Summary Of Chapter Twelve Of The Omnivore 's Dilemma

The answers Pollan offers to the seemingly straightforward question posed by this book have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us. Beautifully written and thrillingly argued, The Omnivore’s Dilemma promises to change the

At Polyface Farm they process their own chickens. Pollan writes “Joel insist on slaughtering chickens on the farm” (172) This shows how it is done efficiently by the farmer, Joel, himself versus Industrial food chains where they waste fossil fuels transporting the animals and products. Also everything starts with one plant, grass. “But if you ask joel salatin what he does for a living he’ll say ‘I’m a grass farmer’” This shows that it is economically efficient because Joel doesn’t purchas feed, it just naturally grows everywhere. Polyface Farms is a prime example of a perfect food source for

In my first year of college I have been introduced to copious amounts of new information and topics that had never crossed my mind. Becoming familiar with new ideas, food production and it’s impacts of the environment both locally and globally became of interest to me. I have been a vegetarian for about four years and as I have attended college I have learned more about the state of the issue with food production and sustainability. When presented with the list of books for our independent project Omnivore 's Dilemma immediately jumped at me. When Pollan stated in the introduction, “Farming and food industry produces even more greenhouse gases than all forms of transportation put together; the way you eat affects the world more than anything else you do,” I was hooked.

The second section to be reviewed is the fourth chapter. In the fourth chapter, Pollan talks about “The Feedlot” where he ends up at a feedlot in Garden City, Kansas. Pollan had purchased a calf and housed it there with the intentions of finding out how bushels of corn are transferred into steaks. Most of the commodity corn in America goes to feeding livestock. In the past, livestock would strictly eat grass and now they are being forced to eat corn creating “cheap meat” that many of us find

What am I exactly eating? Where does our food come from? Why should I care? “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” may forever change the way you think about food. I enjoyed Mr. Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and learned a great deal of information. Pollan’s book is a plea for us to stop and think for a moment about our whole process of eating. Pollan sets out to corn fields and natural farms, goes hunting and foraging, all in the name of coming to terms with where food really comes from in modern America and what the ramifications are for the eaters, the eaten, the economy and the environment. The results are far more than I expected them to be.

Have you ever walked down the grocery store aisle and wondered where your chicken comes from? Or if the ham you just bought is healthier for your family, than the other brand of ham you saw? In “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, Michael Pollan states that there are four different food chains. They’re the industrial, the industrial organic, the local sustainable, and the hunter-gatherer food chains. I believe that the best food chain for everyone in the United States would be the local sustainable. The local sustainable food chain is the best for the United States because it is better for the animal, and better for the environment. Although the local sustainable food chain would take a long time to get used to, it would be the best option for the United States.

In the book Omnivore's Dilemma, author Michael Pollan explains the many deficits that he perceives in the ways in which food is distributed in the United States of America. Pollan's harshest criticisms are aimed at the food production companies and the ways in which they have bastardized the natural system of food production and turned it into a system which is dependent on fossil fuels; specifically the way that processed corn has become a staple of food products including how it is used as a substitute for grass in the feeding of cattle and as corn syrup and similar derivatives to be used to unnaturally preserve packaged food products. Omnivore's Dilemma does make an interesting point about the denaturalization of the food industry, but Michael Pollan overlooks the many benefits of the current system of food production, which allows humans to produce more food on less land than in pre-industrial agriculture which in turn allows for greater sustenance to the human consumer. Additionally, the proposals that Pollan makes are simply not feasible. He believes that the United States should change from an industrialized food distribution system to a model which only uses local produce, a proposal which is not economically logical, particularly in this aggressively depressed economy.

In the Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan addresses a wide variety of issues concerning America’s food culture and the single, foundational ingredient; corn. The overproduction and overabundance of corn in America presents an array of issues, the least of these being the ethical implications of such an inflated surplus.

A prime example of this phenomena is that both authors have loud voices on the topic of the animal’s interests. Free-range farming is what Pollan believes in, claiming that it is the most humane and correct way, as animals have a need and want to stretch and exercise. Meanwhile, Hurst upholds the fact that animals kill animals, and that without a cage of some sort, animals will die from any of the following: drowning when they look up in a rainstorm, being crushed by their mothers, or being assassinated by the bloodthirsty lords that are weasels. Secondly, both agri-experts stubbornly combat for who has the better “best idea of farming” while simultaneously relating with the fact that they both believe that the other is horribly wrong. Pollan believes that The way to fix farming is by going completely natural, so that GMOs no longer exist and produce is pure. On the complete opposite side of the dispute, Blake Hurst asserts that there is nothing wrong with the way farming is done in America; he believes that the way that he cultivates his crops is the perfect medium of connectedness to nature and satisfaction of the customer, while in other method would result in guaranteed starvation. Lastly, the competitors both believe that they have the public’s best interest in mind and that they

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan was written to oppose the common misunderstanding of Americans as a whole on what we should eat when options are so plentiful. The book begins by asking a straightforward rhetorical question projected to make the reader think on a more personal level how they would answer this. Pollan asks, “What should we have for dinner?”, Then goes on to elaborate just how difficlut the answer is. Pollan breaks down the book into three main sections being “Industrial Corn”, “Pastoral Grass”, and “The Forest”. Within each section he goes on 4 different eating adventures. Throughout each section he does an excellent job going into great detail to convince the omnivores of America that ultimately we need to have a

According to Pollan, the Omnivore's Dilemma is that we don’t know what to eat because we are humans. Making it hard because we need to eat a large variety of foods in order to stay healthy. We can eat anything from almost anywhere on the globe, all year round. The things that may keep us going, aren't always the best for our health and happiness. Therefore making it hard for us to chose what to eat.

The second section to be reviewed is chapter seven. In this chapter, Pollan and his family visit a McDonald’s. In truth, industrial meals make up the food chain from which most of us eat so it only makes sense to find out what that food really is. The first thing that stood out to me was that his wife’s salad was

Pollan examines how Salatin sells his food and his visions of agriculture. The food that are sold from Polyface Farm cost more than compared at supermarkets. Salatin argues that the way he grows his food is actually cheaper to produce than the way industrial food is produce. Pollan decides to look into how Salatin’s food is sold. He examines the reasons why the consumer buy from Salatin instead of supermarkets. Pollan found out that some consumers prefer Salatin chicken because of the better quality of taste. Salatin brother is the one who showcases the eggs to local restaurants in order to get sells to expand the business. Pollan makes a distinction between artisanal and industrial farming. Salatin consider the farm antithetical. The operation

As the planet grows so does our appetite, feeding this massive planet we live on requires more than millions but 50 billion farm animals to be slaughtered every year. Although, there is this phenomenon where our society may love animals yet participate in a diet that demands them to also be killed.

Polyface demonstrates the logic and benefits of the ecological operation of agriculture. According to Anderson (2013), the market economies emphasize monoculture, but the cash crops and animals lack the flavor and texture of the old varieties; farmers advocating ecology maximize the number of varieties in the farm (p. 91). The chicken fed with corn at McDonald’s tastes like nuggets, but the chicken at Polyface Farms tastes exactly like chicken (Pollan, 2006). This is because Joel Salatin is an ecologically sound farmer and he allows all animals to grow naturally. He grows different varieties of grass, raises a wide range of animals, and plants trees as well. The food produced in the local and ecological farm is apparently healthier and better for the environment than the industrial food.