The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Michael Pollan)

In his “Natural History of Four Meals”, Pollan raises his sharp pen again and applies his no less sharp mind to giving us a didactic exposé of the perils of the modern food industry, through the analysis of really 3 meals - you will be left to find the 4^th one for yourself…

And perils there are many – from a fast-food meal, through a meal centred on ethically grown meat and finally with a foraged meal, Pollan goes through the menu of why and how food has become the sorry grub most humans in Western, so called “developed”, countries eat today, how some unrepenting romantics like Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms are doing their bit to try and make the pasture and the kill floor a better place, what the meaning of food really should be, and what place it should really occupy in our societies and daily lives.

Much of the content in this book echoes ideas other contemporary writers have voiced. In a manner alike to Jonathan Safran Foer, Pollan asserts that “Eating puts us in touch with all that we share with the other animals, and all that sets us apart. It defines us.” It is food as the central pillar of civilisations, that both makes them and drives them to their demise. He also agrees that part of the problem faced by the US today, the origin of its “national eating disorder” should be looked for in the fact that “as a relatively new nation drawn from many different immigrant populations, each with its own culture of food, Americans have never had a single, strong, stable culinary tradition”, which allows the food industry to exploit and “exacerbate [our] anxieties about what to eat, the better to then assuage them with new products”, turning the US into a nation of “notably unhealthy people obsessed by the idea of healthy eating”, which he refers to as the “American paradox”.

The author of the Botany of Desire can be clearly felt pushing the pen, and I very much enjoyed the evolutionary spin given to the analysis of the botanical success of Zea Mays (aka corn) as a species, which I am sure Richard Dawkins would manage to fit into his Extended Phenotype theory. Pollan’s analysis of the evolution of agriculture, from a calorie-producing enterprise to a calorie-wasting one also commands attention. The author also ventures into the contradictions of USDA standards, the ties of the organisation with the industry it pretends to regulate, the not-so-honest premises of organic farming, and the truly evil intentions of the agricultural, food and fertilizer lobby groups. And yet in this very dark age, rays of light and hope emerge in the persons of alternative farmers and growers, who opted out of the mainstream hypocrisy and greed to pursue the values and ideals they trust. But, outnumbered as they are, how long until they are definitely put out of business by Big Agro and their timid voice reduced to silence?

It’s Pollan – it’s witty, humorous and light, and never grim or cynical in the face of disgrace or immorality. Yet it speaks volumes for who wants to listen. It reads cover to cover almost without a breath, and leaves you panting for more. It is the nemesis of Kraft mozzarella and the chicken nugget. It is urgent mandatory reading for anyone out there who pretends to have even a remote interest in quality food, and will expose hidden (and hideous) mechanisms even the best informed foodies may ignore – and it is also recommended for all the others. One can hope it will wake America and the world from years of ignorance and indifference. One can only hope…