Jasmine Ho
Mr. Hayes
English 1A17
28th
March 2013
Word Count: 1546
Now, what food will you pick?
Michelle Pollan, an American author
of several best-selling books on foods and nutrition, tries to answer this
simple question through his book, The
Omnivore’s Dilemma – A Natural History of Four Meals. Pollan did not tell readers directly how to choose what food to eat. In fact,
he divided the book to three sections, including “industrial,” “pastoral,” and
“personal.” He begins with the
exploration of the food production system, which a majority of American meals
are derived. In this section, he unfolds
an astonishing fact that the majority of food we find in supermarkets or
restaurants “turns out to rest on a remarkably narrow biological foundation
comprised of a tiny group of plants, Zea mays (corn)” (18). Pollan spends a
long chapter in telling readers how human are now living under corn. From coffee whitener to ethanol, from cake
mixes to toothpastes, from canned fruit to vitamin tablets, almost everything
in our daily life are made of corn. In
the “pastoral” section, Pollan focuses on organic farming. Each topic or issue
that is related to organic farming, like what is meant by organic food, how
should consumers read food labels, how the “organic” fruits and vegetables we
found in supermarkets or grocery stores are actually grown etc., are discussed
in-depth. In
the last section,
“personal,” Pollan shares his experience of preparing and adopting vegetarian
meals for him and his family, his management of his very own organic farm. By writing out these unique experiences,
Pollan wants to invite the readers to virtually experience his experience of
“meal at the end of the shortest food chain at all” (277). He wants to show us how we can integrate the
theoretical information mentioned in the previous two chapters into our real
lives.
When readers read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, they might feel that this book seems to be
a book simply mentioning facts of the food production industry, organic farming
etc., however this is not the entire picture of the text.
In each of the three sections mentioned
above, Pollan permeates his personal opinions, orientation, and arguments in
between lines and words throughout the entire book. For instance, in the
“Pastoral” chapter, he comments on the growing popularity of “supermarket
pastoral” (134) literature after his observation in Whole Foods Supermarket. He mentions that there is an increasing number
of households choose to purchase organically grown produces in supermarkets,
not because they realize the benefits of eating organically, but mainly because
of the market trend.
Pollan makes a very fair argument in this
section. I support his analyze on this
current trend from the angle of ordinary consumers, explaining that it is not
the sole responsibility of
consumers in resulting the “supermarket pastoral”
culture. In The Art of Simple Food, the mother of American food, Alice Waters,
greatly advocates “slow food movement” in the States, which she believes, is
“essential for both taste and the health of the environment and local
communities” (25). Her active advocacy
raised the trend of the consumption of organic food. Indeed, the general public knows that organic
food is beneficial to both society and our health; however, they have no idea
how to identify, or even where to purchase the “real” organic food. Supermarket is the place that they can access
to a variety of food in daily lives.
This created the business opportunity for food producers in marketing so
called “organic” food in maximizing their profits.
Furthermore, in the “Personal” session,
Pollan wants to let the readers understand that we human could “eat by the
grace of nature, not industry” by sharing his “organic” experience with
readers. The ultimate goal that Pollan
wants to achieve, in my interpretation, is to raise a “food revolution.” A
“food revolution” means, starting off from the three meals in a day, we try our
best in having a balance of contributing to the “health” of the Earth and the
pursuit of tastiness.
In my opinion, Pollan’s concept of “food
revolution” and Waters’ "slow food movement” shares a similar spirit. Both of them want to educate the public that,
the most precious food are not foie gras, truffles, caviar from a Michelin
three-star restaurant, but plump fruits in their natural colors, self-grown
vegetables, fresh eggs, healthy cattle and sheep being grazed on meadows. For our health and maintaining the ecological
balance, we should eat more organic produce and fisheries and livestock raised
under sustainable management, which the farmers do not rely on the destruction
of the environment for their profit. In
order to achieve carbon reduction, we can try to consume produces grown in the
nearby areas in where we are living; this could lower the consumption of fossil
fuels in transportation. Concerning the labor rights, people should support
fair trade, promotion of food production under conditions of equality and
reciprocity. If
everyone holds the principle of "fine",
"clean", and "fair", the food revolution raised by Pollan
would be able to disseminate from the market, the kitchen, and on the table.
The Father of Modern Anthropology, Claude
Lévi-Strauss, once stated, “food is good to eat, and to think.” “Food” is a very broad topic. It involves a
lot of issues in different perspectives.
Without “thinking” before we eat, we will keep living under the
“unhealthy” loop of food production now existing in the society. Without thinking, we will keep exploiting the
normal functioning of the food chain. Without thinking, we as consumers foster
the abnormal development of the food industry.
Thinking in eating not only helps us to clarify our “food orientation,”
but also assist us to know and understand more about our society and ourselves.
The
Omnivore’s Dilemma
starts off as an inquiry that leads into persuasion and convince. In the
beginning, Pollan asks questions which “legwork (research) is needed in order to
answer them” (12). The questions are
mainly his concerns on the source of our food and how are food processed before
they are sold supermarkets. Pollan then investigates
the food product to answer the question marks in his head. In this part, he integrates lots of “they
says” in his description of the behind the scene of food processing. The
insertion of what local farmers, food manufacturers, Secretary of Agriculture
etc. says implies what Pollan tries to “inhabit the world view of those whose
conversation you [he] is joining, try to see their argument from their
perspectives” (31). Along the long
section of the food-
manufacturing story, Pollan starts to persuade and convince
you that the way of eating and living of majority of people is unhealthy. His persuasion is not simply achieving in
winning the readers’ support towards his claim, but he also tries to “brings
about change in the world” (242) as mentioned in The Aims of Argument by Cruises and Channel. As mentioned above, one of the ultimate goals
of Pollan in writing this book is to make readers reflect their current life
style and their food orientation after going through all the unknown facts of
food.
All in all, The Omnivore’s Dilemma is an
easy-to-read book. The topic of it has a
very close relationship with our daily lives, which can easily attract
student’s attention to it and have the interest to read such a long length
book. Though this book tends to be more
of a factual-based, various kinds of argumentative writing skills and
techniques are implied throughout the chapters.
However, how Pollan convinces and persuades readers in supporting his
claims is relatively implicit and subtle comparing to other authors, who write
their books in a very strong argumentative style. This might be difficult to learners who are
new to the concepts raised in The Aims of
Argument and They Say/I Say. They might encounter difficulties in
identifying the various characteristics mentioned in the two textbooks. Therefore, I do not think this book is
appropriate as a teaching text for an English 1A course; however, as a leisure
book, I would highly recommend it to all teenage and adult readers.
Works Cited
Crusis, Timothy W. and Channel, Carolynn
E. The Aims of Argument: A Brief Guide.
7th ed. New York: Mc Graw Hill, 2011. Print.
Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in
Academic Writing. 2nd ed. New York: Norton & Company, Inc.,
2010. Print.
Pollan, Michael. The
Omnivore’s Dilemma – The Natural History of Four Meals. New York; Penguin Group (USA), 2006. Print.
Waters,
Alice. The Art of Simple Food. New
York; Clarkson Potter, 2007. Print.
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