In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan traverses through the history and diversification of the food production in America, uncovering a series of food chains from the seed to the table. Pollan argues that the American population suffers from a “national eating disorder” characterized by the presence of ever-changing food trends and diverging diets that led to confusion about what to eat. The Omnivore’s Dilemma explains how the industrial revolution and technology has made everything available all year round which has left humans in a food dilemma. The question of what we should eat to stay healthy while considering how our choices impact on the economic and environmental sustainability remains a dilemma for many.
Pollan argues that culture is a vital tool that has helped humans in dealing with the problems they face for being omnivores. In one of the interviews, Pollan states that the fact that in our today lives, culture seems to have faded and no longer guide us in making the best food choices, is what inspired him to write this book. We have greatly relied on news and articles written in daily newspapers and magazines about new ideal diets, wonder-nutrients and or, poisonous meals that further contributes to the omnivore’s dilemma. For instance, the 2002 Carbophobia spam grasped the American diet with bread being termed as virtual poison. Bread, a staple food for decades, disappeared in the American dinner tables and markets within hours (Crowther). Pollan further blames on our tendency of believing in what scientists, governments guidelines and package labels inform us on certain foods that we forget on the traditional guidelines, national cuisine and our mother’s advice on what is best to consume.
Pollan focuses his research on four different meals that constitute the industrial, organic and the hunter-gatherer food production chains. He starts off his journey by exploring the industrial food system where he claims that the corn is the root cause of the omnivore’s dilemma. In his theory, Pollan traces the discovery of corn way back in early 1900; when Europeans landed in the U.S. Corn, being resistant, high yield and versatility, it quickly emerged as a significant household crop. However, with technology advancement and genetic evolution, the corn production is now nine times more than that produced in the 1920’s. With its diverse utility corn becomes a key ingredient in most processed foods, in alcohol, syrup, fuel and a major meal to industrially-raised cattle and other livestock.
After a visit to the corn fields in Lowa and feedlots in Kansas, Pollan explains in details of how corn is the source of all these problems. In the industrial food production, economic efficiency becomes a key aspect which at times overtakes quality. First, corn production is associated with the massive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides which turns out to be ecologically expensive as it pollutes the environment. Also, due to the monoculture of corn, the soil fertility is highly impoverished. Pollen further explains how corn feeds are affected the health of cattle industry and humans that consume these cattle. The body system of cattle is naturally designed to feed on grass; however, when corn is introduced, the cattle develop resistant strains which require antibiotics. Hence, humans are exposed to the health risks associated with such implications.
Pollan claims that the increasing prevalence of obesity in the united states is highly due to the overconsumption of unhealthy foods. While the production industries focus on maximizing financial profits, the consumers desire for satisfaction and good health. With these two aspects at hand, the market is filled with unhealthy calories foods that are cheap and readily available. Pollan then takes us through the fast food industry that offers families with the chance of ordering different meals with different smells and tastes. He, however, shows us of how all these fast foods originate from corn which is spread through the entire industrial food chain in the United States.
The pollen then explores the farm-based meals, that brings in the facts behind the “natural” and “organic” labels. He consults Joel Salatin, the owner of Polyface farm in Virginia. Salatin talks of the “big organic “ being as bad as the industrial food system. As pollen goes through the history behind organic foods, he finds out that the organic movement was originally formed as a protest against industrial food with the idealization of back-to-the-land productions. However, as the organic movement popularization increased, the organic products demands increased which forced organic farmers to adopt production methods that are not always ecologically friendly. He visits the Cascadian farms, and other portray farms where he discovers that the only main difference between organic and industrial production would be the use of pesticides (Goodman 42) At the end, pollen concludes that the “industrial organic” is a fraud as it is environmentally unsustainable and pricey. However, it may be achieving the role of producing healthy and tasty foods.
Pollan finally introduces us to the “perfect meal” that he prepares himself. Although his meal proves to be unethical, inefficient and unsustainable, he makes sure that he keeps the food chain as local as possible. Pollan’s final message to his readers is that the question on how Americans ought to eat is unanswerable. What people need to understand is that food is a person’s most undeviating bond with the natural world. Hence they ought to be careful of the choices about what to eat.
In today’s world, when it comes to meals humans are torn between choosing what is economically friendly to what is healthy. With the technology evolution, the world has been brought closer in the sense that industrial food products are found all over. As more individuals are increasingly demanding for organic foods, the industrial organic is busy trying to meet these demands but at a cost. Research studies have shown us of how these “organic” foods are produced in an environmentally unsustainable manner and may not be as healthy as their labels indicate (Booker 46) Most Americans feed on fast foods as they are readily available and cheap. In fact, these days very few homes feed on home-made meals as they prefer ordering online or having take-outs. The industrially produced foods are what Americans are feeding on. It is true that we have abandoned our cultures on what meals to take and what we are currently doing is grabbing the cheap and readily available meals from nearby stores and supermarkets (Lee 261) Therefore, I will agree to Pollen’s conclusion that there is no answer to what we are supposed to eat. What we need to do is to be careful about the choices we make when choosing on what to eat for the sake of our health and the environment.
Works Cited
Booker, Matthew. "What Should We Eat?" RCC Perspectives 1 (2015): 45-52.
Crowther, Gillian. Eating Culture: an anthropological guide to food. University of Toronto Press, 2018.
Goodman, David. "Agro-food studies in the 'age of ecology': nature, corporeality, bio-politics. In The Rural." 2017. 127-148
Lee, Hyun-Joo, and Zee-Sun Yun. "Consumers' perceptions of organic food attributes and cognitive and affective attitudes as determinants of their purchase intentions towards organic food." Food quality and preference
39 (2015): 259-267.
