The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

I suppose it’s pretty corny to say so, but I have to admit that The Omnivore’s Dilemma actually did change my life. Not in a lightening flash all-or-nothing way, but I learned to understand my food better and over the years I’ve made many gradual changes in the way I shop for groceries, cook, and eat.

 

Of course, many people are familiar with this book because of its description and questioning the wisdom of the modern industrial food system, especially the commodity corn and concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO aka feedlot) components. These are addressed in eye-opening detail, but they are only a part of the overall story. The Omnivore’s Dilemma is about four meals that Pollan consumed and analyzed: an “industrial” meal, fast food eaten in a car as so many Americans regularly do; an organic, but still somewhat more mainstream meal; a “pastoral” meal raised in an almost painstakingly sustainable manner; and a “foraged” meal that Pollan hunted and harvested himself.

I had so much to learn the first time I read this book, but I figured it would be a just review and re-affirmation this time around. It turns out that there were plenty of interesting details I had forgotten, and though this was a re-read, I found myself being informed all over again. I really appreciated and enjoyed, once again, Pollan’s engaging journalistic style. I was also struck by the honesty with which he offers us his more personal connections in the story. Whether he’s sharing his disgust with composting chicken blood and entrails, ethical questions about eating meat, adrenaline rush over shooting a wild pig, or, again, disgust over dressing that dead pig, Pollan lets us know what he really thinks with a frankness that helps make everything else in the book particularly trustworthy.

 

I had the chance to hear Michael Pollan speak in 2009, and I must say that his lecture was as solid, honest, and interesting as his books (I also really like In Defense of Food and The Botany of Desire). (I also got to meet him briefly after the talk, and he was very nice.) Each time I get the chance to delve into some of his work again, I get a renewed desire and energy to participate in and promote a more sustainable food system. Is it even possible to feed 7 billion people in a way that does not destroy the earth on which we all live? Maybe not. I don’t know. But I feel a lot better, as a biologically omnivorous creature, knowing more about where my food comes from and how it was raised.

And I still really love this book!

 

 

 

A Year of Books I’ve Read Before