Book Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma (Post 1/3)

I tend to give the books I read pretty good reviews. That's usually because I am selective about the books I read anyway, and choose books along the lines of what I enjoy.

I'm going to review The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan a little differently than my other books - one post for each of the 3 distinct sections of the book.

I will draw a line in each post at about the point in which I may give more information away than you'd like (ie. spoiler) if you haven't read the book. Feel free to stop reading at that point if you'd like to read it yourself and be surprised.

Feel free to join the conversation. I'm very interested in what you all have to say about your lives after reading the book. Call this a quasi book club thing if you wish, but running something like that in an official sense is too much work for me!

These posts might be a little lengthy, and I know that may turn some folks off. That's ok. I promise lots of garden posts are forthcoming as well!

Grade: A+

I read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan after seeing it advertised in Mother Earth News for the past year, and on recommendations from lots of folks, most importantly Meg and Kelly from Future House Farm whom I greatly admire. (blush) When I saw he was the person that Sunset Magazine featured this month (last page, Q&A), I knew I had to get the book.

Never has a book so changed my relationship with anything. This book turned my relationship with food upside down. Overnight.

I've thought a lot about the book since I finished it yesterday, and has been all I can do not to give it's words away to Chris as he reads it on his current business trip. I actually had vivid dreams about it on Sunday night as I was knee deep in it...
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I: Industrial Corn

Food

Chris and I were discussing this section over the last couple days and can't believe how much corn wriggles its way into our daily life. It's not just high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), but all the derivatives made from corn that I always thought came from other things. The vitamins in General Mills cereals (ascorbic acid, niacinamide, iron, pyridoxine hydrocodone...) for one, are all corn products. We stood in front of the cupboard last night reading labels aloud and it reminded me of the old Breyer's Natural Ice Cream commercials where the kids can't pronounce the ingredients in regular ice creams. Funny, yet totally scary.

Furthermore we realize many of the things in our cupbaord aren't "food" at all - but instead gross, corn-laden and chemically-derived ingredients strung together that resemble something that was once made of food.

For example:

Sugar Free - Fat Free Instant Pudding & Pie Filling, Chocolate Fudge flavored
Modified Food Starch, Cocoa Processed with Alkali, Maltodextrin (from Corn), Tetrasodium Pyrophosphate and Disodium Phosphate (for Thickening), Contains Less Than 2% of Skim Milk, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Salt, Soy Lecithin (for Blending), Calcium Sulfate, Xanthan Gum (for Smooth Texture), Mono- and Diglycerides (Prevent Foaming), Aspartame (Phenylketonurics: Contains Phenylalanine), and Acesulfame Potassium (Sweeteners), Red 40, Yellow 5, Blue 2, Artificial Color.

Now tell me, which ingredient is "food"? This product is almost entirely derived from corn. We always thought we were being mindful of what we ate, but apparently this is not the case. If the label has items you can't pronounce, or more than 5 ingredients, it's probably not food.

The saddest part of the book was by far steer #543. Pollan purchased a steer to see exactly how its life would be like from purchase as a youngster to slaughter, and his writing style is so clear and descriptive, you feel as though you're standing there with him, questioning how this is practice is normal and acceptable. Paragraph 2, page 83 sums up the first part of the book rather eloquently and brought me to tears.

"I stood alongside 534 as he lowered his big head into the stream of fresh grain. How absurd, I thought, the two of us standing hock-deep in manure in this godforsaken place, overlooking a manure lagoon in the middle of nowhere Kansas. Godforsaken perhaps, and yet not apart, I realized, as I thought of the other places connected to this place by the river of commodity corn. Follow the corn from this bunk back to the fields where it grows and I'd find myself back in the middle of the 125,000-mile-square monoculture, under a steady rain of pesticide and fertilizer. Keep going, and I could follow the nitrogen runoff of that fertilizer all the way down the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico, adding its poison to an eight-thousand-square-mile zone so started of oxygen nothing but algae can live in it. And then go farther still, follow the fertilizer (and the diesel fuel and the petrochemical pesticides) needed to grow the corn all the way to the oil fields of the Persian Gulf."

Tonight I changed grocery stores. I went from Safeway (national brand) to Bel Air (local-run, family-owned and operated, regional chain). I bought Cabernet Savignon that was from Ironstone Vineyards 68 miles from here. I bought dairy products that were from Straus Farm (122 miles) (based on Melinda from Elements in Time's recommendation after a horrible experience with Horizon Organic clued me in to their "big organic" nature, but I get ahead of myself. That will be post 2/3.) I bought San Franciscan sourdough (90 miles). I bought no meat, but am not going to switch over to being vegetarian.

Yesterday I emailed a local poultry farmer that I located on LocalHarvest.org. (This is a great resource for local farmers markets, CSA's, ranches, orchards vineyards, and farms wherever you live in the US). I asked the farmer about their free-range poultry. Was it really free range? How was it processed at the end of its life? On your farm, or in a facility? I have yet to receive a response but I am hopeful they reply soon and tell me I can come visit and see how their animals live.

And I know it may be disappointing to some of you that I am not a vegetarian, nor do I wish to become one. But on this planet, it takes all kinds and I will choose to eat sustainably-raised and humanely treated beef, poultry, and pork. That's the end of my conversation there.


Ethanol

Chris has a special interest in cars and IMO knows lots about them. Tonight he mentioned how one of the car forums he posts on was talking about ethanol and it's problems. Not surprisingly, folks were quick to jump on the "ethanol is the cure-all to our current oil issues" ship. Pollan quickly mentions the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. This area contains so much nitrogen that has flowed into and down the Mississippi from runoff of large-scale farming operations, that nothing can survive in the water. Maybe algae. I'm no scientist, but ramping up corn production 20% as is being talked about simply for ethanol production is "bad news for Gulf of Mexico seafood" as one poster put it. And give me a break about this excess nitrogen coming from lawns and landscapes. Yes, they do contribute to the problem, but a homeowner buys in the two digits (xx) poundage of ammonia-based nitrogen fertilizer* whereas the large scale farm operations buyammonia-based nitrogen fertilizers* by the thousands of pounds and cover a lot more acreage with it.


Politics

Simply put, the corn lobby is a very powerful lobby in Washington, and with the production of ethanol, has intertwined itself with the greening of our automobiles. Their power is witnessed through the bazillions of uses that have been found for corn, mainly sneaking its way into our food.

I'm not a big politico, nor do I try to follow politics too closely because it's depressing. I "vote" with my wallet and have actually voted in every election available to me in since I have been of age (registered and card carrying Green, in case you were wondering). I hope that we can change things to bring back a government that is "of the people, by the people, for the people"...

Check out Michael Pollan's podcast on NPR's website.

Coming soon: Pastoral Grass

*Edited to correct inaccuracy