In “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” author Michael Pollan embarks on a journey to answer the ever so perplexing question of, “What should we have for dinner?” Pollan’s journey takes the reader far and wide into the depths of the industrial food chain, organic food chain, and hunter-gatherer food chain. In his efforts, Pollan ponders the answer to why this question, seemingly simplistic, has become so interwoven with complexity-because of the amount of food choices an omnivore in America has. Furthermore, Pollan speaks on behalf of the American paradox that we are, “…an unhealthy people obsessed by the idea of eating healthily.” In his attempts to interpret the complications of choosing an appropriate meal, Pollan explains it as a type of vulnerability that we possess as a result of being a culture of people who has breakable ties with our food traditions.
In the two opening chapters of Part I of Pollan’s book, corn and farming are discussed. “Walking Corn” is what he refers to the American people as. This illustration of the American way eradicates Wendell Berry’s hope of “eating as an agricultural act.” Pollan further embellishes on the disassociation of the food we eat and the land it comes from, when he wheels us along into the supermarket full of food that is a mere “rearrangement of molecules” filled with corn flower, corn starch, and corn oil. The result of the corn fed animals competing for our purchase along with the processed foods filled with corn, packaged with corn, and shining because of corn, it is nearly impossible for the average consumer to trace the food back to where it once came from.
In addition to the overstock of corn, farming is taking a turn for the worse, putting farmers in debt higher than the bushels of corn they grow. The inexpensive, profitable corn crop has forever transformed the once green, pasture-like farms into black, asphalt-like farms. The increase in corn plant’s production has lead to a decrease in plant, animals, and human population in certain towns. Undeniably, our reliance on fossil fuel has been manifested in our salivating desire for yield. Our reliance on fossil fuel and less on solar energy has reconstructed the food chain. Moreover, the discovery of synthetic nitrogen and its excessive use of it leads to environmentally threatening risks of water contamination and global warming. Pollan so graciously reminds us that this would not be so, “…if we were a country with a stable culture of food.”
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
In the two opening chapters of Part I of Pollan’s book, corn and farming are discussed. “Walking Corn” is what he refers to the American people as. This illustration of the American way eradicates Wendell Berry’s hope of “eating as an agricultural act.” Pollan further embellishes on the disassociation of the food we eat and the land it comes from, when he wheels us along into the supermarket full of food that is a mere “rearrangement of molecules” filled with corn flower, corn starch, and corn oil. The result of the corn fed animals competing for our purchase along with the processed foods filled with corn, packaged with corn, and shining because of corn, it is nearly impossible for the average consumer to trace the food back to where it once came from.
In addition to the overstock of corn, farming is taking a turn for the worse, putting farmers in debt higher than the bushels of corn they grow. The inexpensive, profitable corn crop has forever transformed the once green, pasture-like farms into black, asphalt-like farms. The increase in corn plant’s production has lead to a decrease in plant, animals, and human population in certain towns. Undeniably, our reliance on fossil fuel has been manifested in our salivating desire for yield. Our reliance on fossil fuel and less on solar energy has reconstructed the food chain. Moreover, the discovery of synthetic nitrogen and its excessive use of it leads to environmentally threatening risks of water contamination and global warming. Pollan so graciously reminds us that this would not be so, “…if we were a country with a stable culture of food.”
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: a Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
RSS Feed