Book Report On Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan

In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he directly to Americans about the western diet and why he believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 420). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionist, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads. In turn, he provides his own rules for escaping the western diet as well as the idea of nutritionist set forth by scientists.

He spends 120 pages explaining how corn goes from the field to the elevator, to a feedlot or processing plant to the consumer through so many products and fast-food. Pollan is very much against the Industrial food chain. He believes that it is hurting the earth because of all the inputs such as chemicals and the problems that farmers have with erosion. He was also quite angry that he was not allowed to go through a food processing plant such as Cargill or ADM and so they were obviously hiding something. He did not like the fact that cattle were raised in feedlots where they were pumped full of corn which they were not made to digest, they had to be adapted to because grass is their normal food. In the second section Pollan spent about 154 pages going on and on about organics and Joel Salatin’s farm in Virginia. Pollan loved this section. He was all for the organic food chain. He loves shopping at whole foods and buying expensive organic foods. He was however surprised to find that the organic farms where just as industrial in size and scale as some monoculture corn and soybean farms in Iowa. They did not use the chemicals that the industrial food chain does but they were also causing more erosion issues due to running the cultivator so many times to get rid of weeds. Pollan loved working on Salatin’s farm for a week. He was all for the natural way of feeding livestock and

In the United States there's four major food chains. Industrial, industrial organic, local sustainable, and hunter gather according to Michael Pollan the author of the nonfiction novel “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” In a nutshell Pollan describes the American food chain. In his book he comes to the conclusion that the industrial food chain is bad for you, yet one question arises. Which of the three food chains would best feed the United States? Both the local sustainable and hunter gather are the healthiest food chains for the consumer. Again, another problem arises. Hunter gather and local sustainable food chains couldn’t realistically feed a whole nation. So there is only one option left, industrial organic. Consequently the industrial

Author of the essay “Eat Food: Food Defined” Michael Pollan, states that everything that pretends to be a food really isn’t a food. Michael persuaded me into agreeing with his argument by talking about how people shouldn’t eat anything their great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food and avoid food products containing ingredients that are unpronounceable, lists more than five, and contains high fructose corn syrup. He opened my eyes to information I wouldn’t have thought about or researched myself. He got into depth about a type of Sara Lee bread that contains way more ingredients than needed to make the bread, including high fructose corn syrup that isn’t good for you. Marketers are doing this to sell more of their product by making it taste

If you pay for it now you won’t pay for it later! In Michael Pollan’s book Omnivore's Dilemma he talks about different food chains & the good & bad of all of them. The Industrial Meal is food made from corn for example fast food restaurants. The Industrial Organic meal is very similar to the Industrial Meal, but Industrial Organic uses natural fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers. The Local Sustainable Meal is food made from grass & is obviously local to some.Lastly the Do-It-Yourself Meal is hunted, gathered & gardened food. As Omnivores we face the dilemma of not knowing what food chain is the best to feed the United States. The Industrial Organic Meal is the best food chain to feed the United States because it is healthy for you & good for the environment.

In the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Pollan claims we should be more knowledgeable about what we consume as omnivores. As omnivores we have a variety of food, we can choose from, however, we don’t regularly make the best decisions for ourselves. Pollan argues this by showing us where our food really comes from and how we can find many unwanted extras. Pollan shows us that we’ve evolved as humans from how we used to eat to how we eat now. Pollan argues this by introducing us to all the food chains we value today, some much more than others.

Industrial food chain is all around us. At Mcdonald's , Jewel Osco. It also cheaper than most other food chains. Michael Pollan writes about industrial food chain in his book Omnivore's Dilemma.The industrial food chain, by contrast, feeds the most Americans and sends its food on the farthest journey the McDonald's cheeseburger, which Pollan chooses as his representative industrial meal, is eaten in California,The best food chain to feed American families is industrial food chain because cheaper, easier to get from almost anywhere, it continues what farmers are already doing.

Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma addresses a variety of concerns about food production and consumption. One might ask what exactly is the omnivore’s dilemma? And the basic answer to this question is “what should we eat for dinner”? Being humans makes us omnivores, which means we can at whatever we want. Part of the dilemma is figuring out what is safe to eat and what its safe to think. This is all determined by what your culture tells you to eat. In some cultures it is normal to eat horse while in others it is illegal. This shows how diet varies by region and culture. For example in the Dominican Republic they eat a meal called “Mondongo” and this dish is basically pig or cow intestine including the stomach, feet, and many other inner parts. To the people of the Dominican Republic this meal is part of their tradition and it’s a type of delicacy. On the other hand in many other places it’s seen as dirty or something that shouldn’t be eaten. Being a poor country all parts of the animals are not to be wasted thus making it a norm. Another example of the Omnivore’s dilemma is deciding what to eat and what not to eat based on the condition of how what they are going to consume was grown or raised. Many people choose to eat only organic because it’s said to be healthier but when compared to non-organic food the difference is slim. Regardless people continue to buy organic products. People get emotionally connected to

In the first chapter of Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, introduces us to the topic of industrial corm and the Corn’s Conquest origins. It starts off by stating what is seen inside the local supermarkets mainly focusing on many different types of species of produce. There is one specific question that Pollan states that brings the chapter together. The question focuses more on the aspect of where does the food I eat derived from and what exactly is it? The topic “Zea Mays”, was mentioned as a great discovery of Christopher Columbus due to the unexpected corn blow up. Corn became more and

In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan shows us his view about the corn. Corn is a crop, which is highly using today, and there are many products including the ingredients of corn. However, Pollan’s point is trying to help people to notice what they are eating. In the views of economic, corn is an essential factor, which has reshaped American culture, and it turns people into an industrial eaters.

In this book, Michael Polland highlights the main issues in today’s “Western Diet,” breaking down the factors contributing to our unhealthy food consumption. Nutritionism is an idea that we are constantly surrounded by, but how much of it do you really understand? How much of it is truth, and how much is simply manipulation?

Local sustainable is one of the four food chains Michael Pollan talks about in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The local sustainable food is grown on small farms. Food from farms like these don’t travel long distances like they would in the industrial or industrial organic food chain. These farms also have diverse crops and animals. Local sustainable is the best food chain to feed all of the people in the United States because it doesn’t harm the environment, animals aren’t mistreated, and crops are naturally raised. This is important to know because whether we care or not, the choices we make now with our food affects the world we live in.

Which of Michael Pollan’s four food chains would best feed the U.S.? In “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan he mainly focuses on four food chains in which our foods come from and they are local sustainable,industrial organic, hunter-gatherer, and Industrial. Out of all four of these food chains local sustainable is the best for the U.S. because it protects the environment from harmful chemicals and grows its food organically without preservatives.

Thread 1: In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan describes what the omnivore’s dilemma actually is. He begins his book as a naturalist in a supermarket trying to decide “what to eat?”. This question is harder to answer without asking where the food originates. Knowing where food comes from is very difficult, unless it is locally grown or clearly states it on the package. Processed food is more complicated to understand where it comes from. There are many contributing factors in processed food and there is no way of knowing where each factor originates.

In Chapters 8 and 9 of The Omnivore 's Dilemma, Pollan discovers what organic really means in an interesting way. Instead of reading about it like other people might do, he travels to farms and supermarkets. During his travels he comes across Big Organic, Industrial Organic, and other “organic” terms. Prior to reading these chapters, I did not realize that the government changed the idea of organic to meet the wants and needs of consumers. For example, some companies believe they are creating organic meat by feeding cows organic corn, but raise them under traditional conditions.