The Omnivore’s Dilemmaby Michael Pollan
Publication date/ Length: 2006 / 16 hours (13 discs)
Synopsis (from Book Rags): The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a 2006 non-fiction book by Michael Pollan in which the author explores the question “What should we have for dinner?” To answer this question, he follows four meals, each derived through a different food-production system, from their origins to the plate. Along the way, Pollan examines the ethical, political, and ecological factors that are intertwined in the industrial, large-scale organic, small-scale organic, and personal (hunted-gathered) food chains, while describing the environmental and health consequences that result from our food choices within these chains.
Review: I realize I’m a little late to the party on this one! I read and loved In Defense of Food, but I did not read The Omnivore’s Dilemma when it was first published since I am not actually an omnivore (by choice), and I was afraid it would be like reading Sinclair Lewis’s The Jungle or Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation (the two books responsible for my past 23 years of vegetarianism).
However, when Omnivore started appearing on the decade-end “Best of” lists, I just couldn’t help myself! And I’m glad I finally read Pollan’s treatise. While I may not choose to be omnivoracious, I am — indeed — an omnivore by nature, and was fascinated by the moral and ethical dilemmas this freedom brings.
On the other hand, I am VERY glad I listened to this as an audio book – all 16 hours — in the car, because it is looooong and would have greatly benefitted from a ruthless editor. This is my most significant criticism, actually, because the length is a definite deterrent to many people I have spoken to. And, while I have a handful of reservations about certain sections, I do wish more people would read this. I wish Pollan had cut it down by 1/3rd to make it more user-friendly — and so that more omnivores could realize the dilemma we are faced with every day.
My favorite sections were on the proliferation of corn and the mysteryof mushrooms. I was completely enraptured by the first section — some (my husband) would even say obsessed — and I had to really restrain myself from telling everyone I knew that 17 of the ingredients in a Chicken McNugget are corn-based!! And that a number of other ingredients in this same Nugget are petroleum-based (including the compound for lighter fluid). I realize most people prefer to be ignorant of what makes chicken a nugget – but I do wish parents especially were more cognizant of what they are feeding their children.
I also loved learning about the fascinating fungi. I finished the section on mushrooms as I was pulling up to a French restaurant where I was meeting friends for dinner. I was a bit early and my server presented me with a “gift” to keep me company as I waited — the most perfect mushroom soup I have ever tasted. The serendipity of the timing was lovely…
Now, I do have a few fairly significant reservations and criticisms for Pollan… I appreciated that he presented how disasterous a corn-fed diet is to the inner-workings of ruminants (cows) as well as to the inner-workings of humans. He generously shared his struggle to continue eating meat after he learned about the unconscionable suffering that factory bred animals endure. He even read the work that turned me into a vegetarian (Animal Liberation) and turned away from meat for a short time. I was surprised by both of these admissions. As a vegetarian, I am intimately aware of how offensive meat-eaters find vegetarians and have grown weary of defending this choice. So, I admired Pollan for admitting that he stepped away from the diet most Americans consider their birthright.
However, he spent way too much time belittling and ridiculing the animal rights movement whose scare-tactics and rhetoric turn off… well, just about everyone, right? Do we really need to be told that PETA’s anti-predation views are silly? I think not… After a while, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Pollan! Why so much time on this topic — we get it — and we have hundreds more pages to go here…?!”
But then it dawned on me… he wants to go back to eating meat and is trying to justify this decision. My immediate reaction was, “Go ahead!! Now you have the ability to eat meat that did not endure a short, brutal life of suffering!” As a life-long vegetarian, I have NO problem with people eating meat — but I have a huge problem with the unnecessary suffering that so many animals endure prior to their (merciful) deaths.
At one point, Pollan dismisses this issue by saying something along the lines of how animal lovers would struggle with the inhumane treatment of their burger or chicken dinner. My thought was, “Isn’t this a bigger issue than whether or not a person “loves” animals?” Seriously… the pain and suffering documented should be not written off so cavalierly. I think avoidable suffering of any kind is a significant ethical issue that should be addressed and rectified rather than dismissed as ”the dream of innocents” of a few, naive, soft-hearted animal lovers.
My other complaint is about the length of the very last section — the volume of details included regarding the timeline of when he needed to put dish in the oven, who he invited, etc. felt self-indulgent and a little irritating. Remember, readers are giving you their time, 16 hours of it, so the length of this section felt a little disrespectful. And justifying and dismissing the struggles he had preparing a mammal (the fact of the pig’s same organs, face, etc. as our own were repulsive to him) by cooking the pig just right seemed beneath his earlier, philosophical struggles.
Ultimately, I think Pollan did not want to admit that he has chosen to live with cognitive dissonance — don’t we all? — and instead tried to justify his complex struggles too simplistically. But do I recommend this? Wholeheartedly! Could it be better with a little editing — absolutely! Other views? I would love to hear especially from any true omnivores, too…
Sounds like a provocative book. I cringe, though, when I think of something really loooong on this topic!
My salon:
http://laurel-rainsnowsaccidentallife.blogspot.com/2010/04/sunday-salon-418.html
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