Search - The Omnivore's Dilemma : A Natural History of Four Meals

This is a book everyone should read. Eating is nutritional, is political, is global and we should never be ignorant about how we nourish our bodies. Pollan has provided a great assessment of modern eating.

This is a fascinating account of the origins of three types of meals - a fast food meal, an organic meal, and one composed of foods hunted and gathered by the author. This book could almost be seen as a sequel to Fast Food Nation: it is similar in format and both books are very readable. However, after reading this book you will feel guilty not only about eating Chicken McNuggets (who really believed that spongy white filling was chicken anyway?) but also about buying organic South American asparagus from Whole Foods and eggs from supposedly free range chickens at Safeway.
Unfortunately, not all of us have the luxury of being a published author, so that we can forage for morels, hunt wild boar, and capture yeast from the air around our neighborhoods in order to spend multiple days preparing slow food meals for our friends. Indeed, this type of elitism and the fact that foods obtained from sustainable farming sources are not affordable to many may turn some readers off to this book. That is unfortunate, because I don't think the author intends to imply that people are good or bad for eating a certain way - in my opinion, this book is more a call to THINK about what you eat, and make choices that you are comfortable with when you can.
Even if all of us only occasionally bought locally grown products from sustainable farms it would make a big difference... and I think that is what the author is trying to say. Make whatever choices you like, but at least make them informed choices.

A brilliant and important book, which despite its weightiness, is very readable - Pollan as narrator is open, likeable, and never condescending. Every American ought to read this book...it's the first step toward reform of the fast-failing agricultural system in this country.

The first sections offers excellent insight into the origins of the food in the supermarket and how corn rose to become the basis for almost everything there. Section two details how industrialized agriculture works and why you might not want to eat the product, and contrasts that with the humane conditions and transparent slaughter performed on Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm, where the author stays for a brief time learning the ropes. The section also contains information on the coopting of the organic movement by agribusiness, and the conclusion that buying local from a farmer you know and whose farm you can inspect is the best option. Section three follows Pollan on an adventure in procuring his own "foraged" meal consisting of a boar he has hunted, mushrooms he has found, and vegetables he has grown himself. Interspersed with these stories is some in depth philosophy about making eating choices (including vegetarianism, which the author experiments with briefly), which makes the section worthwhile. Altogether an excellent book which I recommend to anyone who eats.