerpt that appeared in the New York Times Magazine, and decided to give it a whirl even though the size of it was a little intimidating - I didn't know if I would have the attention span, quite frankly, to stay through the whole thing. Pollan goes up and down the food chain to find out exactly where American food comes from, starting with a corn field in Iowa where the "golden river" finds its way into nearly every food substance we consume in America today (although actually, starting in an oil field in Iraq, to get the fossil fuels to make the fertilizers and power the machines) and ending with chanterelles and a wild pig he has hunted himself thereby removing the middle men. Pollan's metaphoric summation that Americans are basically nothing more than walking ears of corn, and the subsequent explanation of how this came to be, left me really feeling sorry for people with corn allergies because I can't imagine what's left for you to eat? Anyway, if you're starting to think green, or eager to explore the truth behind what it means to farm organically (small vs large organic will be an eye-opener for some), or curious about how food is grown and raised in our industrial times, this book will interest you. Pollan's writing style is easy to follow, if occasionally repetetive, and kept my interest throughout a long weekend. The middle section of the book is the best, in my opinion, where Pollan spends time living on a self-sustaining organic farm and clearly develops a little touch of hero-worship for the farmer in question. Not to knock him, though - after finishing the book I wanted to pack up and move to Virginia just so I could buy all my food from there. My biggest complaint is that Pollan sort of skims over the whole omnivore thing, and I was expecting more discourse on how Americans really need to vary the diet to something other than corn-based-everything because we need dozens of different nutrients, and how part of the reason we are so easily led by marketers and the companies & government is that we really don't have a definite food culture and we don't know WHAT to eat when we are faced with limitless choice ... Pollan takes the political/environmental/social path rather than the scientific or psychological one, and there's nothing wrong with that in the end. After all, this is expository journalism, not self-help or a diet book.Book Review: Read this book and prepare to have your worldview changed
Summary: 5 Stars
The buzz about this book was such that I immediately went out and bought a hardcover copy, something I almost never do. I have long known that the corn/soybean monoculture was environmentally costly, but this is the first understandable explanation I have ever read about how the farm subsidy system works, how the overproduction of corn has contributed to the obesity epidemic, and how intricately industrial animal agriculture is connected to the corn surplus. It is a system that is mad. I hope a few corn farmers read this and begin to consider how they can end the madness. Change will have to come from the grass roots: one farmer and one consumer at a time, because we've had nothing but disastrous farm policy from the federal level for years.
This book excites me because it could contribute to lots of positive changes: more vegetarianism, more healthy eating, more support for Community Supported Agriculture Farms, more support for farmers who raise animals on grass and who farm sustainably, more support for small scale agricultural processing facilities, more support for local economies, more support for farmer's markets, more support for the development of a sustainable and authentic regional food culture, in line with the Italian-originated Slow Food Movement. The book provides more support for complex thinking!
This book will succeed in reaching lots of people because it features several very well told stories. We share Pollan's distaste as he faces the reality of the chicken slaughter house and the suffering of cows, pigs and chickens when raised in industrial systems. We also share his delight as he experiences the wonderful Polyface Farms in Virginia, and the experience of hunting and foraging.
Could this book have the same impact on our food and agriculture system that Silent Spring did in the 1960's? I sincerely hope so.