Madeline
The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a breakdown of where our food comes from. I picked this book up with the hopes it would tell me what am I supposed to eat. But instead, I left the book feeling defeated.
It follows through three different channels, the industrial, the pastoral, and the forest each ending in a dinner following that way of eating. Micheal Pollen took the time to live through the experience of all three and understand how people eat and the pros and cons of each. Although I expected to walk away from this book with a plan of how I should each, I left this book more confused than I had previously and left me wondering “What am I supposed to eat now?”
The Industrial
The Omnivore’s Dilemma starts with what the food most of us eat is made of, corn. The story goes into how corn made it has way into our everyday eating life and how it is in everything from beef to soda to cheese. All processed foods likely contain corn and most unprocessed foods are fortified or fed with corn. It then goes into the process at which how food is made to feed the large amount of people in this world.
What was reiterated again and again in this part of the book, is that corporations cannot get rich by growing food and therefore, the meal at the end of this part makes the most sense to be short experience at McDonalds. They only get rich by processing it. I never expected to read this book and learn that fast food was the way to eat, but I didn’t expect such an in depth explanation.
Although I am usually a veggie and meat kind of girl, it was explained how Whole Foods and organic food is not the opposite of processed food and that does not solve the issue. What I got from this was that there are other ways of eating than the way I eat now. Show what am I supposed to eat now?
The Pastoral
The Pastoral covers the farm to table type of eating that has recently, probably partially due to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, became popular. In this stage of the story, produce is locally farmed and harvested, similar to how you would usually get produce from the farmers market. A big piece of this part of the story, is about going to a farm which raises chickens in an economic and ecological why.
Although this technique seems perfect, the biggest issue is how unscalable it is. This way of feeding the world would take too much time, too much effort, and too much land. And most of all, it is too expensive for most of the world and there is little money to be made by this method. I thought I found a new way of eating, but this is not as sustainable for the world to eat this way, and so now what am I supposed to eat?
The Forest
Finally we go into the forest and go back to the hunting and gathering method. The Omnivore’s Dilemma covers foraging for mushrooms in the forest. A technique that takes perfect timing, knowing what you are doing and not over foreign in other people’s territory. Hunting was also a big piece of this part of the book. Going through the techniques to learn how to hunt and how a normal person who never went hunting before felt about killing another living thing.
In a way, the author failed miserably to follow all his rules to create a dinner from foraging. He attempted to make salt from the salt flats outside of San Jose, and was afraid of getting sick so ditched it. He couldn’t find the fruits he was hoping to pick on trees and looked to pick fruits that hung over fences that were in reach. Is that foraging? I’m not sure I can get on bored with that. In the end, a meal that took an hour or so to complete, took months to prepare for. For that reason, unless you are living in the bushe in Alaska, the forest is not the way to go.
Final Thoughts
I picked up The Omnivore’s Dilemma expecting to finish the book clearing out my refrigerator and heading to revive the way I eat. I found myself doing the opposite, feeling defeated and that the best way to eat is the way I have been for years, by eating whole foods whenever possible but not stressing too much about it. Thank goodness, I get to keep my bucket list places to eat from all my food shows.
