| | The Omnivore's Dilemma |  | Author: Michael Pollan
Publisher: Penguin Highbridge (Aud)
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy Used: $25.05
You Save: $14.90 (37%)
Used (3) from $25.05
Avg. Customer Rating:  466 reviews
Sales Rank: 5690924
ISBN: 0786564202
Dewey Decimal Number: 613
EAN: 9780786564200
ASIN: 0786564202
Publication Date: April 11, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Cover has a crease. Expedited shipping is not available for this item. Items are mailed via USPS media mail within 2 business days and should arrive 4-14 business days later.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 A few interesting ideas, padded out to book length December 7, 2006
61 out of 75 found this review helpful
I loved Pollan's "Botany of Desire," which is full of interesting ideas and new perspective. So I had high hopes for "Omnivore's Dilemma". I was terribly disappointed. I found this book often dull, repetitive, and thinly and superficially researched. Pollan aims to present a perspective on industrial vs. small scale agriculture and food production, mostly from a very personal and subjective point of view. I think that by and large Pollan finds his own reactions and impressions much more interesting than the scientific or economic foundations of the topic that he is studying. Others may enjoy this, but I don't. The technical facts take a back seat -- and many of the facts he mentions are actually only half true at best. Large sections of the book, especially toward the latter half, are dedicated entirely to Pollan's own navel-gazing as he considers his own cooking, whether he should become a vegetarian, the smell of a dead animal, etc. It just gets dull. Pollan also pads out the chapters by repeating certain ideas and phrases over and over: how many times do we have to read that the free ranging chickens laid "tasty eggs"? This is one of those books that would be twice as good if it were only half as long. Meanwhile he barely touches some of the key issues -- What are the implications of an industrial food chain that is essentially a machine for converting fossil fuel energy into food calories? Can a traditional midwestern corn farmer actually convert to an "organic" or artisanal model of food production? That's what I'd like to know, and I certainly didn't learn it from this book.
 Is it Truth or Fiction? Representative Examples, Please. July 26, 2006
59 out of 98 found this review helpful
Pollan's book lacks balance. He uses two farmers in Iowa (who between them farm <1000 acres) as exemplary of all corn farmers -- overfertilizing, using either new equipment they cannot afford or old equipment that damages their hearing, wearing out the soil, etc. My midwestern farm-raised parents laughed out loud, countering with as many stories of well managed farms whose founding family owners are doing quite nicely, thank you, without raping the land.
In the section on pastoral farming, he uses the example of a farmer who will not ship product from Virginia to New York because of the inherent conflict of using fuel to ship 'truly organic' food such a long way, but who invites Pollan to drive down and pick some up - which would use proportionally more fuel than Fedex'ing the damn chicken.
The historical and scientific discussions are interesting, and (no pun intended) food for thought, but the lack of factual basis inferred by Pollan's generalizations makes the veracity of these discussions difficult to accept.
 Corn: The vinyl of food April 15, 2006
41 out of 47 found this review helpful
I never gave much thought to seeing so much corn growing in Ohio, but come to think of it, I really never have seen many other crops aside from some soybeans. Until I read "The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals", I had only the vaguest idea what "they" did with all that corn. Sure, I knew they made artificial sugar for soft drinks from the stuff. And there's margarine. And there's corn on the cob. But that can't explain why there's so much corn being grown. Until Pollan set me straight, I had no idea that corn was the "vinyl" of foodstuffs, that it permeates the entire food chain, and that every piece of meat we eat is "corn-fed." Jeez, I thought cows ate grass. I think I was 40 years behind the times, and I thank Michael Pollan for educating me about our industrial food chain, its vulnerabilities and its hidden costs.
An otherwise fascinating and readable book is marred by numerous typographical and factual errors, unfortunately. For example, "Muscles" instead of "Mussels" - even a city boy knows the difference. And why does Pollan think Carbon is the most common element in the human body? Excluding Hydrogen, wouldn't it be Oxygen? - since we're mostly water?
Many thanks to NPR's "Fresh Air" (April 11, 2006) for introducing me to the book and author.
Suffers from what it decries October 21, 2006
40 out of 53 found this review helpful
This book has some very interesting information in it. The main message is that we are using one foodstuff in America in so many ways that it leads to bloat -- too much available cheap processed food, too many calories, exaggerated serving sizes to connote value, and a lack of a food culture strong enough to resist the confusion sown by food marketers. Great points! However, the author suffers from what he decries. What should have been a lean, mean 175 pages turns into a bloated and meandering tome, boring in too many spots, while losing the thread more often than not. Just because words come cheaply, and because people are impressed by (and will presumably pay a higher price for) a large serving of text doesn't mean that it is good for any of us. Yet, there wasn't an editorial culture strong enough at his publisher to fight this off. Shame. If an abridged version ever came out, it would be worth reading. But, the serving size needs to be halved. This is the Big Gulp version of what could have fit in a demitasse.
Does everyone believe everything they read? October 22, 2007
39 out of 86 found this review helpful
I'm a dairy farmer. I read the book for my book club.I'm the only person involved in agriculture in the club.Michael Pollan is a journalist selling a book and he plays fast and loose with many facts (One example. Mc Donald's doesn't use butane on it's packaging..how does he get away with that???). Somehow that doesn't seem to bother many people as long as they can beat up on the industry that has actually (not figuratively) kept them alive.He uses the term "industrial" when he refers to large agriculture, as if industrial is a dirty word.The industrial revolution brought us out the dark ages and gave millions of people jobs.Nothing's perfect and industries including agriculture need supervision and controls.That's society's and government's job.Agriculture in the United States has done what has been asked of it and much more.Our food is safer and cleaner and cheaper than it has ever been and now every accident or contamination incident is blown out of proportion.Small scale farms cannot feed the US..mainly because short of forcing people at gunpoint to go back to Grandpa's farm ( and time)few people want to work on farms.We know we try to hire people to milk cows.Michael Pollan is a joke to Ag.Policy experts.He's selling books people.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
