The Omnivore's Dilemma

The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Author(s)	Michael Pollan
Language	English
Publisher	The Penguin Press
Publication date	2006
ISBN	978-1594200823
OCLC Number	62290639
Dewey Decimal	394.1/2 22
LC Classification	GT2850 .P65 2006
Preceded by	The Botany of Desire
Followed by	In Defense of Food

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a nonfiction book by Michael Pollan published in 2006. In the book, Pollan asks the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. As omnivores – the most unselective eaters – we humans are faced with a wide variety of food choices, resulting in a dilemma. To learn more out about those choices, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us – industrial food, organic food, and food we forage ourselves – from the source to a final meal, and in the process writes an account of the American way of eating.

Food chains analyzed

Industrial

Pollan begins with an exploration of the food-production system from which the vast majority of American meals are derived. This industrial food chain is largely based on corn, whether it is eaten directly, fed to livestock, or processed into chemicals such as glucose^{[citation needed]}, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, and ethanol. Pollan discusses how the corn plant came to dominate the American diet through a combination of biological, cultural, and political factors. He visits George Naylor's corn farm in Iowa to learn more about those factors. The role of petroleum in the cultivation and transportation of the American food supply is also discussed.

A fast food meal is used to illustrate the end result of the industrial food chain. He discusses that corn is dependent on humans.

Pastoral

The following section delves into the principles of organic farming and their various implementations in modern America. Pollan shows that, while organic food has grown in popularity, its producers have adopted many of the methods of industrial agriculture, losing sight of the organic movement's anti-industrial roots. A meal prepared from ingredients purchased at Whole Foods Market represents this food chain at the table.

As a study in contrast, Pollan visits Joel Salatin's minor ecological rotation farm, where natural conditions are adhered to as closely as possible, very few chemicals used, and waste products are recycled back into the system. He then prepares a meal using only local produce from nearby small-scale farmers.

Personal

The final section finds Pollan attempting to prepare a meal using only ingredients he has hunted, gathered, or grown himself. He recruits assistance from local foodies, who teach him to hunt feral pigs, gather wild mushrooms, and search for abalone. He also makes a salad of greens from his own garden, bakes sourdough bread using wild yeast, and prepares a dessert from cherries picked in his neighborhood.

Pollan concludes that the fast food meal and the hunter-gather meal are "equally unreal and equally unsustainable."^[1] He believes that if we were once again aware of the source of our food – what it was, where it came from, how it traveled to reach us, and its true cost – we would see that we "eat by the grace of nature, not industry."^[1]

Controversy

Economist Tyler Cowen argued, "The problems with Pollan's 'self-financed' meal reflect the major shortcoming of the book: He focuses on what is before his eyes but neglects the macro perspective of the economist. He wants to make the costs of various foods transparent, but this is an unattainable ideal, given the interconnectedness of markets."^[2]

Washington State University, situated in an agricultural area of Washington state, chose this book to be part of its freshman reading program in 2009, but soon canceled the program. Many in the university's community, including those who run the kinds of industrial farms that The Omnivore's Dilemma discusses, were unhappy with the selection, and speculation was that the cancellation was a result of political pressure. Elson Floyd, president of WSU, claimed instead that it was a budgetary issue, and when food safety expert Bill Marler stepped up to cover the claimed shortfall, the program was reinstated, and Pollan was invited to speak on campus.^[3]

The September 2007 issue of The Atlantic included a review of The Omnivore's Dilemma by B.R. Myers. Myers was severely critical of Pollan's attitudes toward vegetarians and the animal rights movement, describing the work as "a record of the gourmet’s ongoing failure to think in moral terms."^[4]

In the July 2009 edition of The American, the journal of the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, the article The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectuals by Missouri farmer Blake Hurst critiqued Pollan's book on many points, contrasting his farming experience with Pollan's conclusions. Hurst argues that "some of the largest farms in the country are organic – and are giant organizations dependent upon lots of hired stoop labor." Hurst also points out the benefits of no-till agriculture and of industrially-produced food, including food from confined animal operations.^[5]

Reviews

• Flannery, Tim (2007, June 28). "We're Living on Corn". The New York Review of Books. 54/11: 26–28.

Honors

The New York Times named The Omnivore’s Dilemma one of the ten best books of 2006.^[6] and Pollan was also the recipient of a James Beard Award for the work.^[7]

See also

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
• Deconstructing Dinner
• Environmental effects of meat production
• Food, Inc., a documentary film based partially on the book
• Land Institute

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Pollan, Michael (2006). The Omnivore's Dilema : A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin Books. 
2. ^ Cowen, Tyler (1 November 2006). "Can You Really Save the Planet at the Dinner Table?". Slate. The Washington Post Company. http://www.slate.com/id/2152675. Retrieved 18 May 2009. 
3. ^ College Discourse Over Food Safety, Courtesy of Bainbridge Lawyer
4. ^ Myers, B.R. (September 2007). "Hard to Swallow" The Atlantic. Retrieved October 8, 2009.
5. ^ Hurst, Blake (July, 2009). "The Omnivore's Delusion" The American. Retrieved October 11, 2009.
6. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2006", The New York Times, December 12, 2006,
7. ^ "Writing on Food, Winner". jamesbeard.org. http://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=awards/show/Tzo4OiJzdGRDbGFzcyI6Mzp7czo4OiJjYXRlZ29yeSI7czo0OiJCb29rIjtzOjQ6InllYXIiO3M6NDoiMjAwNyI7czo1OiJhd2FyZCI7czoxNToiV3JpdGluZyBvbiBGb29kIjt9. 

External links

Official

• The Omnivore’s Dilemma, from Michael Pollan website.

Essays

• "Unhappy Meals", by Michael Pollan, The New York Times, January 28, 2007
• "An Animal's Place", essay by Michael Pollan, re-printed from The New York Times, January 2003. This essay was the spark of the idea for the book.

Interviews

• "How Food Finds its Way to Your Plate", interview by Talk of the Nation, NPR, November 24, 2006.
• "Dinner: An Author Considers the Source", interview by "Fresh Air", NPR, April 11, 2006.
• "Michael Pollan: The Truthdig Interview", interview by Blair Golson of Truthdig, April 11, 2006.
• "No Bar Code", excerpt from The Omnivore's Dilemma from Mother Jones, May 2005.
• "Modern Meat", interview by Frontline, PBS, 2005.

Reviews

• The Monthly 'Eco-Worriers: Michael Pollan’s ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ & Bill McKibben’s ‘Deep Economy’, Robyn Davidson , The Monthly
• Salon.com - 'We are what we eat: The Omnivore's Dilemma author Michael Pollan on how Wall Street has driven America's obesity epidemic, the misleading labels in Whole Foods, and why we should spend more money on food' (book review), Ira Boudway, Salon.com
• WashingtonPost.com - 'You Are What You Eat: A journalist traces the meal on his plate back through the food chain' (The Omnivore’s Dilemma book review), Bunny Crumpacker, Washington Post (April 9, 2006)
• San Francisco Chronicle - 'Anatomy of a Meal: UC Berkeley's Michael Pollan Examines What We Eat, and How to Decide What We Should Eat', Troy Jollimore, San Francisco Chronicle (April 9, 2006)
• Grist.org - 'Let's Make a Meal: Michael Pollan digs into the mysteries of the U.S. diet in The Omnivore's Dilemma', Tom Philpott, Grist Magazine (April 13, 2006)
• Boldtype.com - review of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
• New York Times Review