DiscountDelight - The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals
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List Price: $26.95
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Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 394.12
EAN: 9781594200823
ISBN: 1594200823
Label: Penguin Press HC, The
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 464
Publication Date: 2006-04-11
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Studio: Penguin Press HC, The
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: great read
Comment: This book takes some energy to read but is well worth it. I will never look at food the same way. I never understood government subsidies of corn farmers until reading this book. I would highly recommend this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Most Important and Relevant
Comment: Through one plant, Corn, Michal Pollen shows me, how everything, not just food, I encounter on a daily basis is `connected'. It dawns on me the `true' cost of a 99-cent burger made from corn-fed steers and high fructose corn syrup:
A bushel or 56 lb of corns is trading at less than $2 right now because there is SO much corn. High productivity indeed thanks to LOTS of commercial fertilizers (from fossil fuel); and Water, not an unlimited natural resource; and commercial farming equipments that drink gasoline (fossil fuel) and can work much bigger fields in less time.
All these are things that farmers have to pay for. With cost so high, corn price so low, that's why they need farm subsidy which comes from the tax money that I pay every April. Chin-Chin! Excess fertilizer creates runoff which contaminates water supply that we drink or need to spend more processing power (fossil fuel) to get it drinkable. On the other hand, cows are not used to eating so much corn in so short of a time (they graze on grass by nature's design), so they are now sick. Since people are drinking contaminated water and eating sick animals, health care cost goes up. Who now pays for higher health insurance premium every month? Chin-Chin! Food made from corn derivatives are now so cheap (soda, corn-fed beef/chickens/pigs) so we eat more and more often, that's why I need an expensive gym membership to burn all the excess calories and maybe join Jenny Craig which Nestle just bought btw. Chin-Chin again! Finally, when processed foods are my main diet then I practically am eating just one plant, Corn, so that's why I need and am buying all those super-sized bottles of vitamin pills. More Chin-Chin!
No corporation will tell us to drive Less, to spend money building convenient public transportation system, instead they will spend money to promote Ethanol. They want us to believe that it is `better' and different than fossil fuel. But have we forgotten that it is a law of physics that energy can only be Converted and can NOT be Created? Any agriculturally-derived fuel like Ethanol, needs electricity (which needs coal to generate) to process, and in order to meet the level of our energy consumption, we need a hell lot of it which can only be coerced out of nature with lots of fertilizer which again comes from fossil fuel.
Michael Pollen made us see the excess of corns is deliberate. It is Required to feed and grow our habit of Consumption because only with that habit, the big conglomerates can make lots of money, and make us believe that that cost of 99-cent burger to us is just 99 cents.
Yes, whole foods or organic foods are more expensive. Safeway's antibiotic-ridden corn-fed beef is less than $3/lb while the grass-fed ones at Whole Foods are over $10. So consume less! Make it like the good old days when eating meats is a special occasion thing. It will be better for your body, and your soul, knowing that you are paying the true price.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A feast for both mind and stomach
Comment: This is a book to savor. As I learned reading Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan sees from many points of view while retaining a distinct voice and sensibility. His candor and erudition are equally delightful. Like a fascinating dinner guest, he tells well-honed stories and makes it seem that he's discovering something new even as the old story unfolds. The basic dilemma we omnivores face - what to eat when it's possible to eat anything - is such a daily experience that it makes the book seem part of "real life." My diet shifted throughout the week that I read this book. I've long been wary of factory-farmed meat and fish, but after reading "Corn" I've looked askance at those shining yellow and white kernels of petroleum in the market as well. I was particularly struck by the fact that ethanol, which pollutes the air, is a less efficient way of using oil than simply pouring gas into the tank. After reading Pollan's description of the monocultural corn industry and its dependence on oil, I understood why Detroit has turned its back on hybrids in favor of ethanol burning cars: we're being encouraged to use more oil than ever! The McDonald's meal in the car that concludes the first section of The Omnivore's Dilemma was classic. Suffice it to say that I haven't eaten any fast food since reading it. The idyllic section on grass provides a clean contrast with "Corn," yet the revelations about the industrial nature of enlightened businesses like Whole Foods keeps the structure from being too predictable. There are compromises at each level of the food chain. I initially thought I'd skim the third section about hunting and foraging since I'm not likely to do either one, but Pollan had so many interesting things to say about mushrooms, pigs, hunters, limits, and cooking that I read the ending with a sense of wonder and appreciation. At the final dinner, he shies away from a formulaic or sententious grace before the meal, preferring a toast to everyone who brought it to the table. The book itself, however, is an act of thanks and grace. It's been about three weeks since I finished The Omnivore's Dilemma and it sticks to the ribs. I'll read it again in a year or two.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Book
Comment: I tend to be very careful about recommending books that deal with food to a wide audience--I am vegeterian and I know many people just don't want to know the reasons why.
This one, however, is an amazing book that does not attempt to change the reader's diet, it only makes you think about the choices you make and makes you realize how important they really are. It is beautifully written and even inormation that could be very dry is not. He connects everything so that it all connects together, even though there are four seperate parts.
When I read other reviews that said it is a life changing book I thought, "Yeah, ok, sure." I have read up on food, taken sustainable development courses, etc. But it really did change the way I look at food permanently. Not in an "Oh, this and that is so horrible" way, but in a really positive one--which is not what most books I have read have done. It is very thoughtful, careful, and through, but never overly analytical in a way that would make it a hard read.
Defiently one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read, and the first book ever that made me go back and write a review.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Really Excellent All the Way Around
Comment: Loved this book. I heard Mr. Pollan on NPR discussing this book and thought what he had to say in the interview was fascinating. So I picked this up. It didn't dissapoint. I'll never look at the soda aisle (or the entire supermarket for that matter) the same way.
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Editorial Reviews:
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The bestselling author of The Botany of Desire explores the ecology of eating to unveil why we consume what we consume in the twenty-first century
"What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't-which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we're realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America.
Pollan has divided The Omnivore's Dilemma into three parts, one for each of the food chains that sustain us: industrialized food, alternative or "organic" food, and food people obtain by dint of their own hunting, gathering, or gardening. Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on. He concludes each section by sitting down to a meal--at McDonald's, at home with his family sharing a dinner from Whole Foods, and in a revolutionary "beyond organic" farm in Virginia. For each meal he traces the provenance of everything consumed, revealing the hidden components we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods reflects our environmental and biological inheritance.
We are indeed what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the profound consequences of the simplest everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world. The Omnivore's Dilemma is a long-overdue book and one that will become known for bringing a completely fresh perspective to a question as ordinary and yet momentous as What shall we have for dinner?
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