|
Skipping ahead, the fourth and final meal was as personal and local as Pollan could make it: meat from the wild pig he shot himself, bread made with wild yeasts, produce from his garden, mushrooms gathered by his own hands, and more, all crafted into a gourmet feast that he shared at the table with friends, family, and good conversation. It is proof that we do, after all, have some choice about where our food comes from. His quest takes him through the horrifying house of cards that is industrial farming, ranching, and food processing, a vision that will either open your eyes or make you screw them tightly shut, because most of us don't have a lot of choice when it comes, for example, to eschewing the monoculture corn that finds its way into most of what we eat and much of what we don't. If his journeys lead him to both Food Hell and Food Heaven, they also show him that there is no clear, simple, and easy path to salvation when it comes to eating.
Joel Salatin would say it has. This is Food Heaven on earth. Pollan, however, is much too skilled as a journalist and writer for that. With apparently honest and transparent struggles, he experiences both the attraction of vegetarianism and the joy of the hunt in preparation for what he called his Perfect Meal. That we can now buy organic food at Wal-Mart says a lot for the power of the consumer.
It's still a good thing -- organic farming is much better for the land and produces food that is at least somewhat more nutritious -- but has it lost its soul. The first of the four meals in the subtitle is of McDonald's fast food, eaten with his family but hardly "shared," as they each consumed a different choice of foods, all the while driving along the highway, as many fast food meals are eaten in America today. Not a meal for everyone, nor for every day, but a meal of grace, embodying the ultimate answer to his questions. Hope for the future of food lies not in one particular system, Pollan says, but in supporting a variety of approaches.
I was expecting a diatribe, a full-force blast against agri-business and the factory farm, more along the lines of what we hear from the more strident vegans and animal rights activists. But this victory came at a price: our 1960's-bred image of the small, family, organic farm remains only on the patently misleading pictures on the food packages. In order to become a mass-market commodity, organic food has taken on many of the harmful practices of the industrial system, from migrant labor to "free range" chickens that never see the outdoors. The section on Salatin's Polyface Farm in Virginia is worth the price of the book all by itself. This required two meals, because "organic" isn't what it used to be. "As in the fields, nature provides the best model for the marketplaces, and nature never puts all her eggs in one basket. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is Pollan's attempt to answer some important questions about the food we eat, which I have unfairly boiled down to: Where does our food come from, and how did it get from there to us.
The great virtue of a diversified food economy, like a diverse pasture or farm, is its ability to withstand any shock. In between is Organic, what Pollan calls pastoral food, in contrast to industrial. Big Organic, symbolized by the Whole Foods Market, is the organic movement gone mainstream. The Salatin family, beginning with Joel's parents, took an abused and exhausted plot of land and healed it ("we are in the redemption business"), turning it into a showpiece of truly sustainable agriculture, one that produces a great deal of food while enriching, rather than depleting the land, and where the people, the animals, the plants, the smaller creatures, and the soil play out their interdependence to the advantage of all. The important thing is that there be multiple food chains, so that when any one of them fails -- when the oil runs out, when mad cow or other food-borne diseases become epidemic, when the pesticides no longer work, when drought strikes and plagues come and soils blow away -- we'll still have a way to feed ourselves." Far from being the jeremiad I had expected, Pollan's careful investigations and respectful reporting make "The Omnivore's Dilemma" a book that everyone who eats should read.
He also explains why all those products at the grocery store have some tangent of corn in it: "high fructose corn syrup" etc. Michael Pollan entertains while he informs, surprises, and disillusions most hopes you might have had about the American food industry. He also documents some small organic farmers and the processes they use to create sustainable farming. This book is a must read if you are at all interested in what you eat, and how its production is affecting nature. Pollan follows the life of both a cow and a chicken through their confined lives in high producing typical american farms- which proves to be more revolting and dangerous that one might have thought. How the food industry reflects the general American mentality should become increasingly obvious, as you become more aware of what you eat and where it comes from. This book is an excellent way to make a visit to the grocery store a little less abstract.
Michael Pollan mesmerizes with his exciting examination of the possible sources of our food in America. I love food and for me this book constituted a celebration of it's complexity and possibility. Although Pollan is obviously biased he takes a calculated look at the propositions of both sides, even though through the novel we follow him to his inevitable arrival at his own perceptions. I highly recommend this book to all readers, especially those who are politically conscious or who just get inordinately excited about food the way I do.
A great book that reads well and talks about how agriculture buisness ultimately affects our health. Recommended.
In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan explores the current landscape of procuring food in America by actively tracing four meals, through intermediary energy forms, to the ultimate source of their energy, the sun. I found Pollan's writing to be clear, interesting, and sincere. This active participation and discussion straight from the source as well as thorough research leads him to draw well-reasoned conclusions from his experiences.
His active investigative journalism as well as his open mind and willingness to learn leads him to experience firsthand the food creation process by participating in all methods of creating food (that is, those that he is allowed to participate in) and to read everything on the subject from the biology of corn reproduction to the philosophy of eating animals, allowing him to understand food as well as possible. Pollan conveys his findings and opinions fluidly and his experiences candidly. He explicates all processes and their consequences with regards to creating meals from McDonald's, Whole Foods (big industrial organic), a self-sustained farm, and one that he obtained every component of himself (hunting and gathering).
He demystifies the supermarket and articulates the hidden consequences of our food choices. His travels lead him to farms across the country, where he watches the farm processes and participates in them (including driving a tractor as well as killing and eviscerating chickens), CAFO's, and to learn how to hunt wild pig and develop a sixth sense for seeing and gathering mushrooms. He engages in deep discussions with experts in all aspects of food to understand their perspective and shed a different light on food as we see it - that is, food without the hidden negative consequences.
He imparts the reader with a greater wisdom and confidence in making food choices (although it is disenchanting that the system in place does not necessarily even allow you to make the choices you want to.)., but he is not preachy. I highly recommend this book.
|
