Post by Kelsey on May 6, 2006 21:57:01 GMT -5
In the same issue of the Riptide, I also had an article on The Omnivore's Dilemma and an interview with Michael Pollan. I hope you like it!
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A Book Review for the Eater: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals[/i]
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Michael Pollan, author of the newly released The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, at a reading of his new book on Friday, April 21, at Elliot Bay Book Company. Pollan, a New York Times bestselling author of three previous books (The Botany of Desire, Second Nature, A Place of My Own), is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is Pollan’s latest book. This fascinating read is a real eye-opener to the world of food, industry, and government. Pollan strives to find out where, exactly, his food comes from, and he doesn’t settle with “the supermarket” as an answer.
Over the course of this compelling story, Pollan explores four meals in depth; in fact, probably a bit more in depth than one would think possible. Not only does he follow his McDonald’s burger back to the feedlot, but he also follows the path of corn from an Iowa farm, through the processing plants and the feed mill, and into the feedlot where his steer is being fattened.
Along with this McDonald’s meal, he traces the origins of a meal prepared with Whole Foods’ ingredients; a meal of chicken, vegetables, and eggs from a sustainable farm in Virginia; and lastly, a meal of wild ingredients that he hunted, foraged, and gathered.
In stark contrast with the well traveled, fossil fuel paved paths of his McDonald’s and Whole Foods’ meals, the two meals prepared from local, non-corporate sources illustrate the balance of human, plant, animal, and fungi; life and death in a complete circle.
Pollan shows us how it is possible to live in balance with nature, by raising animals on pasture rather than feedlots, keeping our farms diversified, and eating locally.
Pollan manages to convey a complicated, intricate story in a very clear and riveting way, and the result is surprisingly entertaining.
During his talk, Pollan said, “I like to write about nature in the supermarket; I like to write about nature in the garden…. As someone coming from that perspective, I understand eating is about nature, something a lot of us have been able to forget. Eating represents our most profound engagement with the natural world.”
At the book reading, Pollan gave some insight into his impetus for writing The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
“What should I eat? I realized before I could answer the question ‘What should I eat?’ I had to know what I was eating. And it turns out that is a very complicated thing right now,” he said.
“Our food has probably changed more in the last 50 years than in the last 5000 years…. There are foods, actually I call them food products; they don’t really deserve to be called food, that your great grandparents would not recognize as food. Show your great grandmother a tube of Go-Gurt…. We’ve reinvented a lot about the way we eat.”
Pollan also read a passage about each of the four meals in his book, and discussed some of the more important topics The Omnivore’s Dilemma focuses on, such as how the American food chain is based upon a monoculture of primarily corn (as well as soybeans) and how corporations and money influence so much of the way we think about and buy food.
While the McDonald’s and Whole Foods’ meals showed the reality of the highly industrialized, environmentally degrading food system in America today, Pollan also had a positive outlook on the future of the sustainable farming model.
“I think we’re on our way to creating another food culture in this country; I think that there are a lot of positive developments going on…. Chefs are leaders of this movement. I think that people are coming to appreciate the values of slow food. I think we’re relearning how to eat; we need to. The end of the industrial food chain is an industrial eater…the person who wants their strawberries twelve months of the year, who wants their food to be microwaveable, who wants to eat in the car, who wants to be above anything else. And we won’t change the industrial food chain until we change the way we eat. And when you go to the farmer’s market, you won’t find anything microwavable. You have to cook. So we need to rediscover cooking, too,” he said.
I asked Pollan how writing The Omnivore’s Dilemma has changed the way he eats.
“The main change is I don’t eat industrial meat; I only eat grass-fed ruminants, grass-fed beef. I joined a [sustainable co-op]; I don’t shop in Whole Foods anymore…. I try to shop at farmers markets as much as I can; I try to stay out of the supermarkets. I eat with more consciousness than I used to, which I find very satisfying. I don’t find it a burden at all; I find it a real pleasure,” he said.
Pollan had some advice for Vashon students.
“That idea of voting with your fork, it’s really really important, that even before you’re old enough to vote, you can vote with what you eat. You can choose not to participate in practices you don’t approve of, and you can support practices you do approve of. Get out in the garden, learn to garden, and to cook. Cooking is a very important skill to acquire that a lot of people don’t have anymore,” said Pollan.
Michael Pollan is a thoughtful, intelligent person with a very important message for all of us. Anyone who has ever eaten anything should read The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
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The Riptide, Volume VII, Issue 10, May 4, 2006.
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A Book Review for the Eater: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals[/i]
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Michael Pollan, author of the newly released The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, at a reading of his new book on Friday, April 21, at Elliot Bay Book Company. Pollan, a New York Times bestselling author of three previous books (The Botany of Desire, Second Nature, A Place of My Own), is a contributing writer to the New York Times Magazine and the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is Pollan’s latest book. This fascinating read is a real eye-opener to the world of food, industry, and government. Pollan strives to find out where, exactly, his food comes from, and he doesn’t settle with “the supermarket” as an answer.
Over the course of this compelling story, Pollan explores four meals in depth; in fact, probably a bit more in depth than one would think possible. Not only does he follow his McDonald’s burger back to the feedlot, but he also follows the path of corn from an Iowa farm, through the processing plants and the feed mill, and into the feedlot where his steer is being fattened.
Along with this McDonald’s meal, he traces the origins of a meal prepared with Whole Foods’ ingredients; a meal of chicken, vegetables, and eggs from a sustainable farm in Virginia; and lastly, a meal of wild ingredients that he hunted, foraged, and gathered.
In stark contrast with the well traveled, fossil fuel paved paths of his McDonald’s and Whole Foods’ meals, the two meals prepared from local, non-corporate sources illustrate the balance of human, plant, animal, and fungi; life and death in a complete circle.
Pollan shows us how it is possible to live in balance with nature, by raising animals on pasture rather than feedlots, keeping our farms diversified, and eating locally.
Pollan manages to convey a complicated, intricate story in a very clear and riveting way, and the result is surprisingly entertaining.
During his talk, Pollan said, “I like to write about nature in the supermarket; I like to write about nature in the garden…. As someone coming from that perspective, I understand eating is about nature, something a lot of us have been able to forget. Eating represents our most profound engagement with the natural world.”
At the book reading, Pollan gave some insight into his impetus for writing The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
“What should I eat? I realized before I could answer the question ‘What should I eat?’ I had to know what I was eating. And it turns out that is a very complicated thing right now,” he said.
“Our food has probably changed more in the last 50 years than in the last 5000 years…. There are foods, actually I call them food products; they don’t really deserve to be called food, that your great grandparents would not recognize as food. Show your great grandmother a tube of Go-Gurt…. We’ve reinvented a lot about the way we eat.”
Pollan also read a passage about each of the four meals in his book, and discussed some of the more important topics The Omnivore’s Dilemma focuses on, such as how the American food chain is based upon a monoculture of primarily corn (as well as soybeans) and how corporations and money influence so much of the way we think about and buy food.
While the McDonald’s and Whole Foods’ meals showed the reality of the highly industrialized, environmentally degrading food system in America today, Pollan also had a positive outlook on the future of the sustainable farming model.
“I think we’re on our way to creating another food culture in this country; I think that there are a lot of positive developments going on…. Chefs are leaders of this movement. I think that people are coming to appreciate the values of slow food. I think we’re relearning how to eat; we need to. The end of the industrial food chain is an industrial eater…the person who wants their strawberries twelve months of the year, who wants their food to be microwaveable, who wants to eat in the car, who wants to be above anything else. And we won’t change the industrial food chain until we change the way we eat. And when you go to the farmer’s market, you won’t find anything microwavable. You have to cook. So we need to rediscover cooking, too,” he said.
I asked Pollan how writing The Omnivore’s Dilemma has changed the way he eats.
“The main change is I don’t eat industrial meat; I only eat grass-fed ruminants, grass-fed beef. I joined a [sustainable co-op]; I don’t shop in Whole Foods anymore…. I try to shop at farmers markets as much as I can; I try to stay out of the supermarkets. I eat with more consciousness than I used to, which I find very satisfying. I don’t find it a burden at all; I find it a real pleasure,” he said.
Pollan had some advice for Vashon students.
“That idea of voting with your fork, it’s really really important, that even before you’re old enough to vote, you can vote with what you eat. You can choose not to participate in practices you don’t approve of, and you can support practices you do approve of. Get out in the garden, learn to garden, and to cook. Cooking is a very important skill to acquire that a lot of people don’t have anymore,” said Pollan.
Michael Pollan is a thoughtful, intelligent person with a very important message for all of us. Anyone who has ever eaten anything should read The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
--------------------
The Riptide, Volume VII, Issue 10, May 4, 2006.