The Omnivore's Dilemma

“To wash down your chicken nuggets with virtually any soft drink in the supermarket is to have some corn with your corn.”

The book’s attention to the grass crop in the opening chapter is executed with intention. Pollan shows how corn has infiltrated and dominated the global food market. He asks his readers to participate in a thought experiment which reveals the substantial number of food and non-food products corn has pervaded.

“So the plague of cheap corn goes on, impoverishing farmers (both here and in the countries to which we export it), degrading the land, polluting the water, and bleeding the federal treasury, which now spends up to $5 billion a year subsidizing cheap corn.”

The theme “The Cost of Convenience” highlights how industrialized food production has widespread ramifications. In Chapter 2, Pollan explores how the domination of corn production has led to many negative outcomes, including those described in this passage, as well as the vanishing Iowa population, alteration of natural landscapes, and contributions to global warming.

“What’s involved in absorbing all this excess biomass goes a long way toward explaining several seemingly unconnected phenomena, from the rise of factory farms and the industrialization of our food, to the epidemic of obesity and prevalence of food poisoning in America, to the fact that in the country where Zea mays was originally domesticated, campesinos descended from those domesticators are losing their farms because imported corn, flooding in from the North, has become too cheap.”

Pollan encourages the reader to consider industrialized food production through a naturalist lens. What may seem at first like a series of small choices expands outwardly in drastic ways. The increase in corn production has global ramifications, and those small decisions which contributed to the rise in the crop’s prominence also contributed adversely to the health and safety of humans and the planet. Here, Pollan suggests that industrialized food production has created a paradox where the food that sustains is also the product that destroys. In Mexico, where corn has long held a place of reverence and honor, Northern crops have pushed out the ability of Mexican farmers to successfully make a profit, contributing once more to “The Cost of Convenience.”

“For one thing, the health of these animals is inextricably linked to our own by that web of relationships.”

In this chapter, Pollan considers the phrase “You are what you eat.” He wonders what corn and meat production says about who humans are. Chapter 4 contributes to the theme “Food as Connection to the Natural World.” Industrialized agriculture attempts to separate the consumer from the farm, animals, and plants. However, visual separation does not mean that humans and what they eat are not entirely intertwined. Pollan shows how the decline in health of animals and plants translates to a decline in health of humans.

“This is where we come in. It takes a certain kind of eater—an industrial eater—to consume these fractions of corn, and we are, or have evolved into, that supremely adapted creature: the eater of processed food.”

In this chapter, Pollan describes the laborious process of milling and refining corn into its most basic substances. The highly-organized and complex system reveals further contributions to the theme of “The Logic of Nature vs. The Logic of Man.” The natural world offers a plant that is rich in nutrients and that is responsible for the success of many populations of people who struggled to find food in the past. However, humans have taken this simple food and overcomplicated it, contributing to their own moral, ethical, and bodily decline.

“That perhaps is what the industrial food chain does best: obscure the histories of the foods it produces by processing them to such an extent that they appear as pure products of culture rather than nature—things made from plants and animals.”

Pollan highlights some of the major issues of modern food systems and processes. This quotation exemplifies an important component of the theme “Food as Connection to the Natural World.” By severing the relationship between food and its natural sources, the food industry can pump out food-like products without question. These products become a part of culture, ingrained in the daily life of humans. They are identified as qualifiers of what it means to be a human in a specific place and time and, therefore, become of larger and more permeating importance.

“I mentioned earlier that all life on earth can be viewed as a competition for the energy captured by plants and stored in carbohydrates, energy we measure in calories. There is a limit to how many of those calories the world’s arable land can produce each year, and an industrial meal of meat and processed food consumes—and wastes—an unconscionable amount of that energy.”

This passage provides an answer to the question, “So what?” After meticulously detailing what goes into a fast-food meal and the processes that support its manufacture, Pollan reveals how the amount of energy used in its creation is dangerous for both the planet and its inhabitants. Huge amounts of energy are needed to grow and break down corn, as well as the meat animals that are raised, fed more corn, and processed. Despite large outputs, the food industry is still designed in a way that leaves many hungry.

“Salatin’s audacious bet is that feeding ourselves from nature need not be a zero-sum proposition, one in which if there is more for us at the end of the season then there must be less for nature—less topsoil, less fertility, less life.”

Salatin’s approach to farming directly contrasts with the highly industrialized processes described in Part I. In those systems, farmers are required to produce a surplus which depletes the soil and disadvantages all. Salatin advocates for a system that is more balanced and that is mutually beneficial to both man and nature. His approach embraces the theme of “Food as Connection to the Natural World.” Humans are united with the history of their food and develop a greater appreciation for where it comes from and how it landed on their plates.

“The organic movement, as it was once called, has come a remarkably long way in the last thirty years, to the point where it now looks considerably less like a movement than a big business.”

Terms like “organic” and “free-range” are intended to give consumers an ethical option in the supermarket. However, these terms are industrialized, speaking to specific regulations rather than an ideal environment for plants and animals. Pollan suggests that the term “organic” gives humans a false sense of relationship with the foods they are eating; the reality, however, is that the ingredients on the plate are as alien to them as the other highly-processed foods found on supermarket shelves. This contributes to the theme “Food as Connection to the Natural World.”

“Our civilization and, increasingly, our food system are strictly organized on industrial lines. It prizes consistency, mechanization, predictability, interchangeability, and economies of scale.”

In this chapter, the journalist questions why corn became king when pasture provides such a sustainable and ethically conscious form of farming. He determines that corn achieved its status because of its ability to align with the values of industrialization. Cheap and easy to reproduce, corn lacked the diversity and complexity of pasture that could be seen as unpredictable. The logic of man seeks order and rationality; polyculture is messy. The theme “The Logic of Nature vs. The Logic of Man” emphasizes the juxtaposition of these two forces.

“It was all of a biological piece, the trees and the grasses and the animals, the wild and the domestic, all part of a single ecological system.”

Salatin emphasizes the farm as an ecosystem. Each animal and plant enter a cycle of give-and-take that contributes to the health of the farm overall. Salatin’s model promotes sustainability and limits waste. In this section, Pollan fails, at first, to understand how forest land—seemingly wasted space when it comes to agricultural output—plays a part in the efficiency and effectiveness of the farm. In the theme “Food as Connection to the Natural World,” Pollan shows how humans have lost their connection to the natural processes that lead to the plethora of foods available in the supermarket. Salatin’s agricultural philosophy reconnects humans with nature by tuning in to the cycles and rhythms of agriculture.

“The killing of the animals we eat generally takes place behind high walls, well beyond our gaze or ken.”

One of the major costs of the industrialized food system is that it disconnects the experiences of the consumer from the experiences of animals and plants. The theme “Food as Connection to the Natural World” emphasizes locality and seasonality. The supermarket presents another version of food: Supermarkets sell whole products, comprised of many ingredients, that represent only the sum of their parts rather than the animals and plants of which they are made.

“Don’t you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?”

This quotation by Joel Salatin represents a cultural attitude about food in the modern setting. Salatin argues that humans have become detached from the reality of what is on their plates, and that this separation represents a global health and wellness crisis.

“A growing body of scientific research indicates that pasture substantially changes the nutritional profile of chicken and eggs, as well as of beef and milk.”

Pollan uses the meal in this chapter to reveal how a shift in agricultural approaches can vastly change the quality of the food on the table. He explains how the meal he prepared with ingredients from Salatin’s farm not only tasted better but was also more nutritious. He argues that many of the problems with foods like red meat do not come from the concept of the product; instead, the problems lie in how the animal was raised and what it was fed.

“So though a hunter-gatherer food chain still exists here and there to one degree or another, it seems to me its chief value for us at this point is not so much economic or practical as it is didactic. Like other important forms of play, it promises to teach us something about who we are beneath the crust of our civilized, practical, grown-up lives.”

Although it is no longer sustainable for all humans to engage in consistent and all-consuming hunter-gathering practices, Pollan suggests that there are important lessons to be learned from the experience. He believes that pursuing a meal comprised entirely of foods he foraged, hunted, and grew himself will provide him with valuable insight into the origins of the human relationship with food. This belief aligns with the theme of “Food as Connection to the Natural World.” By engaging in hunter-gathering, the author will feel a deeper connection to the food on his plate.

“I didn’t think I minded being called a speciesist, but could it be, as these writers suggest, we will someday come to regard speciesism as an evil comparable to that of racism?”

In Chapter 16, Pollan explores the many arguments for and against the eating of animals. His determination is less concrete than it is complicated. Pollan wavers back and forth between a moral determination that eating animals is right and an ethical belief that it is wrong. He wonders if he will regret his role as an omnivore in the future. 

“To contemplate such questions from the vantage of a farm, or even a garden, is to appreciate just how parochial, and urban, an ideology of animal rights really is. It could only thrive in a world where people have lost contact with the natural world, where animals no longer pose any threat to us (a fairly recent development), and our mastery of nature seems unchallenged.”

The moral question of vegetarianism only exists because of where humans are evolutionarily. Pollan recognizes that the question of eating meat is raised by the fact that humans have established themselves at the top of the food chain and that industrialized agriculture has made such a question a necessity. Here, the theme “The Logic of Nature vs. The Logic of Man” enters new territory. The logic of nature engages in a systematic approach of survival of the fittest. Natural processes occur, and some animals make it while others do not. The logic of man teeters between this same logic and a different view which demands that humans have a unique and moral obligation to preserve and protect the natural world.

“What I saw was a dead wild animal, its head lying on the dirt in a widening circle of blood.”

This chapter and this passage represent the climax of the journalistic narrative that Pollan presents. After thoroughly examining both the industrial food system and pastoral agriculture, his experience hunting for a pig in the wild is the culmination of his struggle with the question of eating meat.

“So which view of me the hunter is the right one, the shame at the photograph or the joy of the man in it, the outside gaze or the inside one?”

After killing a pig, Pollan does not immediately feel remorse. Instead, he feels a rush of adrenaline and a sense of pride. It is only when he looks at photographs taken of the hunt that he feels the pang of remorse. He is ashamed of the look of joy on his face in the photograph. This paradox represents the heart of the omnivore’s dilemma: The joy of eating and the primal processes involved contradict the rationality and ethics of modern humans. This passage contributes to the theme “The Logic of Nature vs. The Logic of Man,” as both these logics—the natural and the manmade—are held within Pollan at the same time. Although he is a man, he is also a part of nature. His desires therefore sometimes conflict with his rational mind.

“Mushrooms, you soon discover, are wild things in every way, beings pursuing their own agenda quite apart from ours.”

Pollan’s attention on mushrooms at the end of the book at first seems like a strange choice. The bulk of the book has been about animals and corn—foods that are riddled with controversy and varying methodologies of cultivation. Fungi presents a unique perspective to the question of the omnivore’s dilemma. Because of their wild growth and unwillingness to succumb to any set of rules, mushrooms operate outside of the types of agriculture Pollan explores in the rest of his work. This chapter also serves to transition into Pollan’s subsequent published works, which explore psychedelics and the unique relationship of humans and fungi in more depth.

“But I suspect most of us harbor both impulses in varying proportions, approaching the wild mushroom with a heightened sense of the omnivore’s basic tension as we struggle to balance our adventurousness in eating against a protective fear, our neophilia against our neophobia.”

In this passage, Pollan portrays fungi as the perfect example of the omnivore’s dilemma. Humans love mushrooms and enjoy eating them but are also wary of the possibility of consuming toxic fungi. In a small package, a mushroom can represent the whole of Pollan’s question: “What should we eat?” The question requires a balance of ethics and adventure, morality and villainy.

“I prized, too, the almost perfect transparency of this meal, the brevity and simplicity of the food chain that linked it to the wider world.”

Pollan’s final meal embodies the theme “Food as Connection to the Natural World.” His description of the final meal compared to the others in the book is detailed, spiritual, and full of satisfaction. He attributes his satisfaction to the fact that everything on the table has a story, a history, that connects it to its natural origins.

“Perhaps the perfect meal is one that’s been fully paid for, that leaves no debt outstanding.”

What stands out about Pollan’s final meal is that it offers a zero sum: Pollan killed one pig which was then eaten by himself, his family, and friends. He harvested a certain number of mushrooms, and those, too, were eaten in full. Unlike industrialized agriculture that creates a surplus, Pollan’s meal did not waste anything.