Book Review: “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”

This post was originally posted on October 22, 2007 to Fresh From The Market – my food, farm, cooking blog.  At this point everyone who is even remotedly interested in the “localvore” movement, farmers market, organics, etc has heard of or read this book.

Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” arrived along with my copy of “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral” and I just got around to finishing it recently.  Michael’s style is significantly different than Barbara’s amusing and poetic prose about her family’s decision to eat locally and seasonally for one year.  The premise is that Michael follows four meals from farm to table: A McDonald’s meal eaten in the car, a meal purchased at Whole Foods, an organic meal eaten on the sustainable farm it was raised, and finally a meal hunted and foraged by Michael himself.

Michael has a much more textbook style approach to the subject than I expected for a topic that can be very passionate for many people.  I had expected some vilification of the industrial food industry yet out of the gate I was introduced to the farmer that has been growing industrial corn on his family’s land for years and how the changes over the years impact his decisions.  As Michael progresses through each type of meal the tone becomes slightly more personal.  Perhaps this is intentional or perhaps it’s simply the fact that non-industrial food touches more people.

Over all I enjoyed the book.  The textbook style helped me learn many facts about farming, politics, as well as the various moral and economic choices available.  The fact that there is not a single right choice was was always under the surface and his uniform approach allows the reader to feel they are making an educated decision rather than being sold on someone else’s opinion.  If you are looking for something dramatic then this is not likely to be your book, but if you are looking to educate and enlighten yourself and spend some time considering the choices you make, then you will likely take something away from it.