ipl-logo

The Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan

698 Words3 Pages

The book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, was written by Michael Pollan and describes a man’s interest in discovering where certain foods truly come from and explain why the humans of today struggle to find something to eat compared to the humans of the past. Pollan embarks on four separate quests having each serve a purpose to give him insight on America’s dynamic and complexed reception of food.
In his first quest, Pollan watches a cow and sees its development up until it gets slaughtered. This experience reflects on commercial farming and tries to show animal development in relation to their feed. Animals are gaining weight faster than their bodies can support causing numerous problems for them. He comments on how commercial cows are getting …show more content…

He discovers that a majority of the advertisements written on organic products are not remotely true to the treatment of the animals. “A charge often levied against organic agriculture is that it is more philosophy than science. There's some truth to this indictment, if that it what it is, though why organic farmers should feel defensive about it is itself a mystery, a relic, perhaps, of our fetishism of science as the only credible tool with which to approach nature” (Pollan 225). Pollan sees that a lot of organic farmers feel threatened when people question their different methods of farming, but Pollan tries to explain that if it truly is a practice that is successful and forthcoming then there is no need to feel threatened. However Pollan notes a discrepancy in the way a majority of organic farmers advertise their products. The animals in large scale organic farming are cared for, but most are not living in a “peaceful and open” place that many organic companies claim to be on their …show more content…

Pollan must kill a chicken, something that is difficult for him to do, to see exactly how the food he eats get prepared and packaged at a store. He explains how the media’s perception of animal processing is limited and how people do not truly know the amount of effort it takes to make their food. He then wraps up his book by killing a boar with a local hunter to try to make a meal out of everything he has grown or killed himself. He relates this to the hunting and gathering societies of the past. Pollan is satisfied with the meal, but concludes that times are changing and people are not paying attention to their food. “Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing. And it's a short way from not knowing who's at the other end of your food chain to not caring - to the carelessness of both producers and consumers” (Pollan 402). People are searching of the cheaper alternative and in doing so they are allowing producers to make inferior goods while meeting consumer

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Omnivore's Dilemma

    219 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Chapters 8 and 9 of The Omnivore 's Dilemma, Pollan discovers what organic really means in an interesting way. Instead of reading about it like other people might do, he travels to farms and supermarkets. During his travels he comes across Big Organic, Industrial Organic, and other “organic” terms. Prior to reading these chapters, I did not realize that the government changed the idea of organic to meet the wants and needs of consumers. For example, some companies believe they are creating organic meat by feeding cows organic corn, but raise them under traditional conditions.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Omnivore's Dilemma '

    254 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thread 1: In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan describes what the omnivore’s dilemma actually is. He begins his book as a naturalist in a supermarket trying to decide “what to eat?”. This question is harder to answer without asking where the food originates. Knowing where food comes from is very difficult, unless it is locally grown or clearly states it on the package. Processed food is more complicated to understand where it comes from.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Michael Pollan´s An Animal's Place

    324 Words  | 2 Pages

    In An Animal’s Place, Michael Pollan describes the growing acknowledgement of animal rights, particularly America’s decision between vegetarianism and meat-eating. However, this growing sense of sentiment towards animals is coupled with a growing sense of brutality in farms and science labs. According to Pollan, the lacking respect for specific species of animals lies in the fact that they are absent from human’s everyday lives; enabling them to avoid acknowledgment of what they are doing when partaking in brutality towards animals. He presents arguments for why vegetarianism would make sense in certain instances and why it would not and ultimately lead to the decision of eating-meat while treating the animals fairly in the process. Pollan

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Against Meat By Jonathan Safran Foer

    1009 Words  | 5 Pages

    Introduction In this article “Against Meat” (2009) Jonathan Safran Foer explains his experience from a young age until the present struggling whether being a vegetarian or an omnivore because he doesn’t want to hurt animals at the same time he can’t resist food because it tasted good. Jonathan Safran Foer is an American novelist (born February 21, 1977) He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in philosophy, in his freshman year he took a writing class from the novelist Joyce Carol.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Michael Pollan The Omnivore's Dilemma

    1164 Words  | 5 Pages

    He plays with words which leads up to using contradicting statements, along with blunt indirect comments towards people. The author exaggerates with definitions and describes grass is if it’s capable of being something else. Pollan goes deep into describing processes of slaughtering in gruesome detail, and he exaggerates the extent of preparing the meal more than it should. Pollan’s way of bringing this book together brings to light the different ways he goes about telling his view of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The beginning of this book starts with section one and brings the whole idea of the book front and center.

    Read More

  • The Carnivore's Dilemma By Nicolette Hahn Niman

    699 Words  | 3 Pages

    Is eating meat a detrimental threat to the environment? This debate over meat’s involvement in the global warming crisis was what inspired Nicolette Hahn Niman to write, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma.” Niman hoped writing, “The Carnivore’s Dilemma,” would cause her audience to understand that eating meat, raised on traditional farms, was a superior alternative to vegetarianism. Niman supported her claim by explaining how industrialized farms and vegetarians produce more of the three greenhouse gases that caused global warming, than that produced by traditional farms. Niman’s article fell short of being effective due to flaws in her supporting evidence and conclusion.

    Read More

  • Michael Pollan In The Omnivore's Dilemma

    172 Words  | 1 Pages

    Michael Pollan in The Omnivore’s Dilemma demonstrates ethos states, “I finally had to conclude that Rosie the organic free-range chicken doesn’t really grok the whole free-range conceit” (172). Here, Michael Pollan uses a passive method to convey his ideas to the audience and allow them to think about and form their own opinions on his given ideas. He incorporates his own thoughts that he feels that the chickens cannot completely seem to grasp their environment and just live as they are told and raised to do. His personal experience of taking care of Rosie leaves him to realize that many corporations and companies only care for the rewards they receive for their work.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Gary Steiner's Animal, Vegetable Mineral

    755 Words  | 4 Pages

    This short story explains and questions how people find eating animals morally acceptable. Steiner 's short story explains that whenever people think these animals are being treated respectfully they are being ignorant to the fact of how these animals are truly treated; Steiner brings up the fact of how an animals typical horrid life is and how it transitions from its horrid life to being killed by a butcher in a matter of seconds. Moreover, Steiner also adheres to the topic of how unacceptable, it is to kill these animals just for human consumption. Steiner 's purpose in writing this short story is to display to us the fact that eating any animal is not only wrong, but it is just downright unacceptable as it is mass murder of these innocent animals. Finally, Steiner tries to define at his best, what a strict vegan truly

    Read More

  • The Jungle, Omnivore's Dilemma And Food, Inc.

    660 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Jungle is a fictional novel based on the indiscretions within the meat industry, but there are instances in which the author is giving the subtle truth. For instance, Sinclair insinuates the existence of poisoned rats being mixed into our food, filling the reader with newfound suspicions that the meat we are eating is not as it seems (Sinclair 143). The facts shown to the reader forces them to acknowledge the dangers of trusting the meat industry and pushes their bias towards a healthier lifestyle. In addition to Sinclair’s hints, Pollan displays the industry’s apathy towards the prevention of life-threatening diseases when he states that nearly 80% of the E. coli found in cows’ newly-acidic stomach can disperse if they were fed grass 5 days before slaughter (Pollan 82). This shows the reader the industry’s care for profit rather than their well-being, and it has the potential to cause the reader to have a negative bias towards the food

    Read More

  • Namit Arora On Eating Animals Analysis

    704 Words  | 3 Pages

    Namit Arora, author of the article “On Eating Animals”, harshly captures the inhumane production of meat in America with repulsive imagery and shocking details. Arora, writer at thehumanist.com, reveals the immediate attention that Americans give to their pets and news-famous animals like Molly a runaway cow, yet they neglect to realize the millions of livestock being killed daily. With an accusatory and critical tone Arora condemns the hypocrisy of those who are pro-life for animals, but they still consume meat products. In return, this clarifies the injustice towards these animals for his American readers and global viewers. Namit Arora’s devastating imagery underscores the brutality of American actions towards innocent animals with descriptions such as, “the cow, bellowing miserably and hobbling like a drunk for several seconds before collapsing” and, “...died on the street in a pool of blood.”

    Read More

  • Omnivore's Dilemma Rhetorical Analysis Essay

    1330 Words  | 6 Pages

    With the help of appealing strategies and literary devices, guidance is provided to us which gives a clearer comprehension of the book itself. Especially the logos strategy gives the readers a sign that Pollan tries the best to get involved with the dilemma for understanding it better than just the obvious. Setting his unique tone throughout the book, Pollan provides his critical attitudes towards the phenomenon that the industrial farms are taking advantage of the ignorance of people’s knowledge of what they are eating, making large profits regardless the health and safety of people. The purpose of informing people what they are eating and what goes behind the food is reached with his investigation and observation expressed throughout the book, bringing the awareness of knowing the truth to the

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Delusion Summary

    255 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Blake Hurst’s “The Omnivore’s Delusion: Against the Agri-Intellectuals,” he opposes the accusations made by tofu-eating, recycled-toilet-paper-using, self-starving Michael Pollan and his followers. Throughout “The Omnivore’s Delusion…,” Hurst mentions how methods of farming have evolved to match demands of produce. The author states that “Only ‘Industrial farming’ can possibly meet the demands of an increasing population and increased demand for food as a result of growing incomes” (Hurst 4). This quote essentially means that “Industrial Farming” is the most efficient way to farm for today’s population level. A second point that is made by Hurst is that changes made by today’s farming are necessary.

    Read More

  • The Animals Practicing Complexity Analysis

    315 Words  | 2 Pages

    Michael Pollan’s alternative to Factory farming has given a huge insight into a better ethics on food. In “The Animals: Practicing Complexity” Michael Pollan writes about a polyface farm and how it works. The goal of a polyface farm is to emotionally, economically, and environmentally enhance agriculture. Everything on a polyface farm has the potential to be helpful to something else on the farm. Pollan states “The chicken feed not only feeds the broilers but, transformed into chicken crap, feeds the grass that feeds the cows that, as I was about to see, feeds the pigs and the laying hens” (Pollan 345).

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan

    440 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Pollan claims we should be more knowledgeable about what we consume as omnivores. As omnivores we have a variety of food, we can choose from, however, we don’t regularly make the best decisions for ourselves. Pollan argues this by showing us where our food really comes from and how we can find many unwanted extras. Pollan shows us that we’ve evolved as humans from how we used to eat to how we eat now. Pollan argues this by introducing us to all the food chains we value today, some much more than others.

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Dilemma Analysis

    1180 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ambar Delacruz Essay 1: The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma addresses a variety of concerns about food production and consumption. One might ask what exactly is the omnivore’s dilemma? And the basic answer to this question is “what should we eat for dinner”?

    Read More

More about The Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan

Open Document