In the final section of the book, author Michael Pollan attempts to prepare a meal by gathering all of the ingredients himself. In the chapter called Forager, Michael talks about how he wants his meal to feature all three edible kingdoms: animal, vegetable, and fungi. He will hunt, gather, or grow all the ingredients needed for his final meal.
In the end he makes a salad out of the greens from his own garden, and makes bread using wild yeast. He feels that this meal will help us to “reconnect us with the natural origins of food and also human history”.He also stated that “agriculture brought humans a great many blessings, but it also brought infectious diseases”. This links back to what we have been studying in class. Agriculture has dramatically changed over the years as technology has advanced. Farmers are now adding all of these nutrients and pesticides to plants to try and promote growth, but it has also brought harmful bacteria.
One of the most interesting chapters to me was the America’s National Eating Disorder. He talks about how our culture of food has totally changed over the years. We went from having family home cooked meals to eating fast food every night.Now America’s eating traditions have changed to having a fast food dinner at McDonalds.
He makes a good point in the chapter stating “we find ourselves as a species almost back where we started: anxious omnivores struggling once again to figure out what it is wise to eat”. I personally feel that this is true. America’s eating habits have completely changed over the years, and the amount of obesity increases every year. I think this is a very important part in the book and that America needs to slow down our eating habits and take time to enjoy a healthy meal.In the chapter the ethics of eating animals I instantly became intrigued when he began talking about Peter Singers Animal Liberation book. I am currently studying animal rights in my values class.
We frequently have debates in our class about how many rights animals should receive and is it ethical to kill for food. In Peter Singers book he changes the minds of many meat eaters to vegetarians. One of the most important things that Michael Pollan states in this chapter is that humans differ from animals in morally significant ways. I personally feel that hunting is morally acceptable.We are humans and are at the top of the food chain, it is our natural instinct to kill if hungry. I was very engaged at the end of the chapter when he talked about how if we didn’t kill as many animals it would get more expensive but when we did eat animals we’d eat them with consciousness, ceremony, and the respect they deserve (Pollan, 2007).
I gained a lot of knowledge from reading this book. I have a totally new outlook of the food industry and everything that happens behind closed doors. The book had a lot of connection with our class.It talked about how agriculture has changed over the years and how important soil is to our everyday lives.
I now have different outlook on food and I believe the saying “you are what you eat”. Before I sit down and eat my dinner, I actually wonder where the food came from. Omnivore’s Dilemma also links politics and food together. There are so many regulations placed on food and farming. I was unaware of many of the regulations until I read this book. Overall I think it was a really good book and I learned a lot of about the food industry that I didn’t know previously.
