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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
one of those books that completely changes your worldview on a topic, in this case food, eating, and how we source our food. eve though it's sometimes a bit wordier than feels necessary, michael pollan has such a specific way of dissecting the food industry (from large scale fast food to organic) that makes it something that you can even begin to think about. it'll change how you see grocery stores, corn fields, the outdoors, and especially every meal you eat.
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Michael Pollan is one of my favorite journalists. The way he writes, the subject he covers, and the practical way he approaches things are an absolute treat to read about. To put it simply: this book, like everything Mr. Pollan writes, is fantastic.
I have no critiques or criticisms about The Omnivore's Dilemma. The details, humor, calls to action, and evidence are perfectly balanced. If perfect books exist, this is one of them. He begins by describing the industrial food chain on which America thrives. He described corn's foundational relationship with our industrial food and attempted to follow a bushel of corn from farm to table. (Spoiler alert: industrial processors don't like journalists and didn't let him in.) After exploring the evolution of corn and its ramifications on the human diet, he explores "organic" food and tours a farm on the east coast that is nothing short of extraordinary (Polyface Farm, check it out). I learned more about food in the section on Polyface Farm than I have probably learned in my entire life. Absolutely brilliant. Mr. Pollan concludes this tour de force by hunting and gathering his own meal from the "wilderness." He actually hunts down his own meat and forages for edible plants and then cooks a five-course meal from it all.
This book inspired me to be a more conscientious eater. I'll still eat and order fast food (although the rise of DoorDash makes fast food a more difficult pill to swallow when you consider the environmental ramifications it adds on top of the industrial food it rushes to your door). I'll still buy processed cereals and drink soda. This book isn't so much a "gotcha" book to make you feel bad about digging into a Big Mac. I'd say The Omnivore's Dilemma is an empowering book because it helps me make educated choices. I'm smarter than I was before I read this and I'm grateful for that.
If I had a required reading list, this would be on it.
I have no critiques or criticisms about The Omnivore's Dilemma. The details, humor, calls to action, and evidence are perfectly balanced. If perfect books exist, this is one of them. He begins by describing the industrial food chain on which America thrives. He described corn's foundational relationship with our industrial food and attempted to follow a bushel of corn from farm to table. (Spoiler alert: industrial processors don't like journalists and didn't let him in.) After exploring the evolution of corn and its ramifications on the human diet, he explores "organic" food and tours a farm on the east coast that is nothing short of extraordinary (Polyface Farm, check it out). I learned more about food in the section on Polyface Farm than I have probably learned in my entire life. Absolutely brilliant. Mr. Pollan concludes this tour de force by hunting and gathering his own meal from the "wilderness." He actually hunts down his own meat and forages for edible plants and then cooks a five-course meal from it all.
This book inspired me to be a more conscientious eater. I'll still eat and order fast food (although the rise of DoorDash makes fast food a more difficult pill to swallow when you consider the environmental ramifications it adds on top of the industrial food it rushes to your door). I'll still buy processed cereals and drink soda. This book isn't so much a "gotcha" book to make you feel bad about digging into a Big Mac. I'd say The Omnivore's Dilemma is an empowering book because it helps me make educated choices. I'm smarter than I was before I read this and I'm grateful for that.
If I had a required reading list, this would be on it.
This book was fascinating. I enjoyed it more for its informational than instructional value, and find Pollan's model farms useful examples to help us think about the benefits of symbiosis.
I followed it up with economist Tyler Cowen's critique ("Can You Save The Planet at the Dinner Table?"), which is valid in its own right. Though I enjoyed the way Pollan traced food production back to fossil fuel consumption, as Cowen points out, it is a bit reductionistic and incomplete.
Still, the symbiosis that Pollan desires is not just needed in our farms, but between humans and nature, humans and other humans, society and its systems, and our institutions, too. Critiques like Cowen's help identify the gaps and pin-point where we can bridge them.
I followed it up with economist Tyler Cowen's critique ("Can You Save The Planet at the Dinner Table?"), which is valid in its own right. Though I enjoyed the way Pollan traced food production back to fossil fuel consumption, as Cowen points out, it is a bit reductionistic and incomplete.
Still, the symbiosis that Pollan desires is not just needed in our farms, but between humans and nature, humans and other humans, society and its systems, and our institutions, too. Critiques like Cowen's help identify the gaps and pin-point where we can bridge them.
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
The first two thirds of this book are excellent, especially the sections on industrial agriculture, which leave one feeling a little hopeless, and more than a little guilty about a typical American meal. It is amazing to read about the subtle commodification and capitalization of food, and it fills one with equal parts dread, frustration, and incredulity that we can be so duped by low prices and marketing. The excellent writing continues throughout, but the final third lags, feeling less relevant and practical, and more self-indulgent.
Michael Pollan at his best: just some dude checking shit out and exposing the existential horrors of late-stage capitalism along the way