The Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan

The Omnivore’s Dilemma, written by renowned author Michael Pollan, is a inquisitive and thought provoking book on one of humans most basic dilemmas; The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The basic definition of the The Omnivore’s Dilemma is “When you can eat just about anything nature has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the potential foods on offer are liable to sicken or kill you.” (Pollan, Michael.) Author Michael Pollan uses a naturalist view as well as ecology and anthropology to explain the three different sections of this book, that root back to the central question; what should we eat? The three main ideas of this book include Pollan following a food chain from start to finish, comparing

Throughout this book there is an underlying message about today’s culture and how it has changed eating for the better or worse. The first section of this book is all about industrialized farming and industrial eating. This form of food production is superior in terms of the amount of food produced. Unfortunately, in some cases, namely corn, food is being overproduced which brings down prices and hurts the economy. Another con to this form of farming is that it hurts the environment as well as some of the animals in the CAFO’s. Many large scale farms produce hundred acres of genetically modified monoculture crops. With so many crops to take care of, many pesticides and other chemicals are put into the soil; which then leads to runoff and pollution. The overarching problem with industrialized farming and the people that support the “industrial machine” is that the prices are reduced to get more people to buy the products. But the true costs such as the strains on the environment, keeping livestock from living the way they always have, and overproduction, are not factored into the barcode price at stores such as

I am not naive enough to believe it would be simple but it would be possible. Some changes could include less importation of oil for crops and use methods shown by Joel Salatin. If there were more regulations of the quality of goods and livestock than the quantity I think it would help the overall quality of the goods. In my opinion the best way to do all these things is to incorporate industrialized farming techniques into pastoral faming. With the plethora of food productions options industrialized farming isn't the limit. There is no reason to continue to raise animals inhumanely. Every single person world wide has to eat to survive which means The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a book that is relatable to everyone. Most people including myself never acknowledge where or how there food made the journey to their plate and this book opens ones eyes to all the underrated goods and overrated horrors that this world has to