The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Horn Tooting Scale: 5 Toots of the Scale

• 1 toot for being name by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2006
• 2 toots for being a rational look at American food systems
• 3 toots for teaching me about #2 corn and its myriad derivatives
• 4 toots for reinforcing my vegetarian diet
• 5th toot for being the best nonfiction book that I've read in years

Points of Interest:

• The rise of corn in America: the industry, the hybridization, the derivatives, the uses it is put to. WOW!!!!
• That America in the late 18th century was boozehound territory. Look up "elevenses". US employers used to have to supply corn whisky for their employees to sip throughout the day
• Factory meat is DISGUSTING! Yuck.
• Mushrooms are mysterious and could be a source of lunaries (calories are units of energy derived from the sun) - yes, I made up the term
• much much more

Synopsis:

Michael Pollan examines three different food systems. First, he looks into the factory farming system, beginning with an Iowa industrial corn farm, following the corn as it is processed into an incredible array of products, follows a steer from his birthplace to his life on a CAFO (confined animal feeding operation), his forced digestion of corn (when nature equipped him to eat grass) with all of the horrors that occur to the cow and to the human consumer that arise from this diet, and then into a McDonald's for a Supersized meal. This was the first, and I thought the best, section of the book. It explores the military-industrial complex in relation to our food supply, hits on the environmental calamities that occur as a result of letting market forces decide what we eat, and examines the politics of agriculture. It was amazing. I want to go back and reread that section.

The second section focuses on grass and on sustainable, local farming. It is mostly an account of Michael's visit to a small farm outside of Washington DC where everything is done by hand by an eccentric and opinionated small farmer, Joel Salatin. Joel's "grass" farm is held up as a model of how our food could and maybe should be grown. It is interesting that Joel has been able to come up with so many innovative ideas, and I loved the description of making compost and of the movable hen houses. However, I found little to no applicability to my own life. Mostly, Joel's farming method is about how to raise meat animals without negative environmental impact. I don't eat meat. I have no intention of ever eating another chicken, pig or cow. So, while I appreciate that these animals are much healthier for meat-eating society that the CAFO raised ones, it's an academic argument to me.

The third segment of the book is a look at the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Michael hunts and shoots a wild boar, gathers 2 types of mushrooms, various fruits and veg, and collects yeast from the air. He also tries for salt from the San Francisco Bay, but finds it to be inedible. This section was especially interesting to me because I live in San Francisco, and all of this gathering occurred in the Bay Area. I especially would like to try to make my own yeast and bread after reading the description in this book. I would also really like to learn how to safely gather mushrooms. However, I have no intention of taking up gardening or of going hunting. The author admits that this lifestyle is no longer possible or even recommended in modern society, but something about being able to gather one's own food still resonates with my monkey brain. Independence from the food supply system is quite attractive.

Overall, this is an absolute must read book. I can not believe that it took me so long to get around to reading it. It is definitely a book to brag about!