The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

We live in an unprecedented time of plenty and choice. Most Americans are more worried about overeating than starving. Humans are naturally omnivores- we can eat both plant and animal based foods. Now that we don’t have to worry so much about how we’re going to acquire our food, we have more time to worry about what precisely we are going to eat. Pollan terms this the “omnivore’s dilemma”- if we can eat pretty much anything, what should we eat? He structures his book by tracing the “natural history of four meals” in three chapters, describing the corn industry, conventional and organic farming (two meals in one chapter) and the final meal which he hunts and forages for himself. He doesn’t really seem to have a solution for the omnivore’s dilemma, which upon reflection makes sense. He’s not trying to sell a diet- he’s a journalist. He is legitimately investigating different styles of sustenance and attempting to synthesize a coherent and plausible way of eating. Ultimately he concludes that we should eat with awareness of both the monetary, temporal and ecological costs of our meals.

The text is extremely well-written and engaging. Pollan is aware that his concept is a little hokey and he pokes a bit of fun at himself on several occasions, making his narrative very easy to relate to. He comes at all four of his meal sources with both a healthy amount of skepticism, an open mind and a journalists eye for the details and story behind the different foods he researches. He approaches the task with a sense of adventure, driving a tractor, purchasing his own beef steer, hunts feral pigs and mushrooms and weaves a great story around each episode. His sympathies do seem to lie with the “beyond organic” farmer Joel Salatin, and the pig-hunting, mushroom-gathering Angelo Garro who teaches him the basics of both trades. The corn chapter is downright unsettling, especially its culmination in a McDonald’s meal that can largely trace its origins to corn in both animal feed and food additives.

Now, I’m inclined to agree with the virtues of sustainable farming and responsible hunting and gathering. This book did a lot to confirm my biases. However, I freely admit that I am by no means a farmer and that my practical knowledge of agriculture is limited to my family’s small garden and grape vine. There’s a great review on Amazon that examines the very real problems with this book from a fifth-generation farmer who knows much more about both conventional and organic agriculture than I could ever aspire to learn.