Details
Synopsis
What should we have for dinner? When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from a national eating disorder. As the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous landscape, what's at stake becomes not only our own and our children's health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth. Pollan follows each of the food chains--industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves--from the source to the final meal, always emphasizing our coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on. The surprising answers Pollan offers have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us.--From publisher description., With a straightforward, elegant examination of the agricultural origins of four meals from three different pathways, Michael Pollan, bestselling author of THE BOTANY OF DESIRE, explores how Americans eat. According to Pollan, a lack of cultural cohesion and lengthy history surrounding how and what to eat has caused a "national eating disorder." Tracing the mind-boggling path of corn from seed to plate, Pollen analyzes industrial agriculture after considering the contents of a fast food meal. Then he looks at the pastoral ("organic") food chain by working on a small Virginia farm. Finally, he investigates the hunter-gatherer lifestyle by foraging and hunting, to turn out a meal directly from the original sources of what we eat. His book is a tour de force.
| Size | | Length: | 450 pages | | Height: | 9.5 in | | Width: | 6.8 in | | Thickness: | 1.8 in | | Weight: | 26.4 oz |
Industry Reviews
"Mr. Pollan...wants us at least to know what it is we are eating, where it came from and how it got to our table. He also wants us to be aware of the choices we make and to take responsibility for them. It's an admirable goal, well met in THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA."
(04/14/2006)
"[Pollan's] supermeticulous reporting is the book's strength--you're not likely to get a better explanation of exactly where your food comes from."
(04/23/2006)
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