The Omnivore's Dilemma By Michael Pollan

As fads and trends come and go, there is one topic that always stays relevant--food. Whether it be new recipes or tips or restaurants, cooking and cuisine are two of the most popular subjects in America. Many people fret over “revolutionary” diets or organic recipes, yet others fail to realize that the root of their problems is not what they consume, but how their foods are grown. My curiosity pertaining to food got the better of me and I was overwhelmed by a desire to discover the entire process of growing food and its journey from the farm to my dinner table. When I found The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, its description captivated my interest and I immediately picked it up and read the first page. I realized then that this book
The industrial food chain unveils the horrifying but accurate truths to some of the origins of foods found in our local grocery store. For example, Pollan follows the process of how a cattle in a feedlot is turned into the meals found on our dinner tables. His novel sheds light onto the underlying corruption found in the food industry--the health problems resulting from feeding the cattle grain and not grass, the overwhelming use of chemicals and antibiotics in crops and animals, and the disgusting and cluttered environments of feedlots and industrialized farms. Section two focuses on organic foods, or rather, the ambiguous definition of organic foods. Pollan explores the manipulation of misleading labels and advertisements that deceive consumers into believing their foods are organic. However, many people do not know what it means for a food to be labelled as “organic”. As decided by the Federal Government, organic foods can use certain synthetic ingredients in foods, but cannot use antibiotics, pesticides, or synthetic fertilizers. These rules were then bent and blurred, making it so that the common “organic” farm was not truly organic. For instance, when Pollan visits one of these organic farms, he is dismayed when he realizes that despite the chickens having an outdoor area, it is so small that none of the chickens even bother to venture outside their confines. Looking at the situation from this
Pollan’s novel focuses on agriculture, food production, and rural land use as well as the progression of agriculture. The agricultural aspect of the book mainly critiques the flaws of industrial agriculture and how corporate companies have corrupted modern agriculture. For example, farmers, at one point, used a mix of cow remains with corn to feed cattle because it was less expensive and more efficient than grass. However, this only resulted in cows developing Mad Cow Disease, causing a destruction of the nervous tissue in cows and can even be passed to humans who consume beef who previously showed these symptoms. Pollan seems to blame the majority of the corruption in the food system on agribusiness, a combination of agriculture and business, that caused many companies to take extreme measures in order to sell their foods. Because of this, our food production and land has been