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The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals Audio CD – Unabridged, April 11, 2006
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: A Natural History of Four Meals
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.
Because of the obesity epidemic, today’s generation of children will be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than their parents’ life expectancy.
In 2000 the UN reported that the number of people in the world suffering from o...
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Audio
- Publication dateApril 11, 2006
- Dimensions5.19 x 1.97 x 5.74 inches
- ISBN-10014305841X
- ISBN-13978-0143058410
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Get to know this book
What's it about?
Explores the moral, environmental, and health implications of our food choices and eating habits.Popular highlight
Yet this corn-fed meat is demonstrably less healthy for us, since it contains more saturated fat and less omega-3 fatty acids than the meat of animals fed grass. A growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with corn-fed beef.3,982 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
There are some forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket and more than a quarter of them now contain corn.3,969 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
Very simply, we subsidize high-fructose corn syrup in this country, but not carrots. While the surgeon general is raising alarms over the epidemic of obesity, the president is signing farm bills designed to keep the river of cheap corn flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest.3,153 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
Wet milling is an energy-intensive way to make food; for every calorie of processed food it produces, another ten calories of fossil fuel energy are burned.3,040 Kindle readers highlighted this
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
www.michaelpollan.com
From AudioFile
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Audio; Unabridged edition (April 11, 2006)
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 014305841X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0143058410
- Item Weight : 13.6 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.19 x 1.97 x 5.74 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,652,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,893 in Food Science (Books)
- #3,085 in Gastronomy History (Books)
- #9,547 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Michael Pollan is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book simple, well organized, and pleasingly written. They also appreciate the author's insight into all possible perspectives and conversational style. Readers describe the content as eye-opening, logical, and impressive. Opinions are mixed on the engagement, with some finding it wittily entertaining and others saying it's a waste of time.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book's content eye-opening, thoroughly researched, and full of intensity. They also say it gives an interesting look at farming and ranching practices, both small and much larger. Readers also say the book is full of encouraging scenes and sustainability lessons. They say it's a tremendous contribution, exposing how big corporations operate.
"...hasn't included too many spoilers, because the information in the book is extremely worthwhile and worth your read and your time and your..." Read more
"This was a big book full of intensity and good detail. In parts it was almost poetic...." Read more
"...And the section of fungus (mushrooms) is interesting from a botanical perspective, mostly. It could have been in The Botany of Desire...." Read more
"...Ominvore's Dilemma is a tremendous contribution, exposing how big corporations and old government practices continue to harm us and our country...." Read more
Customers find the book pleasingly written, simple, and rich in details. They also say the book is not hysterical and does little finger pointing.
"...The first thing to know is that the author is such a good storyteller that he teaches writing at Harvard...." Read more
"This was a big book full of intensity and good detail. In parts it was almost poetic...." Read more
"...Michael Pollan has presented me with actual objective facts, presented clearly and logically, in an unbiased way, and convinced me through the..." Read more
"...Pollan's writing style is informal yet skilled - effortless to read yet highly informative. That's so much harder than it sounds...." Read more
Customers find the writing style insightful, interesting, and well-balanced. They also say the author is terrific and gives you insight to all possible perspectives. Customers also say it's an intimately personal book with rich imagery and personality. They say the book has the ability to change their views on food and food production for good.
"...It's written in a light, conversational manner. Michael Pollan leaves the conclusions to the reader. Highly recommended." Read more
"...to other issues such as ethics of eating animals, Pollan gives a well balanced and critical presentation of arguments. His writing is engaging...." Read more
"...making them perform unnatural feats, delivers at best a very fragile sense of self worth...." Read more
"...The book is fun to read, well written, good humored and even most balanced...." Read more
Customers find the writing quality informative, wonderful, convincing, honest, and truthful. They also say it's a great introduction for anyone wondering why some people avoid.
"...One thing I like best is that Pollan is largely unbiased himself...." Read more
"...start with because it seemed to be a bit of a primer, a nice introduction to this author...." Read more
"...The concept of the book is great, and if you can stick with it to the end more power to you, but it's not for those with ADD." Read more
"This was a good introduction to me on food and nutrition in the context of health and wellness...." Read more
Customers find the book to be simple and interesting, with a great job of putting the pieces of a complex issue together. They also say it's entertaining and hard to put down.
"...The book is well organized into Contents of 3 Parts: Industrial (Corn), Pastoral (Grass), and Personal (Forest)...." Read more
"...It's well-written, humorous, and easy to understand without being condescending. I want to know more about the foods I'm putting into my body...." Read more
"...The book is so organized, you feel the pieces of information falling neatly inside your brain like Tetrominos in a Tetris game...." Read more
"...The last section seemed rushed, poorly argued, and self-involved -- a disappointing and tedious finish to an otherwise fine book." Read more
Customers find the book a wonderful vegan resource that makes a great case for organics. They also say the chapters on corn cultivation and sustainable farming are well-researched and revealing. Overall, customers say the book helps them eat more mindfully, healthfully, and sustainably.
"...There was an interesting section on eating meat ethically...." Read more
"...this movement, and this appears to be the only "true" organic, healthy foods solution...." Read more
"...The sections on corn cultivation and sustainable farming were well-researched, revealing and incredibly interesting...." Read more
"...As a result, you will be able to eat more mindfully, healthfully, and sustainably...." Read more
Customers find the recipes in the book flavorful.
"...like Pekind duck, and the meat itself was moist, dense, and almost shockingly flavorful...." Read more
"...is more "chikeny" and pigs are more..well..."porky"...the meats taste fresh and natural ala "Polyface (true organic) Farm" that is referenced in..." Read more
"...But, the truth is that this kind of cooking can yield some fantastic flavors and awaken taste buds that seem to have been dormant for too long...." Read more
"...cooks are with family and friends and they sound like wonderful meals with fascinating company...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the engagement. Some find the book wittily entertaining and riveting, while others say it's a waste of time and disgusting.
"...The book is as entertaining as The Botany of Desire (2001), in which he looked at the story of apples, potatos, tulips, and marijuana from the plants..." Read more
"...on the mysterious mushrooms and preparing the food educational and entertaining...." Read more
"...However, Omnivore's Dilemma is wishful thinking, and not at all practical. Pollan advocates for the entire US agribusiness industry to change...." Read more
"...the New York Times Book Review is quoted as saying "Thoughtful, engrossing . . ...." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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The author contends that not only excess corn--and all the unnecessary products from it--and the introduction of GMO seed have wrecked havoc with our farm system as well as, perhaps, our body's health system. "By the 1980s the diversified family farm was history in Iowa, and corn was king" (p. 39). A lack of diversification meant more plagues of insects and crop diseases. Amazingly, the author states that "the farmers in Iowa...don't respect corn [but] will tell you in disgust that the plant has become a `welfare queen'." Hybrid flowers and tomatoes sound great, but hybrid corn consumes more polluting fertilizer than any crop (p 41). Iowa, which was once our breadbasket, now imports 80 percent of its food--and this was in 2006.
The world would be much less populated had a scientist not figured out how to "make" nitrogen apart from nature doing so. About 60 percent of American commodity corn is fed to livestock which in times past spent most of their lives grazing on grasses (p 66). "The urbanization of America's animal population [in feed lots] would never have taken place if not for the advent of cheap, federally- subsidized corn" (67). Even farm salmon are now being fed on excess biomass corn (p 67). E-coli bacteria thrives in the feedlot cattle--40 percent carry it in their gut; they produce a toxin that destroys human kidneys.
Concentrated feed lots take the youngish cows off their natural diet of grass and force feed them corn, which they would not otherwise eat. Corn just does not work with their stomachs and they are prone to illnesses for which antibiotics are used.
Producers believe price is the overriding issue when it comes to food purchasing, so producing a "product" as cheaply as possible is what guides most of our feed lots. For healthy products to healthy people you must buy locally: fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy. "Artificial manures [synthetic fertilizers] lead inevitably to artificial nutrition, artificial food, artificial animals, and finally to artificial men and women" (pp 128, 148).
"The simplist way to capture the sun's energy in a form animals can use is by growing grass" (p 189). "For example, if the 16 million acres now being used to grow corn to feed cows,...became well-managed pasture, that would remove 14 billion pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year, the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road" (p 198).
"The government writes no subsidy checks to grass farmers. Grass farmers, who buy little...pesticides and fertilizers, do little to support agribusiness or the pharmaceutical industry or big oil" (p 201).
The best thing for our health and our animal's is "relationship marketing," buying directly from farmers or co-ops. You must become a non-Barcode person as much as possible when it comes to food. You have to decide if you want to buy honestly priced food or irresponsibly priced (and polluted) food (p. 240, 241). "Our food system depends on consumers not knowing much about [their food] beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing" (p 245).
If the American Joe and Jane don't push for change, America's chefs may "be leading a movement to save small farmers and reform America's food system" (p 245). This is going to be a real MOVEMENT, perhaps along with the following:
1. anti-globalization ("globalization [or global capitalization] proposes to
sacrifice [our ability to feed ourselves] in the name of efficiency and
economic growth" [p 256])
2. anti-genetically modified crops
3. anti-patented seeds pushed by the WTO (the World Trade Organization)
4. Slow Food, which defends traditional food cultures against the global tide of
homogenization
"A successful local food economy implies not only a new kind of food producer, but a new kind of eater, one who regards finding, preparing and preserving food as one of the pleasures of life rather than a chore" (p 259).
"A growing body of scientific research indicates that pasture substantially changes the nutritional profile of chicken and eggs, as well as beef and milk. ... [Also] as it turns out, the fats in the flesh of grass eaters are the best kind for us to eat" (p 267).
I only enjoyed Chapters 1-14 (Sections I and II); the final Chapters of 15-20 (Section III) I found somewhat off point to the previous sections. You can ignore it and get the point/s of the author quite powerfully, even though this final section accounts for one-third of the book.
Top reviews from other countries
A carne e os vegetais.
A carne, envolvendo o problema moral da matança dos animais e de como isso ocorre de maneira cruel nos grande conglomerados industriais dos Estados Unidos da América.
O milho, como alimento preponderante na alimentação mundial de hoje em dia!
O capim como melhor alimento para o gado e para os galináceos, daí derivando uma melhor qualidade de suas carnes!
A fazenda POLYFACE, como modelo de fazenda criadora de animais para corte, em contraposição às fazendas tipo campos de concentração industriais fecais, dos imensos confinamentos de animais.
E, uma declaração/elogio sobre fazendas de produtores artesanais :"A pura e simples alegria de viver é um dos grandes benefícios propiciados por uma fazenda."
En general la lectura es ágil, hacia el final se pone un tanto aburrida y su discurso sobre la ética de comer animales me pareció muy aburrida, en constraste con el resto del libro.
Creo que es una lectura recomendada para quien desee aprender un poco de cultura de los alimentos, no es un libro de recetas