The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
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In Omnivore's Dilemma, author Michael Pollan asks "What's for dinner?"
In Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan serves up four meals to family and friends, the first--fast food on the go, racing down the highway in a convertible, top down. The last meal--wild boar he shoots and dresses himself.
Between those two meals, Pollan gets up close and personal with all the ingredients in each of his four dinners, including his meat, on the hoof and off. Where does it come from? What's hidden in the foods he's serving to the people he loves most?
Omnivore's Dilemma reads like a novel, and like any good novel raised the hairs on the back of my neck, warmed the cockles of my heart and kept me thinking and talking about it for months.
If you care about your health and the health of your family, if you care about the future of human kind on the planet, you must read Omnivore's Dilemma. This page zeroes in on Pollan's key points and encourages you to discuss your views.
Your opinions count. Join the fray!
What is the omnivore's dilemma, anyway?
Unlike the koala, who eats eucalyptus leaves and not much else, omnivores eat just about anything that won't kill us. So our dilemma--we humans--has always been to remember what killed Joe and never eat that again, and what healed Emma, so we can use that again.In an age where death by food (spinach, peanut butter, canteloupe) and massive food recalls are increasingly commonplace, Pollan says:
One way to think about America's national eating disorder is as the return, with an almost atavistic vengeance, of the omnivore's dilemma.
The cornucopia of the American supermarket has thrown us back on a bewildering food landscape where we once again have to worry that some of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. (Perhaps not as quickly as a poisonous mushroom, but just as surely.)
“We once again have to worry that some of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us”
Where does our food come from?
Pollan's quest begins with a convertible, a burger and Calf #534
Once he saw where the most important ingredient came from, it's amazing Pollan was able to go home and buy that fast-food burger, fries and soda for his family, let alone roar joyfully down the freeway, wind whistling in his ears, but he did.
Meal two: Industrial organic for sale
Or, just how free is that chicken in the no-window cage?
Meal three: Home on the range
Just might be all it's cracked up to be
Meal four: Wild boar on the hoof, mushrooms in the rain
Yes, Virginia, it can be done, even in the richest county in the state
But that's just the meals. What Pollan learned about the growing, manufacturing and processing of our meat and potatoes along the way is the real story.
Get the rest of the story here
What's more, if it's meat or contains meat, very likely it's been fed that very same GMO corn and soybeans, along with an antibiotic cocktail that would knock the socks off an elephant.
In his search to learn what's in our food, Pollan takes us on a ride that feels like a roller coaster going down more than it goes up. Omnivore's Dilemma changed the way I eat. It just might change the way you eat too, and I can't help thinking that is a good thing.
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Amazon Price: $8.24 (as of 06/03/2012)
What we eat is far more important politically and economically than many of us realize. If you care about the health of the planet, the health of your family, and your own health, read this book. Understand just how personal the political is, and why what you put on the dinner table is a political statement, sometimes a radical one, and a vote for or against your family's well-being and just possibly our survival as a species.
Have you read, or would you, Omnivore's Dilemma?
What do you think of Pollan's ideas about the food we eat?
How important is it for everyday people like you and me to know where our food comes from and what's in it? Do you buy into the notion, as we've seen from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, Pollan and others, that our food choices may be killing us? What do you eat? And how much attention do you pay to what's in it?
What's for dinner at your house?
Organic, locally-grown, non-GMO food all the way, or nearly so!
MysticTurtle says:
I read this. I'm glad there's someone like Michael Pollan spreading the word.
sockii says:
My mother has been naturally raising pigs, beef, chickens and turkeys on a small scale for the past three years. We just slaughtered our first pasture-raised pig this fall and it's been such a lesson in respecting where our meat and sustenance comes from. While I can't afford or always eat home-raised meats, I do believe it is important to encourage small-scale farming again as much as possible. Not only is the taste infinitely superior but I have such a deeper respect and understanding for what I am eating vs. buying processed chicken breasts at the supermarket.
RenaissanceWoman2010 says:
The more I learn, the more my habits change. When I learned how the chickens suffer (in my first SquidLit book review) in some of the biggest poultry producing factories, I could never look at a package of chicken the same (in the supermarket). Now I try to buy local (farmers' markets), organic, and produce more of my own food.
filmic says:
It's not that hard to eat well where i am.
Kit Cassingham says:
I have read Omnivore's Dilemma. While I was already eating organic I didn't understand the local foods perspective until reading his book. Food Inc helped my understanding too.I strive for as much locally grown foods as possible, and mostly eat whole foods too. I especially avoid HFCS and grains.
Nah, just Supersize Me!
TheFoodDigest says:
You would have to ask me that as I sit here eating BBQ brisket quesadillas. lol
Thanks for the comments on my lens. "Liked" yours also.
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If you liked Omnivore's Dilemma
You may like Pollan's other books
Last chance to weigh in
Or just leave a friendly note
I hope you enjoyed this page and participated in the debate. If you meant to but forgot, here's another chance.
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entertainmenteveryday
Feb 29, 2012 @ 2:52 pm | delete
- It's a great book. I suggest everyone to read it.
Wonderful lens!
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kajohu Jan 26, 2012 @ 3:23 pm | delete
- I have to admit that I haven't read any of Pollan's books yet, although my husband and a son has, and they've been urging me to read them. Omnivore's Dilemma sounds like a good choice for me to start with. I had heard that GMO soy beans and corn are in so many of our foods, in one way or another. Sobering thought!
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MysticTurtle
Jan 25, 2012 @ 7:43 pm | delete
- I love Pollan's books. His writing is so readable and his message so important.
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Ladymermaid
Jan 6, 2012 @ 10:35 am | delete
- I guess that we don't look at ourselves too often as omnivores but simply as meat eating carnivores. Sounds like a book that will really make us stop and think about that aspect of our lifestyle.
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RenaissanceWoman2010
Jan 1, 2012 @ 4:51 pm | delete
- Stopping by to leave a blessing was no dilemma. I'm still trying to figure out how Pollan could eat that burger after visiting the feedlot. I would not have been able to look that cow in the eye and then chow down. I suppose, though, that I have done the equivalent (by not being a vegetarian). I'm committing myself to more compassionate eating habits in 2012. I should have done this years ago, but it's never too late to start.
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Michael Pollan is a man after my {organic} heart. His Omnivore's Dilemma changed how I look at food forever. I thought it would be difficult and much... more »
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Food Rules: An Eater's Manual
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Amazon Price: $11.97 (as of 06/02/2012)
Pollan's groundbreaking work has just been re-released, now fully and often humorously illustrated by artist Maira Kalman, and includes 19 new food rules.
Take control of your daily food!
It's often cheaper and healthier to make your own
