The Omnivore's Dilemma

Time for a book review! Or, a book review of sorts. This one is pretty tough for me to review as there is SO MUCH to it.

“The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” written by Michael Pollan also known for his follow up book, “In Defense of Food.”

I’ll start by saying I really believe this is a must read for everyone that eats.

Pollan identifies and breaks down the different ways in which we, as eaters, can acquire our food. We can get it from restaurants, grocery stores, farms (to include our own backyards), and nature. He further breaks down the different ways in which each of these sources produces and supplies food, the true accounting costs of production and supply, how it was before it evolved to what it is now and how it impacts our communities.

Pollan’s research was well thought out and the facts he concluded were well researched. He seemingly went into his research with an open mind. From spending a week as a hand on a farm that grows only corn to actually buying a steer and following it through its life from ranch to feedlot to processing. He also spent a week as a hand on a fully sustainable grass fed farm that “grows” beef, pork, poultry, eggs and rabbits…working all the way through the processing of chickens.

Pollan visited organic farms, industrial organic farms, poultry farms, organic poultry farms, the feedlot and from there, he actually went out and created a meal entirely from things he could find already existing in nature. He actually hunted and gathered.

Pollan writes with wit and a good sense of humor. I laughed out loud more than a few times while reading this book. He constantly questions his own observations throughout the book and I can “see” him learning. He interviewed with an open mind and I could “see” his own prejudices changing as he wrote.

I learned a lot more about food than I thought I had to learn. Having had a stint as a vegetarian back in high school, I am well versed in how animals are used for our benefit.
Being a vegetarian caused me some concern with the pesticides and fertilizers used to kill nature, which in the right quantities could kill us, of which our food is slathered in.

I am the curious sort that does not form opinion over nothing – that being said, I did my research way back then.

I have never understood the government intervention in supply and demand. I know farmers are subsidized and I know the more they produce the better. Of anything. So rather than diversify their farms, they grow one thing and are subsidized for the lack of demand. My business and marketing hat has a hard time with this idea. Looking at success in business, diversification is key. Almost no one successful unsubsidized business only has one product.

I truly did not realize HOW MUCH corn we eat! While Pollan does not necessarily blame any one thing on the amount of corn we consume, it is not a far reach to look at obesity and cancer and ask questions.

Some of my favorites parts to the book:

Finding that an organic, grass-fed farmer, who refuses to ship food outside of a four hour radius of his farm (that would not be local) has only 100 acres and is able to produce:

30,000 dozen eggs
12,000 broilers
800 stewing hens
25,000 pounds of beef
50,000 pounds of pork
800 turkeys
500 rabbits

All the while raising them on grass pasture, no cages EVER throughout their lives, no pesticides, wormers or antibiotics. How he did this fascinating – and at the same time a person could say ‘well, duh.’

Some favorite quotes:

On the issue of globalization: “…since the promise of global capitalism, much like the promise of communism before it, ultimately demands an act of faith: that if we permit the destruction of certain things we value here and now we will achieve a greater happiness and prosperity at some unspecified further time.” IMO it is a problem we are even debating this.

On the use of animals: “Pigs are most happy being pigs.” I believe this is true with all animals, a horse wants to be a horse, a cat wants to be a cat, etc. However I find it interesting that our primary food animals: cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys and rabbits all have the ability of helping each other to produce our food. Of course we don’t take advantage of that, we turn them into widgets. There is an art to farming well and it heavily involves the assistance of farm animals (well, duh).

There were many interesting facts on mushrooms, bringing them to a whole new “light” for me. Facts I probably never would have stumbled upon. It is believed they are lunar vs solar and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Pollan does not advise that we all hunt and gather, nor does he insist upon perfect eating. In fact, he says we should all eat fast food once a year and then perhaps have Thanksgiving more often.

The local food sources are another big takeaway for me. I have always been a fan of supporting Minnesota businesses and/or independent people. I shop farmers markets, choose wild caught fish, cage-free eggs, etc. I am not militant about it but when I have these choices in front of me, I choose local and sustainable where I can afford to do so. However I never realized the harm in buying food grown far away, besides the use of fuel, there is so much more to it than that.

But I don’t know if I can give up my bananas either.

I don’t think I am unlike many people, I am aware of my food, want to eat well, like the idea of “happy” animals and I still learned quite a bit from this book.

The best thing I learned is that it is a waste of money to buy industrial organic food. If I want to shop organic, I need to shop locally.

My only criticism is that it is written very smartly. Pollan is very intelligent and uses the English language to its fullest capabilities to get his point across. I had to pull out a dictionary a few times to get through this book.

My problem with this is that he has cut out a huge portion of his audience by writing this way. Many people do not enjoy reading in this way and many others would never get through the first chapter. He wrote a book for people who like to eat and like to read. He needs another one for people who like to eat and don’t like to read.

Ironically (or to the point) he did. His next book, “In Defense of Food” is written much more plainly.

Otherwise, here are links to where you can find this book, if you are so inclined, and I hope you are!

On Half.com (a great resource for books at low prices)

On Amazon.com

I apologize I am still unable to illustrate my blog - very frustrating but I plan to fix that soon!