Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Omnivore Dilemma part 2

In the first part of the Omnivore's dilemma Michael Pollen takes the reader on a tour of corn and how it has come to dominant the American diet largely for worse. In the second half of the book Pollen illuminates past and present eating habits through four meals. The four meals Pollen discusses is a typical fast food meal, an expensive whole foods type organic meal, a self-sustaining traditionally farmed meal and a boar Pollen manages to kill. The killing of the boar is the most entertaining part of the book and Pollen probably had the words best-seller in mind as he planned out the hunt. Pollen finds flaws in all of the four meals. In his opinion the fast food meal and the meal he personally hunted for are equally unsustainable. He seeks to expose the marketing genius behind the success of organic food and understands that farmers aren't too willing to go back to self-sustaining traditional farming methods. So where does all this leave us? How should we eat? What public policy prescriptions should we implement? Pollen does not offer technical solutions to these questions, rather wishes for us become for aware of food and it's implications.

In discussing the implications of food Omnivore's Dilemma leave something to be desired. Pollen gives and analysis of implications that he can personally see and measure but not that of macro economics systems in the way a economist would analyze this problem. I am not sure who is on the better path in this debate is just that Pollen's cost benefit analysis seems limited. I think the best thing about Omnivore's Dilemma is Pollen writing style. For myself food is often an afterthought and I eat what is cheapest and easiest. Pollen book illuminates to the reader that how good real food is.




3 comments:

  1. That last section with the hunt was great, I skipped the middle 100 pages of the book though

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  2. I would have to agree with you on eating the cheapest and easiest food. Since we are all in college, we try to save money and food is the biggest pain in the butt. We buy cheap food because we are broke, and we make the easiest food because we are all so busy.

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  3. It hard to not buy cheep food when you are in college because you have no money. So its easy to become a victim of having to eat cheeper foods that aren't as good for you

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