Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 394.12 EAN: 9780143038580 ISBN: 0143038583 Label: Penguin Manufacturer: Penguin Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 464 Publication Date: August 28, 2007 Publisher: Penguin Sales Rank: 83 Studio: Penguin
Editorial Review:
Product DescriptionA national bestseller that has changed the way readers view the ecology of eating, this revolutionary book by award winner Michael Pollan asks the seemingly simple question: What should we have for dinner? Tracing from source to table each of the food chains that sustain us— whether industrial or organic, alternative or processed—he develops a portrait of the American way of eating. The result is a sweeping, surprising exploration of the hungers that have shaped our evolution, and of the profound implications our food choices have for the health of our species and the future of our planet.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
It will change the way you think about food. I will never look at a can of corn the same way.
Rating: - Omnivore's Dilema-Moral Confusion
I found Michael Pollan's book to be quite informative and interesting. The strength of the book was the detailing of much of the modern food chain and our dependence on but a very few staple items, namely corn and soy, to supply a very high percentage of our caloric needs. The percentage of our total caloric needs ultimately supplied by corn is quite amazing. There are many interesting facts that should make readers much more interested in a more varied diet, and making sure the food they eat is ... Read More
Rating: - not so much what we eat, but WHO WE ARE
Like any really great natural history, The Omnivore's Dilemma is not so much about what we eat, but who we are. The book has three main sections - highly-processed (corn-driven) food, local/organic food and self-caught food.
The first part on processed food is a thoughtful expose of how culturally removed we've become from the vast majority of the food we consume - removed from its irresponsible calorie content, desensitized to the lives of the animals we consume, and out of touch with ... Read More
Rating: - Purchased but not available
I was disappointed that the book was offered for purchase, but several days later, I was informed that I would reeive a refund because it was not available from the vendor. No offer was made to suggest the book from an alternate source. I had always assumed that if a book was listed, it would be available, and that the listing would be removed when there were no more to be sold.
Rating: - Rethinking Food
As omnivores, this book proposes, our lives are complicated by the question of what to eat in this landscape of plentiful food. The author starts with the most common options--processed supermarket foods and fast food. Tracing these meals backward, he finds an unbelievably tangled system that urges farmers to grow vast amounts of unneeded corn at low prices that are then subsidized by the government. Getting rid of this excess of corn then becomes the driving force behind factory farms, where animals ... Read More