Michael Pollan - The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

When I spied Michael Pollan's 2006 non-fiction book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, in the display section of my library, it didn't matter that I haven't been an omnivore for two decades. I loved his book, The Botany of Desire, and saw him answer a question intelligently in the extra DVD features of the wonderful documentary, The Future of Food. I could expect a fascinating exploration into the foods most of us eat and anticipated his struggle with finding his so-called perfect meal, which was his goal in writing this book.

Pollan starts out by observing that most omnivores, those who will eat anything they want, have some difficulty these days deciding what foods are good to eat for their health because they rely on food authorities to tell them. This causes confusion because many authorities themselves appear confused and their advice can be contradictory and self-serving. Who are we to believe?

He has seventeen pages of sources listed in the back, containing mostly non-fiction books he's studied and used in writing his book, but The Omnivore's Dilemma is much more than a scholarly work. He volunteers on an Ohio and Virginia farm, one being a big, industrial, organic farm, the other a small, traditional, organic farm. They're as different as night and day. I didn't even realize there was an industrial organic industry that is little different than the non-organic industry. Pollan also visited many farms supplying Whole Foods with produce. I'm glad I don't shop there!
But he hardly stops there. Not only does he help us to see that an organic label doesn't always mean quality, but he takes us to the feedlots where steers are fed organic corn with things added so the ruminant animals will tolerate corn, which acidifies their alkaline-evolved systems. Still they often become bloated, sick and may die if not tended to promptly. He shows how frustrated all the animals are on the industrial farm, but content on the farm where they eat grasses and grubs like nature intended.

Pollan especially fascinated me, though, by revealing how much processed food and various things we use depend on corn. He took his family to McDonald's for his fast-food meal and by using the Nutritional Facts the restaurant now provides and the help of a scientist, he showed how most of their meals were made from processed corn. It's not only in the beef, the chicken of the nuggets, the high-fructose corn syrup in the salad dressing (Newman's Own!), the soda and the shake, which also has milk, and the oil in the fries, but in the chemicals and starches as well.

You see, the government ever since Nixon's administration has forced the overproduction of cheap corn so that the food industry can use the surplus. How does it feel, huh, to be treated like cattle going to market?

Pollan also discusses the ethics of eating animals and tries eating vegetarian for little more than a month, it seems. I'm rather irritated with his assumption that one can forcefully wean yourself off meat overnight and call yourself a vegetarian. Of course he still wanted his meat. It takes a few months to wean yourself off it so your body loses its craving for meat. Are babies weaned from milk overnight? Not hardly. And he doesn't mention using vegetarian cookbooks or talking to other vegetarians or chefs. He does discuss Pete Singer who wrote Animal Liberation, which makes him uncomfortable about eating animals, but he rationalizes that it's the natural order of things. We've always been omnivores. It's in our natures to be part of the life cycle of animals.

So he decides to become a hunter of wild California pig after taking shooting lessons. He decides to forage for wild mushrooms, too, both with the help of a Sicilian chef and other people willing to share their favorite spots for fungi. This becomes comical at times as he gets into the mindset of a hunter, screws up to his shame, then shoots a pig (or so his friend assures him) and goes through all these feelings about it. His mushroom hunting, for chantarelle and morels, those mysterious mycelium, is especially amusing. And he calls his abalone hunting the stupidest thing he's ever done, hehe.

In the end Pollan creates his perfect meal with the pig, mushrooms, bing cherries he picked, greens from his garden, sourdough bread made with the yeast in the California air, herbal tea and California wine brought by the Sicilian. This ambitious project, which he realizes is impractical, takes him almost a week to prepare. The party's a great success and he's very satisfied with himself.

The Omnivore's Dilemma kept me in suspense that Pollan might eventually become a real vegetarian because of his revulsion towards the dead pig he killed. I was fascinated by what he learned through his unique experiences and books he read. I've only read two of the books listed as sources, those being his Botany of Desire and Jack Weatherford's Indian Givers, but many tempt me, like Pete Singer's philosophical book. Finally I admit being repulsed by some of the description by Pollan, but fortunately I'm not a meat eater. Those of you who are will be confronted with disturbing images and it'll make you want to buy your produce from local organic farmers where you can see the animals before they're killed. Pollan says that relationship marketing like this is the only way we'll prevent industry from taking over.

This large, 411-page book with twenty chapters divided into three sections of Industrial (Corn), Pastoral (Grass) and Personal (the Forest) absorbed me for a few days as Pollan entertained me as well as enlightened me about many things, although I don't agree that we need to eat like our cavemen ancestors did to feel complete. I was annoyed that he contends that vegetarians are living in an utopia of denial of their animal natures. Hmph!

I suggest watching the documentary, The Future of Food, after reading it because you will learn how you can get involved with sustainable farms, how they work and why you should get involved with the growing movement.

The Future of Food review: http://www.epinions.com/content_244194578052

Indian Givers review: http://www.epinions.com/content_179944066692

Botany of Desire review: http://www.epinions.com/content_191138401924