Book Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma
For my honors biology non-fiction book, I chose to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. This 415 page novel explore a natural history of four meals and thoroughly analyzes the process from the farm to your plate. This novel and the author are very popular in the food industry and those who are studying food science. In fact, this is one of the ten best books of 2006 and has won many awards. The New York Times book review stated that this book was “thoughtful, engrossing and you are not likely to get a better explanation of exactly where food comes from.” Michael Pollan is also the author of In Defense of Food, Food Rules and The Botany of Desire.
I chose to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma because when I looked at the list of the other honors biology non-fiction books, the others did not interest me very much because a lot of them had to do with evolution. I also knew that I could overlap this book with the Whole Meal Project in the future and would be to my benefit. In the beginning of the semester we chose a book that we thought was interesting and read the first chapter to make sure that we would stick to the book. When I read the first chapter I was shockingly hooked. I had seen interviews and films about Michael Pollan so when I read the book I imagined him talking to me and teaching me about all of the interesting concepts. Overall I had a great experience reading and annotating this book. I enjoyed Pollan’s approach to sensitive subjects like slaughtering animals and vanishing species. I also enjoyed his creative literary devices. He used a lot of similes, metaphors and foreshadowing techniques to enhance his writing. I think this made it more interesting and interactive. I think the most challenging part about this book was not the level of reading but the context. He went into a lot of detail when talking about the process of slaughtering chickens which honestly turned my stomach and made me want to stop reading. However, Pollan proceeded to say that this is a part of the circle of life and this is what humans do. It was sometimes hard to wrap my head around the ideals and made me nervous at times because I took what ever Pollan said and put it into perspective. For example, Pollan mentions the harsh conditions of what cows are fed. This got me thinking about how many times I have eaten beef that was not grass fed. I actually have never had grass fed meat but I have not tried it since I started reading the book because I am not following the vegetarian diet. I think one of Pollan’s biggest goals for this book is to get his readers thinking about their own lives and how they can be more conscious of what they are putting into their bodies. He is essentially asking his readers “is what you are eating right now something that you could trace to find the natural ingredients on a farm?” When I analysed this in my life, I found that I kept answering with “no, but it tastes good” and that is not the way I want to live my life anymore after reading this book and participating in this Whole Meal project. I would describe Pollan’s writing style as informative, intriguing and eye-opening. Like I said before, Pollan discovered the moral ramifications of human’s eating habits. The Seattle Times stated, “A brilliant account of how we produce, market and agonize over what we eat. If you ever thought ‘what is for dinner’ was a simple question, you will change your mind after reading Pollan’s searing indictment of today’s food industry.” I completely agree with this quote and have had many great discussions with my friends and family about this book and Pollan’s writing style.
Pollan breaks up The Omnivore’s Dilemma into three parts including part one called industrial corn, part two called pastoral grass and part three called personal the forest. It is also separated into twenty chapters that answer the question, “what should I eat for dinner?” In the first part of the book, the main topics Pollan discusses everything you need to know about corn and its importance to our diets. At first I did not know why Pollan was obsessing over corn but there is one quote that sums up why he talks so much about it. “Corn is what feeds the steer that becomes the steak. Corn feeds the chicken and the pig, the turkey and the lamb, the catfish and the tilapia and, increasingly, even the salmon, a carnivore by nature. The eggs are made of corn. The milk and cheese and yogurt, which once came from dairy cows that grazed on grass, now typically come from Holsteins that spend their working lives indoors tethered to machines, eating corn.” This was very shocking and very informative because I had never heard this before. I also learned about corn being used as a commodity. “It was light and easy to transport, and did not rot. Corn made it relatively simple for communities, then and now, to switch from a subsistence system to a market economy.” The second part of the book talks all about the farm. I appreciate that he got the real experience by visiting many farms and talking about it in this book. Pollan went to George Naylor's farm in Iowa to learn about the output of the farm which had animals, fruits and vegetables. I was very interested in the history that Pollan shared about the life after the second world war. In 1947, a “chemical plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, switched from making munitions to manufacturing fertilizer. There was a surplus of ammonium nitrate, used to make explosives, as well as an excess of the chemicals used to make poison gases. The U.S. government, eager to create a peacetime economy, subsidized the manufacture of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for plants, and pesticides made from the leftover poison gas ingredients.” The last section of the book goes into detail about specific foods that spark curiosity such as the mushroom. Pollan gives a biological explanation of mushrooms. “We do know that fungi are responsible for decomposing and recycling organic matter, which makes them the “digestive system” of the earth. Mushrooms also pose a difficult problem for nutritionists, who do not consider mushrooms to be a particularly good source of calories. But our global and ancestral fascination with mushrooms suggests that there's something special about these fungi that we have yet to discover.” I think it is important to dig deep into what is actually happening on a biological level. We also did this with some foods for exhibition including the sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt and microgreens. I really loved the ending of the book. Pollan ends the story by reflecting on what exactly is on his plate and what is best for the human diet. This book has the most relevance subject matter connects to the course of my biology semester. The connection was very beneficial for me because whoever is reading this book is obviously interesting and important for everybody because we all need food and we do not always make the best food decisions. Pollan makes a huge real world connection because we all eat and it is cool to read the book and watch how your diet changes.
I would rate this book a five out of five. I give The Omnivore’s Dilemma this grade because I see this book as the food bible. It talks about something new and important on every page. I would recommend this book to students around the age of fourteen and adults who are interested in history of food, biology of food, moral reasonings behind food, religion influence and morals of food. I would especially recommend this book because I think everyone gets a different but life-changing message. From reading this book, I have decided to follow the vegetarian diet. That is how powerful this novel is and I loved reading this novel because I learned so much more than I thought I would in one single book.
I chose to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma because when I looked at the list of the other honors biology non-fiction books, the others did not interest me very much because a lot of them had to do with evolution. I also knew that I could overlap this book with the Whole Meal Project in the future and would be to my benefit. In the beginning of the semester we chose a book that we thought was interesting and read the first chapter to make sure that we would stick to the book. When I read the first chapter I was shockingly hooked. I had seen interviews and films about Michael Pollan so when I read the book I imagined him talking to me and teaching me about all of the interesting concepts. Overall I had a great experience reading and annotating this book. I enjoyed Pollan’s approach to sensitive subjects like slaughtering animals and vanishing species. I also enjoyed his creative literary devices. He used a lot of similes, metaphors and foreshadowing techniques to enhance his writing. I think this made it more interesting and interactive. I think the most challenging part about this book was not the level of reading but the context. He went into a lot of detail when talking about the process of slaughtering chickens which honestly turned my stomach and made me want to stop reading. However, Pollan proceeded to say that this is a part of the circle of life and this is what humans do. It was sometimes hard to wrap my head around the ideals and made me nervous at times because I took what ever Pollan said and put it into perspective. For example, Pollan mentions the harsh conditions of what cows are fed. This got me thinking about how many times I have eaten beef that was not grass fed. I actually have never had grass fed meat but I have not tried it since I started reading the book because I am not following the vegetarian diet. I think one of Pollan’s biggest goals for this book is to get his readers thinking about their own lives and how they can be more conscious of what they are putting into their bodies. He is essentially asking his readers “is what you are eating right now something that you could trace to find the natural ingredients on a farm?” When I analysed this in my life, I found that I kept answering with “no, but it tastes good” and that is not the way I want to live my life anymore after reading this book and participating in this Whole Meal project. I would describe Pollan’s writing style as informative, intriguing and eye-opening. Like I said before, Pollan discovered the moral ramifications of human’s eating habits. The Seattle Times stated, “A brilliant account of how we produce, market and agonize over what we eat. If you ever thought ‘what is for dinner’ was a simple question, you will change your mind after reading Pollan’s searing indictment of today’s food industry.” I completely agree with this quote and have had many great discussions with my friends and family about this book and Pollan’s writing style.
Pollan breaks up The Omnivore’s Dilemma into three parts including part one called industrial corn, part two called pastoral grass and part three called personal the forest. It is also separated into twenty chapters that answer the question, “what should I eat for dinner?” In the first part of the book, the main topics Pollan discusses everything you need to know about corn and its importance to our diets. At first I did not know why Pollan was obsessing over corn but there is one quote that sums up why he talks so much about it. “Corn is what feeds the steer that becomes the steak. Corn feeds the chicken and the pig, the turkey and the lamb, the catfish and the tilapia and, increasingly, even the salmon, a carnivore by nature. The eggs are made of corn. The milk and cheese and yogurt, which once came from dairy cows that grazed on grass, now typically come from Holsteins that spend their working lives indoors tethered to machines, eating corn.” This was very shocking and very informative because I had never heard this before. I also learned about corn being used as a commodity. “It was light and easy to transport, and did not rot. Corn made it relatively simple for communities, then and now, to switch from a subsistence system to a market economy.” The second part of the book talks all about the farm. I appreciate that he got the real experience by visiting many farms and talking about it in this book. Pollan went to George Naylor's farm in Iowa to learn about the output of the farm which had animals, fruits and vegetables. I was very interested in the history that Pollan shared about the life after the second world war. In 1947, a “chemical plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, switched from making munitions to manufacturing fertilizer. There was a surplus of ammonium nitrate, used to make explosives, as well as an excess of the chemicals used to make poison gases. The U.S. government, eager to create a peacetime economy, subsidized the manufacture of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for plants, and pesticides made from the leftover poison gas ingredients.” The last section of the book goes into detail about specific foods that spark curiosity such as the mushroom. Pollan gives a biological explanation of mushrooms. “We do know that fungi are responsible for decomposing and recycling organic matter, which makes them the “digestive system” of the earth. Mushrooms also pose a difficult problem for nutritionists, who do not consider mushrooms to be a particularly good source of calories. But our global and ancestral fascination with mushrooms suggests that there's something special about these fungi that we have yet to discover.” I think it is important to dig deep into what is actually happening on a biological level. We also did this with some foods for exhibition including the sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt and microgreens. I really loved the ending of the book. Pollan ends the story by reflecting on what exactly is on his plate and what is best for the human diet. This book has the most relevance subject matter connects to the course of my biology semester. The connection was very beneficial for me because whoever is reading this book is obviously interesting and important for everybody because we all need food and we do not always make the best food decisions. Pollan makes a huge real world connection because we all eat and it is cool to read the book and watch how your diet changes.
I would rate this book a five out of five. I give The Omnivore’s Dilemma this grade because I see this book as the food bible. It talks about something new and important on every page. I would recommend this book to students around the age of fourteen and adults who are interested in history of food, biology of food, moral reasonings behind food, religion influence and morals of food. I would especially recommend this book because I think everyone gets a different but life-changing message. From reading this book, I have decided to follow the vegetarian diet. That is how powerful this novel is and I loved reading this novel because I learned so much more than I thought I would in one single book.