What shall we have for dinner? Such a simple question has grown to have a very complicated answer. We can eat almost anything nature has to offer, but deciding what we should eat stirs anxiety. Should we choose the organic apple or the conventional? If organic, local or imported? Wild fish or farmed? Low-carb or low-cal? As the American culture of fast food and unlimited choice invades the world, Pollan follows his next meal from land to table, tracing the origin of everything consumed and the implications for ourselves and our planet. His astonishing findings will shock all who care about what they put on their plate.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Review
`A masterly blend of investigative journalism and amusing personal
narrative ... a sharp insight into current predicaments surrounding supper' -- Aimee Shalan, Guardian
`Compelling ... What stands out is Pollan's love of food and its
natural production' -- Naomi Booth, Daily Telegraph
`Mesmerising ... Pollan brilliantly shows how economics have
turned evolution on its head' -- Financial Times Magazine
`Pollan's book is convivial, creative and deeply disturbing,
though he does offer hope ... it has certainly changed the way I think
about food' -- Audrey Niffenegger, Guardian
`This articulate and engrossing book is as beautifully written as
it is insightful' -- Sunday Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
narrative ... a sharp insight into current predicaments surrounding supper' -- Aimee Shalan, Guardian
`Compelling ... What stands out is Pollan's love of food and its
natural production' -- Naomi Booth, Daily Telegraph
`Mesmerising ... Pollan brilliantly shows how economics have
turned evolution on its head' -- Financial Times Magazine
`Pollan's book is convivial, creative and deeply disturbing,
though he does offer hope ... it has certainly changed the way I think
about food' -- Audrey Niffenegger, Guardian
`This articulate and engrossing book is as beautifully written as
it is insightful' -- Sunday Times --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
The startling truth behind the food we consume in the twenty-first century
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the most basic culinary detective book. In modern America, Michael Pollan wonders what to eat: "... imagine for a moment if we once again knew, strictly as a matter of course, these few unremarkable things: What it is we're eating. Where it came from. How it found it's way to our table. And what, in a true accounting, it really cost."
Of course most North Americans can't answer these questions in any self-satisfying way, so Pollan sets off on the case. He journeys through the belly of the food industry beast -- to the massive government-subsidized corn plantations of Iowa, the huge cattle feed lots and the slaughterhouses. He visits the plants where trainload after trainload of corn is refined into the chemical components of processed food, and then he takes his family to McDonalds.
Searching for alternatives to totally explore, Pollan visits large-scale organic plantations. He works for a spell on an organic family farm in Virginia, helping to slaughter the chickens for his next gourmet meal. And last he goes whole hog back to the hunter-gatherer days, searching for mushrooms and shooting a wild pig in the forests of Northern California.
The whole experience yields tons of great stories, and the kind of good common sense I can't resist quoting:
"A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximise efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of culture, which have historically served as a counterweight to the moral blindness of the market. This is another example of the cultural contradictions of capitalism -- the tendency over time for the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society." (p.... Read more ›
Of course most North Americans can't answer these questions in any self-satisfying way, so Pollan sets off on the case. He journeys through the belly of the food industry beast -- to the massive government-subsidized corn plantations of Iowa, the huge cattle feed lots and the slaughterhouses. He visits the plants where trainload after trainload of corn is refined into the chemical components of processed food, and then he takes his family to McDonalds.
Searching for alternatives to totally explore, Pollan visits large-scale organic plantations. He works for a spell on an organic family farm in Virginia, helping to slaughter the chickens for his next gourmet meal. And last he goes whole hog back to the hunter-gatherer days, searching for mushrooms and shooting a wild pig in the forests of Northern California.
The whole experience yields tons of great stories, and the kind of good common sense I can't resist quoting:
"A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximise efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of culture, which have historically served as a counterweight to the moral blindness of the market. This is another example of the cultural contradictions of capitalism -- the tendency over time for the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society." (p.... Read more ›
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
By Louise M
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The Omnivore's Dilemma addresses the question: if you have the opportunity to eat anything, how do you know which things are best to eat? It delves into the food chains behind various meals, from the industrial to the pastoral.
The skills of Michael Pollan, the Knight Professor of Journalism at U.C. Berkeley, shine through in this book. It is remarkably clearly written, and addresses a broad range of perspectives and potential criticisms. It avoid preaching, which would be so easy to do with this subject, and instead presents information as information, and opinion as just that.
If you are remotely interested in what you put in your mouth, and where it comes from, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
The skills of Michael Pollan, the Knight Professor of Journalism at U.C. Berkeley, shine through in this book. It is remarkably clearly written, and addresses a broad range of perspectives and potential criticisms. It avoid preaching, which would be so easy to do with this subject, and instead presents information as information, and opinion as just that.
If you are remotely interested in what you put in your mouth, and where it comes from, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
By Dennis Littrell
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
The Omnivore's Dilemma is this: what to eat and what not to eat. Sounds easy, but as Michael Pollan shows this dilemma is at the heart of what both divides and joins people at the most visceral level. The dilemma is sharp because the question of what to eat and what not to eat is moral as well as nutritional. It is practical as well as esthetic. It is a question that engages all people in all cultures. It pits traditional values against modernity. There is the family that eats together a meal prepared by a family member or members, and the meal that is eaten on the run prepared by agribusiness and heated in a microwave. There is fast food and the Slow Food movement. There is the question of whether to eat meat or not, and if not, whether to be a vegetarian or a vegan or something in-between. And if we do eat meat, should a distinction be made between free range flesh and the factory kind? Should the suffering of animals spoil our appetite? We are omnivores, but in a world of so many of us, can we really continue to eat so high on the hog?
Pollan addresses these questions and many others in a courageous and uncompromising way that should gain the respect of all readers, whether they agree with his conclusions or not.
The book is in three parts, with four characteristic meals.
Pollan begins with "Industrial Corn" (Part I) and a fast food meal from McDonald's in the car. This part of the book, which could be an entire book itself--and a very good one--tells the story of corn and how it has come to dominate the American food industry.... Read more ›
Pollan addresses these questions and many others in a courageous and uncompromising way that should gain the respect of all readers, whether they agree with his conclusions or not.
The book is in three parts, with four characteristic meals.
Pollan begins with "Industrial Corn" (Part I) and a fast food meal from McDonald's in the car. This part of the book, which could be an entire book itself--and a very good one--tells the story of corn and how it has come to dominate the American food industry.... Read more ›
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By PZE
Format:Paperback
An elegantly and thoughtfully written book on the modern food industry that feeds us. Pollan demonstrates a refreshing openness, sharing how his journey through mass produced, organic, and hunter-gatherer food systems affects him without ever sinking into sentimentality - even when shooting a wild pig his insight into what it means to be a hunter is superb.
Without doubt one of the best books on food that I have ever read and one that will withstand the test of time, if for no other reason than the issues he covers of where our food comes from, how it is produced and what that might mean are as relevant today as they ever have been.
Without doubt one of the best books on food that I have ever read and one that will withstand the test of time, if for no other reason than the issues he covers of where our food comes from, how it is produced and what that might mean are as relevant today as they ever have been.
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
By Louisa
Format:Paperback
This book is very similar to 'fast food nation' in the way that it exposes the hidden mechanics of the food industry. But it does not focus solely on fast food.
The first section concentrates on the way a MacDonalds meal is produced, from its humble(?) beginnings in a corn field in Iowa, to the end product being consumed in the author's car; fascinating and page turning. The middle section concentrates on an 'organic' meal, and really opened my eyes to the idea of organic - it is not all you think it to be, and after reading this book I have reassessed what I think to be an environmentally friendly food. The last section outlines the author's search for a meal from foraging in the forests and fields around his Californian home. Fascinating again. Noone should think they know enough to pass this book by.
I gave it four stars, because the last section gets a little heavy going, but it all ties up well at the end, and worth sticking with it; I love the way that he concludes that the first (fast food) and last (foraged) meals are both two extremes and both unsustainable in the present world. MacDonalds should be saved for a 'treat' once a year and although he doesn't say it, he implies that we should all aim towards consuming locally produced, (not neccessarily organic) food that is the least 'costly' towards the environment - outlined in the meal of the middle section.
The first section concentrates on the way a MacDonalds meal is produced, from its humble(?) beginnings in a corn field in Iowa, to the end product being consumed in the author's car; fascinating and page turning. The middle section concentrates on an 'organic' meal, and really opened my eyes to the idea of organic - it is not all you think it to be, and after reading this book I have reassessed what I think to be an environmentally friendly food. The last section outlines the author's search for a meal from foraging in the forests and fields around his Californian home. Fascinating again. Noone should think they know enough to pass this book by.
I gave it four stars, because the last section gets a little heavy going, but it all ties up well at the end, and worth sticking with it; I love the way that he concludes that the first (fast food) and last (foraged) meals are both two extremes and both unsustainable in the present world. MacDonalds should be saved for a 'treat' once a year and although he doesn't say it, he implies that we should all aim towards consuming locally produced, (not neccessarily organic) food that is the least 'costly' towards the environment - outlined in the meal of the middle section.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, entertaining and informative!
This book manages to describe the various journeys made by our food and raises serious questions about the true costs of this modus.operandi. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Beejers
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Omnivore's Dilemma
An excellent and informative book, am careful now not to buy meat which I know comes from America, not always easy to know it' s source, but try to buy organic if possible.
Published 1 month ago by candelends
5.0 out of 5 stars
A compasionate review of who we are through the food we eat.
Well writen, a delight to read very informative packed with useful information. Truly excellent piece of investigative journalism with a fine narative style.
Published 1 month ago by Neil Sutcliffe
4.0 out of 5 stars
mind blowing
If you can get past all those words, this is a great piece of research, analysis and writing. The scariest book ever.
Published 2 months ago by RDR
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written, highly informative and I havent even finished it...
This book is absolutely great. Im only half way through it but it has already connected dots about the food industry that are easy to ignore . Read more
Published 3 months ago by ST
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thought provoking and well written
I found this book by accident - it was recommended in the appendix of another book I was reading about (of all things) beer. Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Depeau
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent and should be required reading
As a reader from the UK a little translation was required and a little relief, but where the US goes we follow. This is excellently written, engrossing from start to finish.
Published 9 months ago by Alik
5.0 out of 5 stars
Profoundly thought provoking
I bought this book on the recommendation of an American foodie friend. As a supporter of the organic, sustainable, buy local, Slow Food, biodynamic and so on, movements, I must... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Andysinging55
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-read
I can't rate this book highly enough. A real eye-opener, food for thought etc. Other reviewers have said all that needs to be said about what Pollan covers. Read more
Published 14 months ago by F. Jones
5.0 out of 5 stars
The World Food Industry
This excellent book should awaken the reader to the power of major world food producers, pursuing near-monopolistic policies which are, in the main, based upon a non-renewable... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Xenophon
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