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

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Editorial reviews

Product Description
A New York Times 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.

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Customer reviews

review by: On My Way date: 2008-10-14 rating:
a delight to be educated through wit and prose
What struck me most while reading this book was discovering along with the writer how little I know about where my food comes from, how it reaches me and what has been done to it along the way. Very rewarding were Pollan's sense of curiosity, courage, determination and integrity in looking at the truth of industrialized food, to pulling the trigger in the forest, hauling hay, standing knee-deep in excrement with "534", and firing up the grill for the sake of having an authentic knowledge, not just a label with a barcode. And it started to bother me that I really had no idea where my (extremely important and life-sustaining) food had come from or how much coordinated effort it took to get it to me.

I know I will never see through the same lens when I step foot in a supermarket, grocery store, convenience store or restaurant. I will think twice about eating corn-fed meat, not for a moral repulsion to eating meat, but for a moral repulsion to the way our country obtains our meat and what they stuff our animals with before we ingest. If our industrial abattoirs cannot be humane, then perhaps we can't call our civilization civilized.

Yes, every eater - herbivore, carnivore, omnivore - should read this book! Pollan has an honest voice and an engaging way with words.

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review by: date: 2008-10-12 rating:
Literally Can't Put this Book Down
This is an amazing book. It may sound extreme, but the information in this is mindblowing.

Not only is it extremely well written, but it explores the different sides of the same topic, giving you multiple perspectives.

I had started reading my friend's copy on a visit, and had to order the book immediately so that I could continue reading it...and have struggled to put the book down every day since.

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review by: Random Reader date: 2008-10-11 rating:
Zeitgeist for Food!
Probably the most important book about the state of food in this country, and maybe the world. Michael Pollan's calm voice is the call to tune in, wake up and choose the food you consume rather than give in to corporate and government default as we have been conditioned to do for the last 5 decades. We don't have many ways to "vote" these days except with our money. Buy and eat locally. Its a more important choice than we know. Thanks, Mr. Pollan for your informative look at how we can regain our food autonomy.

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review by: date: 2008-10-11 rating:
The price of modern agriculture: devastating to the environment and our health
Healing the Rift: Merging Science and Spirituality

As a scientist and biotechnology executive I was intimately involved in the food industry for over a decade and visited agricultural sites in over a dozen countries on four continents. I applaud Pollan's expose' of of modern agriculture's cost.

Michael Pollan exposes the high price we pay for industrialization of food production. The fact that the majority of deaths are caused by the Western diet and many of the major diseases are a result of how and what we eat is incalculable in economic terms. The damage to the environment from industrialized farming is staggering. The sacrifice to food quality and nutritional benefits are explained by Pollan.

A must read! Then get Pollan's In Defense of Food.


review by: captain stardust date: 2008-10-10 rating:
Brilliant and never dull
Pollan is an extraordinary writer: here he takes a subject that could easily be dry as dirt and turns it into a completely absorbing, thought-provoking tour de force. Though very occasionally overwritten, this book is never boring. It will teach every reader to think twice about both the source and the true cost of the food they eat. Recommended reading for absolutely everyone; even more particularly for anyone with a real interest in food or simply in developing their social conscience.

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