Analysis Of The Food Movement, Rising And The Meal: Grass-Fed

The articles of discussion in this essay is The Food Movement, Rising and The Meal: Grass-Fed by Michael Pollan. His first article is broken into three “chapters” that each supports a different view behind the food movement. Overall Pollan’s stance throughout this article is in favor of the food movement and he helped bring a large general audience together that could resonate with one of the offered perspectives. In his first chapter Pollan talks about the unhealthiness behind the modern food industry and how fast food is affecting the public’s health and wallet. Moving on to the second chapter, Pollan highlights various organizations and familiar faces, such as Michelle Obama, that are involved and trying to elicit change within the political

Culturally, people are fighting against statistics such as, “40 percent of Americans watch television during meals— viewing food as fuel rather than sustenance, discarding family recipes and foodways, and denying that eating has social and political dimensions.” (Pollan, FMR, ¶34), and are trying to make dining an experience rather than a primal necessity. Throughout this chapter, local farmer’s markets are continually used as an example of an open inviting atmosphere where the public can meet those that have harvested the ingredients essential for that night’s dinner. Instead of checking out of a grocery store with a monotone beep in the background with each new item added to their cart, conversations are buzzing in the background of a farmer’s market, “people have ten times as many conversations at the farmers’ market than they do in the supermarket” (Pollan, FMR, ¶24). Farmer’s markets also go hand in hand with the other standpoints behind the food movement that encourage people to eat fresher local foods and promote sustainable farming

I agree that even though people are participating in the movement for various reasons, they are all still valid and what makes the movement uniquely shaped. Through this purpose he effectively conveyed his message to a much larger audience than if he had only chosen one viewpoint to discuss. Pollan’s informal tone throughout the article was specifically targeted towards not only supporters of the food movement, but to the general public as well. The Meal: Grass-Fed was a great way to tie back into his third chapter in The Food Movement Rising, even though it was more narrative than factual. His tone encouraged the audience to resonate with one of the issues presented and inspire them to take part in the movement to create change. The topics presented are relevant because many college students are already in an economic crisis, due to the rising amount of debt weighing on their shoulders, and usually are not financially stable enough to provide themselves with fresh and healthy food all the time. This explains why obesity is becoming a larger issue in college students, for the reason that they can only afford cheap foods. By supporting and being involved in the food movement, college students could fight for their ability to attain hearty local and natural foods to sustain themselves with. Also, creating social spaces to