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Back in 2002, our sweet 2-year-old son was a victim of the beef industry and government policy. He almost died because of E. coli. It was over 20 days of hell in which his liver shut down and our son was on dialysis for 12 days. He contracted E. coli through cross-contamination. As Mr. Pollan's book points out, the bacteria had not been seen before 1980. Thankfully, our son's liver finally kicked back in but it left him severely anemic and two parents wrestling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Our son is fine now, but the ordeal has left permanent psychic scars. Therefore, my perspective on how our "food" is produced is not exactly coming from the point-of-view of a guy who takes a Mr. Spock-like pure-logic approach on the subject matter.
I have read a handful of books like 'Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal' by Eric Schlosser and Matthew Scully's 'Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy.' While both of those books were informative and thought-provoking, Mr. Pollan's presentation merges the two, goes deeper, and also is written in a very approachable style. If you want to understand why we have an obesity epidemic and many food-related illnesses, the author's book correctly blames it on government policy and the huge food industries keeping the process as obscure as possible from the public. Mr.Read more ›
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518 of 543 people found the following review helpful
When I bought this book for my dad he simply said, "A book about food?" I laughed and tried to tell him it is probably more about what is wrong with the country (government, business, foreign policy) than it is about food.
I heard Michael Pollan speak on NPR about this book and that sparked my interest. He was railing against corn as he does in the first section of the book here: For instance, I had no idea we used so much fossil fuel to get corn to grow as much as it does. The book provides plenty of other interesting facts that most people don't know (or want to) about their food.
1) We feed cattle (the cattle we eat) corn. OK. Seems fine. But I never knew cows are not able to digest corn. We give them corn so the corn farmers -who are protected by subsidies and at the same time hurt by them - can get rid of all the excess corn we produce - (more of the excess goes into high fructose corn syrup which is used in coke and many other soft drinks). This sees company owned farms injecting their cattle with antibiotics so they can digest the corn. Not just to shed farmers' excess corn but to also:
a) Get the cow fatter in a shorter amount of time because . .
b) A cow on this diet could really only survive 150 days before the acidity of the corn eats away at the rumen (a special cow digestive organ FOR GRASS, not corn).
c) Also the pharmaceutical companies get big profits because they manufacture large amounts of antibiotics for these large mammals.
All this may lead to increase in fat content and other peculiarities in the meat we eat.
2) The amount of fossil fuel we use to grow food is ridiculous and helps keeps the Saudis happy.Read more ›
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Fascinating book. My son sent it to me as a “must read”. He was right! The book takes an in depth look at where our foods come from and the economic, chemical, environmental and social impact of the process. The author takes a long look at the overproduction of corn in this country (who knew?) and how apparently as a result of this government supported process, many animals raised for meat (cows, chickens, pigs) are fed corn as part of a mass production process. This changes the chemical makeup of the meat, results in hormone and antibiotic use, and cruel conditions for the animals, who are raised simply as production units with everything designed to maximize weight gained per unit of corn required to feed them. He goes on to look at what “organic” has come to mean in this country, (not much), and then to work briefly on a farm which really does raise cows, pigs and chickens in fields of grass in a sustainable way. He also discusses vegetarianism, presenting some of the arguments pro and con. From there he decides he will eat meat but needs to experience hunting, so we get his perspective on this, as well as going into forests to gather mushrooms. For me, this was a truly eye-opening and fascinating book. I felt like I learned a lot of things I should have already known and now have much more insight into. Also, his whole approach to food just felt so wholesome as to make me want to move our own lifestyle in that direction, particularly making more effort to buy locally produced food items, even if they cost more. Also, to pay more attention to where the foods we buy come from and think about the carbon footprint of, for example, blueberries flown here by jet from Central or South America. (Why not buy them in summer as preserves or jelly and just not eat them fresh out of season?). So, all in all most highly recommended to be read by everyone!
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This item: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
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