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

by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan Cooking Education and Reference English

Widely and rightly praise. he Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals a book that-I kid you . Michael Pollan’s beautifully written book could change that. He tears down the walls that separate us from what we eat, and forces us to be more responsible eaters.

Widely and rightly praise. he Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals a book that-I kid you not-may change your life. Austin American-Statesman.

The Omnivore's Dilemma book. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Start by marking The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals as Want to Read: Want to Read saving. Start by marking The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals as Want to Read: Want to Read savin. ant to Read.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a nonfiction book written by American author Michael Pollan published in 2006. In the book, Pollan asks the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. As omnivores, the most unselective eaters, humans are faced with a wide variety of food choices, resulting in a dilemma.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't-which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy.

Includes bibliographical references (p. -435) and index. The plant: corn's conquest - The farm - The grain elevator - The feedlot: making meat - The processing plant : making complex. The plant: corn's conquest - The farm - The grain elevator - The feedlot: making meat - The processing plant : making complex foods - The consumer: a republic of fat - The meal: fast food - II. Pastoral: grass.

Desire, Michael Pollan has established himself as one of our most important and beloved writers on modern man's place in the natural world. U N E S C O General History of Africa. Volume I. Methodology and African Prehistory.

In his articles and in bestselling books such as The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan has established himself as one of our most important and beloved writers on modern man's place in the natural world. A new literary classic, Second Nature has become a m. Seeds of Hope: Wisdom and Wonder from the World of Plants.

Ten years later, The Omnivore’s Dilemma continues to transform the way . Like the other books I've read from Pollan, this one does not disappoint

Ten years later, The Omnivore’s Dilemma continues to transform the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating. Like the other books I've read from Pollan, this one does not disappoint. Quite the opposite really. I learned so much from reading this masterpiece. If more people would read books. Michael Pollan, recently featured on Netflix in the four-part series Cooked, is the author of seven previous books, including Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and The Botany of Desire, all New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to The New York Times, he is also the Knight Professor of Journalism at Berkeley.

Pollan approaches his mission not as an activist but as a naturalist: The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural . Pollan’s narrative strategy is simple: he traces four meals back to their ur-species.

Pollan approaches his mission not as an activist but as a naturalist: The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. All food, he points out, originates with plants, animals and fungi. ven the deathless Twinkie is constructed out o. ell, precisely what I don’t know offhand, but ultimately some sort of formerly living creature, . Pollan’s narrative strategy is simple: he traces four meals back to their ur-species

The Omnivore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these . Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on.

Make this your next book club selection and everyone saves. Get 15% off when you order 5 or more of this title for your book club. Simply enter the coupon code POLLANOMNIVORE at checkout.This offer does not apply to eBook purchases. This offer applies to only one downloadable audio per purchase.What should we have for dinner?" To one degree or another this simple question assails any creature faced with a wide choice of things to eat. Anthropologists call it the omnivore's dilemma. Choosing from among the countless potential foods nature offers, humans have had to learn what is safe, and what isn't—which mushrooms should be avoided, for example, and which berries we can enjoy. Today, as America confronts what can only be described as a national eating disorder, the omnivore's dilemma has returned with an atavistic vengeance. The cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast-food outlet has thrown us back on a bewildering landscape where we once again have to worry about which of those tasty-looking morsels might kill us. At the same time we're realizing that our food choices also have profound implications for the health of our environment. The Omnivore's Dilemma is bestselling author Michael Pollan's brilliant and eye-opening exploration of these little-known but vitally important dimensions of eating in America.Pollan has divided The Omnivore's Dilemma into three parts, one for each of the food chains that sustain us: industrialized food, alternative or "organic" food, and food people obtain by dint of their own hunting, gathering, or gardening. Pollan follows each food chain literally from the ground up to the table, emphasizing our dynamic coevolutionary relationship with the species we depend on. He concludes each section by sitting down to a meal—at McDonald's, at home with his family sharing a dinner from Whole Foods, and in a revolutionary "beyond organic" farm in Virginia. For each meal he traces the provenance of everything consumed, revealing the hidden components we unwittingly ingest and explaining how our taste for particular foods reflects our environmental and biological inheritance.We are indeed what we eat-and what we eat remakes the world. A society of voracious and increasingly confused omnivores, we are just beginning to recognize the profound consequences of the simplest everyday food choices, both for ourselves and for the natural world. The Omnivore's Dilemma is a long-overdue book and one that will become known for bringing a completely fresh perspective to a question as ordinary and yet momentous as What shall we have for dinner?

A few facts and figures from The Omnivore's Dilemma:

Of the 38 ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, there are at least 13 that are derived from corn. 45 different menu items at Mcdonald’s are made from corn.

One in every three American children eats fast food every day.

One in every five American meals today is eaten in the car.

The food industry burns nearly a fifth of all the petroleum consumed in the United States—more than we burn with our cars and more than any other industry consumes.

It takes ten calories of fossil fuel energy to deliver one calorie of food energy to an American plate.

A single strawberry contains about five calories. To get that strawberry from a field in California to a plate on the east coast requires 435 calories of energy.

Industrial fertilizer and industrial pesticides both owe their existence to the conversion of the World War II munitions industry to civilian uses—nerve gases became pesticides, and ammonium nitrate explosives became nitrogen fertilizers.

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Nirad

I'm 13 and as a requirement for my AP Human Geography Class I read this book. I enjoyed the language and style of writing even though it was complicated and slightly hard to understand in some spots. The rich descriptions of landscapes and emotions, took me through a range of feelings and made me confront "the omnivores dilemma" head on. This book is very informative and has helped me understand more about the food system. It has also given me hope that I will be able to see Joel Salatin's dream in my lifetime. I don't feel like there was a clear answer on what an individual could do to help the cause, but I'm sure it's not hard to find on the internet with food being such a popular subject nowadays. I would recommend this book to anybody, not only interested in food but human nature, the relationships between plants, animals, and fungi, government, and an opportunity for a richer, more natural life.

Modifyn

To be or not to be a vegetarian?

This is a very interesting book - well thought out and investigated. I am not certain that I want to consume meat again as Pollan tells the reader how these feeder lot cows, pigs and chickens actually live and die. Really, not my idea of humane. Just as interesting is his investigation of corn. It is amazing how corn is in absolutely everything from high-fructose corn syrup to fish food; gasoline to paint; fish to .... well, you get the idea. While more and more acreage is devoted to mono-crops, chiefly corn, we are the "benefactors" of everything that is corn related. Feed lot cattle are fed corn to fatten them up even though it makes them terribly sick and reduces the number of valuable nutrients available to grass fed cows. Multiply that by lamb, chicken, goat, salmon, tilapia, shrimp and you get an idea of why you are eating corn at every meal whether you know it or not. Compound this with the fact that 3 companies control the corn product from seed to pesticide to fertilizer and this monoculture is there to get you in one way or another. Corn that can be sprayed with pesticides that kill everything except the corn - bugs, weeds..... Makes you wonder what you are eating. Anyhow, Pollan has done a wonderful job investigating the food chain and its effect on the environment be it our internal flora or life on earth.

Ynneig

Omnivore's Dilemma was assigned to me in an upper-level economics course, along with other similar books. From the very lengthy list of books, this and Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy were my absolute favorites. To be upfront, this book it is moderate to leftist in its opinions, as is Michael Klare's book, but both books opened my eyes to an entirely new way of thinking about my Economics & Policy degree. Years later, I'm still referencing them in papers & lectures I give. I highly recommend them to people in all disciplines, including casual readers who are just beginning to inform themselves about these topics. Michael Pollan wrote this book in a casual manner, as if sitting around a table with the reader and having a conversation about this great journey he took, yet at the end of the conversation the reader is left with a great amount of knowledge that they can use in countless ways. A great, fun read that I can't imagine anyone not liking. I can't recommend this book more! Happy Readings!!!

Ylal

Fascinating book. My son sent it to me as a “must read”. He was right! The book takes an in depth look at where our foods come from and the economic, chemical, environmental and social impact of the process. The author takes a long look at the overproduction of corn in this country (who knew?) and how apparently as a result of this government supported process, many animals raised for meat (cows, chickens, pigs) are fed corn as part of a mass production process. This changes the chemical makeup of the meat, results in hormone and antibiotic use, and cruel conditions for the animals, who are raised simply as production units with everything designed to maximize weight gained per unit of corn required to feed them. He goes on to look at what “organic” has come to mean in this country, (not much), and then to work briefly on a farm which really does raise cows, pigs and chickens in fields of grass in a sustainable way. He also discusses vegetarianism, presenting some of the arguments pro and con. From there he decides he will eat meat but needs to experience hunting, so we get his perspective on this, as well as going into forests to gather mushrooms.
For me, this was a truly eye-opening and fascinating book. I felt like I learned a lot of things I should have already known and now have much more insight into. Also, his whole approach to food just felt so wholesome as to make me want to move our own lifestyle in that direction, particularly making more effort to buy locally produced food items, even if they cost more. Also, to pay more attention to where the foods we buy come from and think about the carbon footprint of, for example, blueberries flown here by jet from Central or South America. (Why not buy them in summer as preserves or jelly and just not eat them fresh out of season?). So, all in all most highly recommended to be read by everyone!