In An Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan examines 3 different food chains from start to finish in an attempt to answer the question of what to eat for dinner. Although he never gives a definitive answer to the question, he does offer advice about how to look at the items on the shelves of a grocery store: critically. Throughout the book, we are taken through an industrial, pastoral and hunter-gatherer food chain all the while learning about how it is operated, problems that it faces and it’s influence on our grocery stores.
In his thesis, Pollan states that although there are more options of what to eat for dinner, the question has become harder to answer because of all the choices. The bias in the book comes from the fact that Pollan is an average consumer who doesn’t know a lot about the food industry. His knowledge comes from the farmers that he talks to whose word is taken to be fact.
One of Pollan’s main arguments is that it is harder to decide what to eat, because with processed foods, we can’t read the ingredient labels and don’t know what we are putting into our bodies. Choosing simple foods like vegetables is no longer a simple task either as we must choose whether we want to spend extra money to buy organic or local. We used to be restricted to eating what was in-season, but now with shipping, we can eat fresh produce all year long.
The book was an interesting, comprehensive overview of the food industry and Pollan’s method of organizing the book into food chains was very effective. Pollan talked to a range of experts and participated in many of the farming activities which allowed him to include personal anecdotes. The only things that the book was missing were maps and pictures. It would have been interesting to see all of the places that Pollan traveled to and farming contraptions that he used.
As books on the food industry go, this one was an interesting read that leaves you feeling like a more educated consumer. The book was well written and humorous because of the personal anecdotes that Pollan included. The book highlights problems and downfalls of each of the different sectors of the food industry and explains how we deal with these problems today. By keeping Pollan’s arguments and realizations in mind, we can become more intelligent consumers.
In An Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan examines 3 different food chains from start to finish in an attempt to answer the question of what to eat for dinner. Although he never gives a definitive answer to the question, he does offer advice about how to look at the items on the shelves of a grocery store: critically. Throughout the book, we are taken through an industrial, pastoral and hunter-gatherer food chain all the while learning about how it is operated, problems that it faces and it’s influence on our grocery stores.
ReplyDeleteIn his thesis, Pollan states that although there are more options of what to eat for dinner, the question has become harder to answer because of all the choices. The bias in the book comes from the fact that Pollan is an average consumer who doesn’t know a lot about the food industry. His knowledge comes from the farmers that he talks to whose word is taken to be fact.
One of Pollan’s main arguments is that it is harder to decide what to eat, because with processed foods, we can’t read the ingredient labels and don’t know what we are putting into our bodies. Choosing simple foods like vegetables is no longer a simple task either as we must choose whether we want to spend extra money to buy organic or local. We used to be restricted to eating what was in-season, but now with shipping, we can eat fresh produce all year long.
The book was an interesting, comprehensive overview of the food industry and Pollan’s method of organizing the book into food chains was very effective. Pollan talked to a range of experts and participated in many of the farming activities which allowed him to include personal anecdotes. The only things that the book was missing were maps and pictures. It would have been interesting to see all of the places that Pollan traveled to and farming contraptions that he used.
As books on the food industry go, this one was an interesting read that leaves you feeling like a more educated consumer. The book was well written and humorous because of the personal anecdotes that Pollan included. The book highlights problems and downfalls of each of the different sectors of the food industry and explains how we deal with these problems today. By keeping Pollan’s arguments and realizations in mind, we can become more intelligent consumers.
by kaela