The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan–Introduction:
Précis: The unstableness and of America’s food culture and the collective inability to eat something without consulting a journalist, dietician, or scientist reveals that America is in deep distress regarding food. Our omnivorous nature and brain size contribute to our complications when deciding the where, what, why, and how of food; we can no longer easily base our eating decisions on our abilities to recognize and remember food, because there are so many mysterious aspects of food that are changing in many ways. Different diet fads, research on food, the continual increase in options, the growth of agricultural civilization, the preferences of our taste buds, the variety of historical and cultural back-grounds around us, and the efforts of marketers to further confuse contribute to the paradox of Americans. Because we as humans share and influence the world with eating tendencies, it is important to understand (by reading this book) the different ways we can and should affect the world.
Gems: “Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds” (page 10).
I was also particularly interested by his opinion that “Eating…defines us” (page 10).
Thoughts and Questions: I found the first qutoe from page 10 to supply particular interest and help to me, because I have read books that attempted to explain a profound connection (via food) between humans and the rest of the world, but did not completely understand the authors’ collective point of view. In the introduction, Michael Pollan’s words hint at a deep, multi-faceted union we have with our world, and everything in it. Additionally, although Pollan's opinion that food defines us seems drastic and far-fetched, the knowledge that Pollan has invasively researched this topic and came to that conclusion encourages me to have an open mind. I was also fascinated when Pollan discussed the similarities between humans and rats; he revealed that in a major way, rats are more like humans than most animals. How hypocritical, uncanny, typical, and psychologically intriguing that our culture is commonly disgusted by an animal with which we share so many similarities. Might we be inadvertantly disgusted at our own tendency to eat a variety of things for our own gain (like rats), but like our steak, chicken, cheese and sushi too much to admit it? Perhaps it is just the rats' beady eyes...Regardless of our disgust, I think Americans are living by the statement, "Ignorance is bliss." Somehow, I fail to see the bliss in our ignorance; instead i see obesity, diseases that arise from eating unhealthily, confusion, a hurt ecosystem, and a nation-wide eating disorder.
Gems: “Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds” (page 10).
I was also particularly interested by his opinion that “Eating…defines us” (page 10).
Thoughts and Questions: I found the first qutoe from page 10 to supply particular interest and help to me, because I have read books that attempted to explain a profound connection (via food) between humans and the rest of the world, but did not completely understand the authors’ collective point of view. In the introduction, Michael Pollan’s words hint at a deep, multi-faceted union we have with our world, and everything in it. Additionally, although Pollan's opinion that food defines us seems drastic and far-fetched, the knowledge that Pollan has invasively researched this topic and came to that conclusion encourages me to have an open mind. I was also fascinated when Pollan discussed the similarities between humans and rats; he revealed that in a major way, rats are more like humans than most animals. How hypocritical, uncanny, typical, and psychologically intriguing that our culture is commonly disgusted by an animal with which we share so many similarities. Might we be inadvertantly disgusted at our own tendency to eat a variety of things for our own gain (like rats), but like our steak, chicken, cheese and sushi too much to admit it? Perhaps it is just the rats' beady eyes...Regardless of our disgust, I think Americans are living by the statement, "Ignorance is bliss." Somehow, I fail to see the bliss in our ignorance; instead i see obesity, diseases that arise from eating unhealthily, confusion, a hurt ecosystem, and a nation-wide eating disorder.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan-Chapter 1:
Précis: The common consumption of an American is industrial food, which is any food with such a complicated, obscure history that only experts can understand its provenance. In tracing food back to its original ingredients, it can be said that corn is arguably the most major ingredient found in American supermarkets and American bellies; it can be found in a huge variety and number of foods. Every meal and morsel in the typical American grocery store relates in some way, shape, or form to corn. This plant has many different purposes and uses, and it has the capabilities to withstand elements, undergo genetic engineering, and grow in huge quantities.
Gems: “Corn is in the coffee whitener and the Cheez Whiz, the frozen yogurt and the TV dinner, the canned fruit and the ketchup and candies, the soups and snacks and cake mixes, the frosting and gravy and frozen waffles, the syrups and hot sauces, the mayonnaise and mustard, the hot dogs and bologna, the margarine and shortening, the salad dressings and the relishes and even the vitamins…the Twinkie, too” (page 10).
Thoughts and Questions: It struck me as crazy and frustrating that one cannot completely escape corn in America, even if they want to. Corn has monopolized our food industry, and there seems to be nothing we can do about it. This is a scary, disheartening thought, because if corn proved to be somehow antagonistic to the health of human bodies or the environment, I would be quite powerless to help. I wonder if Pollan will provide a way to avoid being hurt, and hurting the environment by corn.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan–Chapter 2:
Précis: The most productive people in America are farmers - particularly corn farmers like George Naylor, because they provide resources in the form of corn for more people than in any other career in America. Over the years, government involvement and political and economic fluctuations have caused farming to grow from a respectable, popular, and environmentally friendly line of work to a harsh, unjust agribusiness. Those who chose to farm are practically slaves to the government's demands for more corn for less money.
Gems: “Government farm programs once designed to limit production and support prices (and therefore farms) were quietly rejiggered to increase production and drive down prices” (page 48).
Thoughts and Questions: This statement struck me because it reveals that the government truly does control and mistreat those whose food production and service to our country is considerable. This explains why media typically does not allow he voices of farmers to be heard; if they were heard, potentially, the economy, and ease with which the government obtains resources would be drastically changed. The secretivity, and injustice of the government is saddening. The idea of farming, once seemingly attractive and noble, is not longer favorable on my list of potential future careers. However, it is has not been made unnattractive for the reasons I would choose. I wonder what would happen if all farmers suddenly dropped their line of work and chose to be employeed at Walmart instead. I wonder how the economy and environment would change if farming became even more technological and less laborous.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - Chapter 3:
Précis: The only people who do not apparently view corn as a form of capital are a collective minority: consumers (many of whom do not know that corn products make up so much of their foodways), compassionate agronomists, Mexicans (whose culture has knowinlgy been made up of corn for many years) and ancient Aztecs, who saw fit to worship corn. The present day harvest of corn is mixed in a grain elevator with many other harvests from other farms, and shipped to companies that will put it to use as an export, pesticide, fertilizer, food for livestock, ethanol ingredient, and high-fructose corn syrup, to name a few uses. The more corn is produced by farmers, the lower corn's price is, and the more money the government makes from the laborous lives of poor corn farmers. As a result, more than enough corn is produced, and thereby wasted or destructive to our environment in some way.
Gems: "What's involved in absorbing all this excess biomass goes a long way toward explaining several seemingly unconnected phenomena, from the rise of factory farms and the industrialization of our food to the epidemic of obesity and prevalence of fodo poisoning in America" (page 62).
Thoughts and Questions: I was rather frightened by the idea of "extra biomass", and its need to disappear. The "disappearance" of corn's biomass occurs only if it is wasted, consumed by animals that are not genetically disposed to other diets, a cause of obesity and health complications, and/or negatively affecting the environment. I fail to see how the government could not only allow, but promote such a crisis. What sane, intelligent group of politicians ackowledges but fails to tackle a problem that is destroying the very foundation of their lives? Are they hoping to wait the problem out? Are they in denial? Are they hoping to hold off utter economic, political, domestic and environmental chaos until they are all dead, so that their children can deal with it instead?
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - Chapter 4:
Précis: Beef, something that used to characterize an expensive, precious meal for the typical American, now represents one of the biggest downfalls of our country. The life of a cow is more destructive than that of any other species (besides humans); CAFOs cruelly feed cows corn instead of their natural diet of grass, which sickens the cows, thereby creating a need to inject them with copious amounts of medicines and store the resulting toxic manure. CAFOs and the FDA collectively choose the least expensive options regarding beef, which pertain to hurting the environment with toxic manure, abusing farmers and cows, contributing to the demand for wasteful food production, inspiring obesity and disease in consumers, using propaganda and secrets to sell their products, inflicting permanent damage on the ecosystem, and mindlessly using the world's limited petroleum.
Gems: "The short, unhappy life of a corn-fed feedlot steer represents the ultimate triumph of industrial thinking over the logic of evolution" (page 68).
"So then why is it that steer number 534 hasnt' tasted a blade of prairie grass since October? Speed, in a word, or, in the industry's preferred term, 'efficiency'....Fast food, indeed" (page 71).
Thoughts and Questions: A feeling of helplessness overcomes me when I observe the facts behind what my country is eating and doing to its world. Clearly, our habits are profoundly ingrained in us and will not change unless all of America suddenly acts against its well known tendency of being unhealthy and lazy. (In other words, we won't stop acting in a way that hurts our environment, health, animals, and who-knows-what-else.) If all of America turned to environmentally friendly food, organic farmers would grow rich, while everyone else's wallet would suffer. More farms would appear, and there would not be enough space on the continent for all the "old-fashioned farms" taking up precious space. However, old-fashioned farms are the seemingly the only alternative to the current diet of America. As Kevin Wagner said, "We cannot go backwards, and we cannot go forwards." To me, food in America represents a lose-lose situation. I wonder if people 50 years from now will look back on the past 20 years as a time of relative paradise. How fitting that this paradise is essentially caused by ignorance. I suppose ignorance really is a sort of superficial bliss.
Gems: "The food industry has gazed upon nature and found it wanting - and has gotten to work improving it" (page 97).
"We could eat things designed by humans for the express purpose of being eaten by people - or eat 'substances' designed by natural selection for its own purposes: to, say, snooker a bee or lift a wing or (eek!) make a baby' (page 98).
"So we break down the plants and animals into their component parts and then reassemble them into hight-value-added food systems" (page 98).
Thoughts and Questions: Food is becoming increasingly complicated - it is hard to understand the ingredients of any packaged product without the help of an expert. If our society continues on this track, we will shun the "logic of evolution" ever more. I have the foreboding sense that one day the lifespan of Americans will defined by the aptitude of their livers and bodies to withstand poison. This poison is in the form of processed foods. (Foods like artificial sweeteners that are not metabolized, and thus probably poison the liver over time.) Who is at fault for such horrendous foodways? Is there something I can do to reverse or change these for the better, or must I just sit back, watch the foolishness of the American Paradox, and enjoy my good health before the foodways of my country damage it?
Gems: "The short, unhappy life of a corn-fed feedlot steer represents the ultimate triumph of industrial thinking over the logic of evolution" (page 68).
"So then why is it that steer number 534 hasnt' tasted a blade of prairie grass since October? Speed, in a word, or, in the industry's preferred term, 'efficiency'....Fast food, indeed" (page 71).
Thoughts and Questions: A feeling of helplessness overcomes me when I observe the facts behind what my country is eating and doing to its world. Clearly, our habits are profoundly ingrained in us and will not change unless all of America suddenly acts against its well known tendency of being unhealthy and lazy. (In other words, we won't stop acting in a way that hurts our environment, health, animals, and who-knows-what-else.) If all of America turned to environmentally friendly food, organic farmers would grow rich, while everyone else's wallet would suffer. More farms would appear, and there would not be enough space on the continent for all the "old-fashioned farms" taking up precious space. However, old-fashioned farms are the seemingly the only alternative to the current diet of America. As Kevin Wagner said, "We cannot go backwards, and we cannot go forwards." To me, food in America represents a lose-lose situation. I wonder if people 50 years from now will look back on the past 20 years as a time of relative paradise. How fitting that this paradise is essentially caused by ignorance. I suppose ignorance really is a sort of superficial bliss.
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan - Chapter 5:
Précis: Corn, in our present society, represents the most crucial aspect of the industrial food chain. Every part of a corn kernel is extracted, refined, and processed to become an ingredient in nearly every "food" that Americans currently enjoy. The meaning of food is changing from "real" and "natural" to "processed" and "fake". Scientists and Crops Utilization Researchers are growing continually willing to sacrifice water, energy, health, and money so that the annual excess biomass of corn can be consumed and provide a profit. Gems: "The food industry has gazed upon nature and found it wanting - and has gotten to work improving it" (page 97).
"We could eat things designed by humans for the express purpose of being eaten by people - or eat 'substances' designed by natural selection for its own purposes: to, say, snooker a bee or lift a wing or (eek!) make a baby' (page 98).
"So we break down the plants and animals into their component parts and then reassemble them into hight-value-added food systems" (page 98).
Thoughts and Questions: Food is becoming increasingly complicated - it is hard to understand the ingredients of any packaged product without the help of an expert. If our society continues on this track, we will shun the "logic of evolution" ever more. I have the foreboding sense that one day the lifespan of Americans will defined by the aptitude of their livers and bodies to withstand poison. This poison is in the form of processed foods. (Foods like artificial sweeteners that are not metabolized, and thus probably poison the liver over time.) Who is at fault for such horrendous foodways? Is there something I can do to reverse or change these for the better, or must I just sit back, watch the foolishness of the American Paradox, and enjoy my good health before the foodways of my country damage it?
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