Although Pollan condemns conventional agriculture, he also notes that even organically-labeled food is often grown in a manner that is not much better for the environment in terms of its carbon footprint -- the regulations upon what constitutes organic food can be quite lax, and some foods that use some pesticides that are grown locally and sold in farmer's markets might not be technically organic, but leave less of a carbon footprint. As part of the research for his book, Pollan visits a commercial organic farm, which is just as mechanized as a standard commercial farm, and just as large and labor-intensive. Commercial agriculture, Pollan implies, grew to satisfy a marketing demand, not out of ideology. Consumers are gradually growing uncomfortable with the evident environmental implications of their choices and wish to 'do something,' even though they are unsure as to what that 'something' should be, and many buy commercial organic food to assuage their guilt.
Pollan is most approving of a farmer in Virginia who runs an entirely sustainable farm, using no pesticides -- even the chickens pecking at the manure break down the animal feces to fertilize the soil. This farmer, Joel Salatin, describes himself as a fundamentalist Christian who is spearheading a 'back to the land' movement, and hopes to raise a farm how he believes God intended livestock and produce to be raised. Because of the quality of the food Salatin produces, based upon traditional agricultural...
Omnivore's Dilemma In recent years social historians have began to delve into more and more minute topics about the way humans interact within their social and natural world, and most especially how certain everyday objects and actions have had a grand affect upon the way society and culture changes. In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan uses the tools of both history and anthropology to uncover that it is that concerns humans
Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan: Socio-Economic Influences of Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian Diets Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, discussed the social, economic, and geographic/environmental factors that influenced humanity's diets, of which eating both plants and animals -- an omnivorous diet -- is the predominant diet in most of today's societies. However, in the midst of this omnivorous diet is an emerging group of
Omnivore's Dilemma: Part I: Industrial/Corn "the Omnivore's Dilemma" - review Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is not necessarily meant to put across breakthrough information or to trigger intense feelings in individuals reading it. Instead, it is actually intended to provide important information so as for readers to be able to gain a more complex understanding regarding what foods would be healthy for them to eat and how they can develop the
But the larger-scale solution of Whole Foods is not much better than industrialization -- organic farming has become corporatized and industrialized, and many farmers' free-range chickens are not part of an ecosystem like Salatin, but merely meet federally regulated requirements to have a few more inches to move than their commercially farmed brethren. 'Big Organic' pioneers like the CEO of Cascadian Farms drive Lexuses with ORANIC as their vanity
Moreover, vegetarianism is theoretically possible at McDonalds by eating the token salads on the menu. The token salads might still be in keeping with the tenets of agro-business but they do not contain meat products. Still, Pollan hints at how those salads support the same industries that sustain large-scale animal slaughtering. In Chapter Seven, Pollan focuses on the ethics and the feasibility of the fast food business model as well
Omnivore Science is a neutral human pursuit. It is only the application of science that raises potential ethical questions. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle perfectly exposes the ways science can be manipulated by the hands of its sponsors. Money determines the nature of research, its methodologies, its findings, and its applications. Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma raises similar ethical questions and concerns, focused not on the military but on the food
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