Book #4: The Omnivore's Dilemma

Title: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals


Author: Michael Pollan


In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan eats four meals. The first, he and his family consume from McDonald's takeout bags while driving down the freeway. The second he makes for his wife and son from organic ingredients purchased at Whole Foods Market. The third he makes from Polyface Farm, a self-sustaining farm in Virginia. The fourth he either gathers (think mushrooms and berries) or hunts (think wild boar) himself. As he prepares each meal, he follows the progress of the food from the earth to the table.


I really liked Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, and Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation, and The Omnivore's Dilemma is in the same vein as those books. Like Ehrenreich, he dives into the world on which he's reporting. He spends a week at Polyface Farm, slaughtering chickens and driving cattle. He also buys a steer and follows its progress from castration as a calf to the slaughterhouse. And the chapters where he hunts for a wild boar in the San Francisco suburbs will quicken the pulse of any armchair hunter. I also liked that Pollan doesn't seem to have much of an agenda or chip on his shoulder-- he's not trying to get us to give up meat or McDonalds, and although it does seem that he thinks organic food is inherently slightly healthier, he doesn't try to get his readers to drop their fast food for organic soymilk either.


--originally published 2/21/07