Term Paper on "Omnivores Dilemma a Natural History of Four Meals"

Term Paper 4 pages (1450 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Omnivore's Dilemma

"What should we have for dinner?" It is the question Michael Pollan asks at the beginning of his book, The Omnivore's Dilemma. Pollan wrote the book partly in response to the "carbophobia" that seized the nation soon after the start of the millennium, supplanting bread -- "one of the most ancient and venerable staples of human life" (Pollan, 2006, p. 1) -- in favor of a high-protein and often high-fat diet. Animals, he points out, instinctively know what to eat. Human animals have this instinctive knowledge too, but we live in a culture where a bewildering array of foodstuffs is available to us. The dilemma is to figure out how to eat what is best for us. Recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control show that one-third of American adults are obese. Approximately 17% of children and adolescents are obese as well, a figure that has tripled since 1980 (CDC, 2011). It is a dilemma that has serious consequences if we make the wrong choices.

Humans, like every other living creature, take part in the food chain. Unlike non-human creatures, we have learned to "substantially modify the food chain" (Pollan, 2006, p. 6) with cooking, hunting, farming, food preservation, and industrialization. Pollan's purpose in writing the book was to trace several food chains from beginning to end. He believes it is essential that people understand where their food comes from and, hopefully, learn to make informed and healthy choices. He advocates getting as close to the food source as possible. We not only eat healthier foods but we reduce our carbon footprint by reducing costs associated with manufacturing, processing and transportation.

In Part One, Pollan looks at the plethora of products available in today's supermarkets and the ubiquitousness of one plant, corn. Corn is a grass native to Central America and unknown in other parts of the world before 1492 (Pollan, 2006, p. 23). After the Native Americans taught colonists to plant corn, they quickly learned to appreciate its value and versatility. Corn was ready to eat, could be dried and stored, and could be ground into flour. The grain fed people and animals. Dried stalks because heating fuel. Mashed, fermented corn could be made into whisky and beer. It was a commodity that sustained people in many ways.

For nearly 450 years, corn remained an important staple that nourished humans and animals. It provided some by-products that were also considered quite useful. A huge change occurred after World War II, with the advent of chemical fertilizers. The government was looking to dump chemicals no longer needed for defense manufacturing. It may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but it changed farming -- and eating -- forever. The corn plant readily used these synthetics, growing prodigiously and eliminating the need for farmers to rotate crops. The government, Wall Street, and private industry capitalized on the bounty, ultimately resulting in the omnipresence of corn, in one form or another, in the American diet. As an example, Pollan cites McDonald's popular Chicken McNugget, which contains thirty-eight ingredients, thirteen of which are derived from corn (Pollan, 2006, p. 113).

In Part Two, Pollan chronicles his experiences living and working on Polyface Farm, an organic farm in Virginia. Pollan was impressed with the farm's symbiosis. For example, cattle graze on grass, chickens eat grubs and larvae out of cowpats and thus provide nitrogen-rich, natural fertilizer so the grass can continue to grow. Polyface Farm is an alternative in almost every way to the highly industrialized farm about which Pollan wrote in Part One.

Pollan enjoyed preparing a meal of foods with which he had a direct connection during his time on the farm. He recalled, with distaste, the slaughter of the chickens for the meal -- "a fairly brutal transaction between animals" (Pollan, 2006, p. 264). Pollan cooked the chickens over a gas grill but flavored the meet with applewood smoke he created with the help of apple trees from the farm. Pollan prepared heirloom corn, fertilized by chickens, and used fresh eggs to make a dessert souffle.

Pollan states that he has duplicated the meal in his home kitchen on a number of occasions, noting that these later versions were not as healthy, or even as tasty, as the original. Grass-fed meet, milk and eggs have less fat than the products of… READ MORE

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