Annotated Bibliography of 'Omnivore's Dilemma'

American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, is about one man’s journey through the food production system and how he arrives at the conclusion that although hunting and gathering may be an excellent means to keep oneself healthy, it is really up to the individual as to what they are willing to put in their body.

He wants this meal to be hunted, gathered, and all grown by him. Pollan noted that sometimes taking the forager approach to consuming food isn’t a quite efficient way for humans to eat. Pollan figured by partaking in this experiment it would teach him numerous ways about eating foods naturally from the outside world, and not consuming so many foods that had a price tag or

In the second section of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, pastoral grass and “organic foods” are the main focus and many agree that grass is a far better choice for animals that graze. By switching a cows diet back to normal food, will impact the market of food prices because the supply would not be able to keep up with the demand, thus making the food market a disaster, or at least that’s what I picture when I think of the outcome. The demand for beef now is so great that these cattle are being slaughtered at roughly 12 months, that’s not even half of the total life-span they’re supposed to live. A grass fed cow takes about 4-5 years to be ready for some great steaks, but thanks to our wonder crop, “corn”, we can slice that

You open the fridge, the spotlight shines on all of the food, and suddenly you are stuck with the decision of what to eat. Everyone has been in a situation where they didn’t know which food to choose, to help us understand our options better, Michael Pollan created the book, Omnivore's Dilemma. In this book, there is a certain chapter that stands out the most: Chapter 8. Chapter 8 states all the facts about what the “omnivore's dilemma” is. By looking closer into this chapter, the reader goes back to the very question that pioneered this whole idea. The idea that in the modern world, with such a surplus of choices, how do we decide what we should, and what we should not eat? To give us a better idea of how we got here, let's start by finding out how we got to this point in the first place.

In the book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, Pollan introduces some very interesting ideas and positions relating to the how and what we eat. Pollan poses the questions: Is America eating the right kind of food? Is what we are eating healthy? And, where is our food coming from, how is it treated, and what is in the food we eat? Throughout the book Pollan places his own argument alongside the answers to these questions. He moves the reader to reflect on the evidence presented about eating organic foods rather than processed foods. Pollan also puts forth a compelling, and strong argument that contains ideas, like food is of higher quality and has better taste when it is not

Michael Pollan the author of Omnivore 's Dilemma discusses and asks, “what should we have for dinner?” He attempts to answer one of the pressing questions of sustainability in today 's society, to save money or to save the planet, and how? Pollan talks about how humans are omnivores and we have the choice to eat whatever we want, no matter the health and sustainability implications of our decisions. Pollan discusses three main food chains, industrial (corn), organic, and hunter/gatherer. He analyzes each food chain, learning eating industrial is basically eating corn, and goes into the complex issues

What am I exactly eating? Where does our food come from? Why should I care? “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” may forever change the way you think about food. I enjoyed Mr. Pollan’s book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and learned a great deal of information. Pollan’s book is a plea for us to stop and think for a moment about our whole process of eating. Pollan sets out to corn fields and natural farms, goes hunting and foraging, all in the name of coming to terms with where food really comes from in modern America and what the ramifications are for the eaters, the eaten, the economy and the environment. The results are far more than I expected them to be.

In the educative essay “What’s Eating America,” Michael Pollan designates the history of corn, a good and healthy food if cultivated properly. This essay is very informative because it talks about American’s diet. In this essay, Pollan examines the way of growing the corn as an influential example of using the chemical fertilizers in food. Also, He complains “Growing corn, which from a biological perspective had always been a process of capturing sunlight to turn it into food, has in no small measure become a process of converting fossil fuels into food…” (Pollan 302). While it might be very useful when used in a prudent way, in reality the usage of chemical fertilizers is higher and the farmers are feeding their corps more than it needs which affect the ecology’s system. In other words, his focus is on corn and not only does him just points out corn presence in nearly all food products; but he comes up with other matters like fossil fuels and the factories polluting the atmosphere. Thus, it’s astonishing when someone stops and thinks about how many things are composed from corn.

Most environment and health arguments surround the misuse of nitrogen and corn. In “What’s Eating America” Michael Pollan used the classical oration to structure his argument that America depends on nitrogen and corn; his argument consisted of an introduction, background, lines of argument, alternative argument, and a conclusion. The introduction, also known as the exordium is where the writer introduces his subject of argument. In Pollan’s introduction, he starts gaining the readers’ interest by referencing the connection that all societies even America runs on corn. “For the great edifice of variety and choice that is an American supermarket rests on a remarkably narrow biological foundation: corn”. Although, he does

One does not necessarily expect books about food also to be about bigger ideas like oppression, spirituality, and freedom, yet Pollan defies expectations. Pollan begins with an exploration of the food-production system from which the vast majority of American meals are derived. This industrial food chain is mainly based on corn, whether it is eaten directly, fed to livestock, or processed into chemicals such as glucose and ethanol. Pollan discusses how the humble corn plant came to dominate the American diet through a combination of biological, cultural, and political factors. The role of petroleum in the cultivation and transportation the American food supply is also discussed. A fast-food meal is used to illustrate the end result of the

Corn is a mainstay of the diet of livestock as there are no other cheap and plentiful feeds. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations are a direct result of corn subsidies such as the ethanol boom which have been ever-growing in surpluses. There has also been a rise of modern family farms due to the surpluses that soared years after the Second World War as a result of the widespread use of petrochemical fertilizers. A corn diet affects the meat consumed as cows fed on corn develop well-marbled flesh which gives the meat a likeable taste and texture. At the same time this meat is termed unhealthy due to its high content of saturated fat. The fat is unhealthy and believed to promote heart diseases. There is also numerous health problems associated

In the society today, most people eat more of organic food to food produced with chemicals. This means people rely on products that are 100 percent natural. One of the most natural food eaten by Americans is meat. As a matter of fact, most of the meat eaten today originates from cattle. To make maters worst, it has issues when it comes to production. In most feed yards, cattle’s are fed grain to grow fatter and bigger before being slaughtered, the conditions are terrible and horrifying. Thing brought up a lot of questions within me. I wondered why cattle’s deviated from eating grass to corn and why they did? Do the cattle’s suffer from infection after eating the corn? Should human be bothered about the way the cattle’s are grown? Is it necessary

I will be addressing an argument that proves the importance of adopting a plant-based diet for ones health and the environment. I will be focusing on the benefits of refraining from animal products and the many health issues that come along with a meat-eaters diet. Beyond the health of the body, I will then reflect on how the entire world is affected by the diet of mankind and how important it is to refrain from continuing this reckless way of living. My argument addressing the importance of adopting a plant-based diet is in direct correlation with my environmental studies major focusing on environmental issues surrounding the consumption and production of animal products. Environmental studies focuses on all of the key points that I have chosen to concentrate on in my persuasive essay such as deforestation, greenhouse gases, the depletion of natural resources, scarcity of fresh water and harvesting fossil fuels in relation to climate change.

Consumption of meat by humans creates several problems. First and foremost, raising animals for food compromises the environment. For example, it takes a large amount of natural resources to sustain the meat industry. The use of water, land, and food to raise animals for human consumption is not an efficient use of our limited resources. In contrast, it is more efficient to feed humans directly than to use land, food, and water to feed animals to be used as food. There are shortages of fertile land, clean water, and food in several third world countries. Many of these countries’ resources are allocated to produce feed for animals in developed countries around the world. As a result, the citizens of these countries are stricken with water and food shortages, while their crops are feeding cattle from across the globe. However, this problem can be solved by adopting a vegan diet. The vegan diet will allow a more efficient use of resources that in turn can be used to feed starving men, women, and children throughout the world. Consequently, more people in the world could be fed if the land used to grow feed for animals was used to grow food for humans.