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mjaballah 's review for:
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
A great foray into the numerous ways our food systems have been derailed into a malfunctioning machine harming not only the plants and animals it churns but ultimately us, the consumers. Michael highlights the many ways we have damaged plants, from common means such as dangerous chemical fertilisers and pesticides to less known methods including extreme selective breeding of certain crops to the invention of indigestible crops such as “resistance starch”. More extreme is our treatment of animals; restricting their movement, they diet, access to clean hygienic living spaces, breeding partners, …. etc. I was shocked to learn that in the US, the accepted Cattle feed can contain chicken manure, cement dust, feathers, hooves, cardboard, cattle manure … etc.
Overall, the prevalent theme throughout the book is that we lost touch with what eat, and in the process our health and humanity. Michael does a great job by hammering through how we lost our way entirely in the last few decades. If you find yourself admiring human progress in food systems, process and the unlimited access we seem to have nowadays to an apparently limitless selection of food variety, then this book is for you.
- At the risk of sounding self-righteous, and know it all, I don’t know why the Author did not mention Campesina at all in his book. They are an international organisation with huge numbers of farmers, that have been fighting for everything he has talked about, and more. My only guess is that big corporations, including those that published this book, don’t want to risk advertising or spreading the organisation's name.
Overall, the prevalent theme throughout the book is that we lost touch with what eat, and in the process our health and humanity. Michael does a great job by hammering through how we lost our way entirely in the last few decades. If you find yourself admiring human progress in food systems, process and the unlimited access we seem to have nowadays to an apparently limitless selection of food variety, then this book is for you.
- At the risk of sounding self-righteous, and know it all, I don’t know why the Author did not mention Campesina at all in his book. They are an international organisation with huge numbers of farmers, that have been fighting for everything he has talked about, and more. My only guess is that big corporations, including those that published this book, don’t want to risk advertising or spreading the organisation's name.