BOOK talk

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

by: Michael Pollan

Throughout history Americans have consistently changed their ideas about food. " The omnivores dilemma" addresses the simple questions in depth Americans have about food. Starting off with the question what should we have for dinner? A question that is answer allot differently than it would be in years past.

Already this book has brought of ideas that I have never thought about. It traces food back to where it originates from. Not only addressing the formation of food but also surfacing the topic of our eating habits. Why do we eat the way we good? What constitutes good and bad eating habits? So far I find the book intriguing.

Chapter 1

There are so many influences on the perspectives Americans have on food. People believe what is being marketed to them "...the food industry has done a good job of persuading us that the forty-five thousand different items of SKUs...in the supermarket...represent genuine variety rather than so many clever rearrangements of molecules extracted from the same plant." P.20 Dealing with the fact that corn is being marketed in many different varieties of food. American are not skeptical about where food comes from, As long as it is accessible.

After reading just this first part of the book I am beginning to wonder how the food in the supermarket came to be. I’m curious about the food I am really eating. As I start to think more and more about this topic I have yet to come up with any solutions.

Chapter Two

Us Americans dependent on Farmers to produce crops to provide us with food. The farmers are dependant on fossil fuels and energy in order to keep up production and transportation of the corps. It is a never-ending circle. Farming areas push people into other area, which causes separation between farm land and cities.

The whole system of corn production is overly complex. I did not understand what was going on till reading further into this book. Like Most people do not understand what is happening with the production of food. Is this really the most affiant way of production?

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

An original idea to handling the excess corn and fattening up cows seems to be working. However only ended up causing pollution and waste. Cows are animals that are just not used to ever being fed corn, to make that their diet is unhealthy. But I like most people probably have never stopped to think about the life of that cow. Therefore we would never know the existing process of using excess materials to speed up beef production to have low prices. So, the materials that the cow’s intake ends up in our food, which we then intake. Although the process may be cheaper for the companies, the fact is that Feeding the cows excess materials is unhealthy or both them and for us. I had never thought about the production of beef in so much detail. This was more e then I ever really wanted to know about the production of beef. Eating meat is a part of life in my opinion, but this process is wrong in the sense that it clashes with nature. Cows should not be force fed, People are selfish and greedy to do whatever makes more money faster.

Chapter five

Center for Crops Utilization Research at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. There he learned about the countless products we have been able to create from corn, plastics, Gels and syrups. At the end of the whole process there is nothing to really clean up.

Apparently it takes what is called an, “industrial eater” to eat the materials produced from corn. The challenge is to inventive new things that are interesting to consumer while using the same ingredients.

Pollan writes about processed foods, considering breakfast foods like, cereal. Cereals start priced as pennies worth of corn, this is all changed into four dollars worth. Packaging and marketing are a big factor because the ingredients tend to all is the same with all brands. Companies convey the message to eat more of their food, or buy for more money. It’s a cycle of keeps consumer interested in the product. It is the “economic logic of processing” for companies to continuously enhance and update their products. In doing so more plants and more animals suffer, because these cycles “break plants and animals into their component parts and then reassemble them into high value added food systems” (97)

We are dumb. We chose which foods to eat with such stupidity. VERY few people really KNOW what the food is. Because turns out most of the food we eat contains all the same things.