“Eating’s not a bad way to get to know a place,” according to Michael Pollan. This said after he created a meal entirely by hunting and gathering the food himself. Of the meals explored in this book, this surely seemed to please him the most. Most certainly, this statement referred to eating food local to the area, not just a local restaurant.
The omnivore’s dilemma, as described by Pollan is essentially having the ability to eat a wide variety of foods presents the omnivore with the possibility of choosing wrong or deadly foods. From the primal fear of gathering an instantly deadly berry or mushroom in the forest to modern debates on what foods will kill us over a longer period of time, we are forced to think about what we eat.
One of the more interesting premises in the book is that cultural eating habits are essentially ways that omnivores over time are able to create a safe cuisine based on location through trial and error. America, having no distinct cultural cuisine is especially susceptible to fad diets as a result.
Aside from that, the discourse on the approach to mass food production and the effect on the nutritional quality of livestock was very effective. I never really thought about the effect, for example, of forcing animals to eat foods (corn primarily) that they naturally can’t without getting sick just because it pushes the ‘right’ metric.
At times Pollan heads toward a bleeding-hearted sappiness that undermines otherwise very interesting observations. In many of these times he saves himself by admitting as much. Even with these moments, I walked away from this book completely impressed by his writing and findings.
I highly recommend this book.