The Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan

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

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

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