Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Omnivore's Dilemma
The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-food World | Michael Pollan
What should we have for dinner? When you can eat just about anything nature (or the supermarket) has to offer, deciding what you should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially when some of the foods might shorten your life. Today, buffeted by one food fad after another, America is suffering from a national eating disorder. As the cornucopia of the modern American supermarket and fast food outlet confronts us with a bewildering and treacherous landscape, what's at stake becomes not only our own and our children's health, but the health of the environment that sustains life on earth. Pollan follows each of the food chains--industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves--from the source to the final meal, always emphasizing our coevolutionary relationship with the handful of plant and animal species we depend on. The surprising answers Pollan offers have profound political, economic, psychological, and even moral implications for all of us.--From publisher description.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
JackieGreco
Pickpick

This book is an eye opening read about our food system and the American view of food. I think everyone should read this book. 5/5

review
DcSunshine
Pickpick

If you haven‘t considered going plant-based before, you will. To see the undeniable truth will change how you think about food.

review
Burpito
Mehso-so

Pretty good intro book about eating a bit better I suppose

review
Andorsey
Mehso-so

Some subsections were interesting, but others are more difficult to get through.

review
sarahlandis
Pickpick

100% recommend.

review
BrieHive
Pickpick

Micheal Pollan talks about factory farming and explores the industrial food chain. He explains how fast food and soda can be so cheap but quality food cost more. Corn is the secret. He then explores farms and ranches that ethically raise crops and animals for food. He finishes by hunting, foraging and growing a whole meal.

blurb
Dolly
post image

If you care about what you‘re eating, the environment, and what foods you may want to avoid this is a book that may change your life. I read it years ago and the knowledge I gained I use everyday, no kidding.

One of today‘s offers on BookBub. For those who care!

Hooked_on_books I have recommended this book to SO many people. It‘s so good! 5y
Dolly @Hooked_on_books 👍Honestly, I think it‘s a must read for anyone who eats. 5y
28 likes2 comments
blurb
sprainedbrain
post image

I don‘t think I‘ve ever read a book that could be classified as motivational, but I‘ve found these books very helpful when it comes to figuring out how and what to eat.

My submissions for the photo challenge:

The Omnivore‘s Dilemma is a fascinating book full of information about the American food industry.

The Obesity Code is a recent read for me, and I‘m still trying to incorporate some of what I learned into my routine.

#bookfitnesschallenge

wanderinglynn Helpful is always good! Thanks for sharing! 5y
75 likes2 stack adds1 comment
blurb
MichaelK
post image

Been making it a priority to grow, forage and fish for more of my food. Here's my first batch of purple tatters 😁🥔

gradcat Those look great—I love purple potatoes! 🥔 ♥️ 5y
tournevis I love purple (and blue) potatoes. Any non-white/yellow potatoes really. All the heirloom potatoes. Miam. 5y
Texreader Congratulations!! 5y
26 likes3 comments
review
CRR
post image
Pickpick

Took me quite a while to read through this one. I started and stopped a couple times. Even though, I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much. I‘m planning to give it to my friend that owns a huge feedlot!

Emilymdxn I enjoyed this one too! Learned so much 5y
23 likes1 comment
review
Emilymdxn
post image
Pickpick

I loved this a lot! I love books that take a very specific aspect of environmentalism and dive deep into it. I feel I get now how good small scale, ethical food that we appreciate fully can be. It‘s wonderful to not just be outraged about factory farming and industrial food stuff, but to actually appreciate what we can aim for and what nourishing ourselves can be like. Definitely recommend to any frustrated environmentalists

Gina Have you read....? I read it and enjoyed it and see if I had an issue with him getting off topic and kind of Meandering. I think if it would have had some better editing in an outline it would have been a much tighter book but an interesting read nonetheless. 6y
65 likes1 comment
review
Dietz123
Pickpick

This book is an interesting treatise on healthy eating. It‘s a classic, I may consider re-reading. Sad times we live in when it takes a journalist and not a dietician to show us how to eat healthy.

blurb
keithmalek
post image

17 likes1 stack add
review
Palindrome
post image
Pickpick

This yummy cornucopia offers insight into food consumption in the 21st century, describing three important food chains that sustain us all: industrial, organic, and hunter-gatherer. As we search for chicken in a McNugget drive-by, browse leafy greens at the local farmers market, or happily rummage for roots and berries in fields and meadows, Pollan encourages us to examine the ethical responsibilities and political ramifications of food selection.

quote
Gezemice
post image

This book starts with such a humble goal yet so far ranging. What we put on our table and how is deeply embedded in our relationship with the Earth.

I have listened to it already but I am diving back in with the Kindle edition and finding quotes.

Hooked_on_books I love this book. I‘ve recommended it to so many people. 6y
Gezemice @Hooked_on_books I just finished it but I am doing the same! 6y
Gezemice @mrsmarch Thanks! Will check it out! 6y
61 likes4 comments
quote
Christinak
post image

Before coffee, that is, not that there was a drop of it to be had on this farm. I couldn‘t recall the last time I‘d even attempted to do anything consequential before breakfast, or before #caffeine at the very least.
#QuotsyMar19 #31DaysOfNonFiction

blurb
Dolly
post image

This is the book I feel has the most value for the world and in particular the US. It‘s changed my way of thinking about eating, shopping, cooking and farming forever. IMHO I think it should be required reading.

@Laughterhp Congratulations on the big number and thank you for the #50kbookrecgiveaway !

Laughterhp Thanks for entering! I‘ve seen this book around, but have never thought about picking it up. I‘ll definitely have to add it to my TBR! 😊 6y
Gezemice I agree! Definitely changed the way I look at food. 6y
47 likes2 stack adds2 comments
review
thebluestocking
post image
Pickpick

I thought Pollan‘s examination of various food chains - industrial, organic, beyond organic, and gathered - was thoughtful and personal and balanced. Though difficult, I increasingly believe that examining where our food comes from is an imperative act. Food affects us all. I highly recommend this even-handed look at the current state of it.

MichaelK Big fan of this book 👍 6y
thebluestocking @MichaelK Me too! So important. And well done. 6y
Gezemice Just started this on audio. Glad to hear you liked it. 6y
See All 6 Comments
thebluestocking @Gezemice I‘ll be interested to see what you think! 6y
Gezemice @thebluestocking It was very good. Altered my way of thinking about food and shopping. Interestingly, I could not write a review yet because it was too thought provoking. I am diving in again and flipping through it on my Kindle. 6y
thebluestocking @Gezemice There is a lot to digest in this one! 😉 6y
54 likes1 stack add6 comments
blurb
thebluestocking
post image

Today, it‘s all about #audiochores, and recommitting to a (mostly) vegetarian diet thanks to Michael Pollan. 😳

TheBookHippie #justabookswap should be at your house!!!! It says delivered! 6y
TheBookKeepers Oooo 👀📚 6y
thebluestocking @TheBookHippie Thank you so much!! I love the book. I got home late last night, so I posted this morning! (edited) 6y
thebluestocking @TheBookKeepers Thank you so much for hosting this swap. I really love the simplicity of it. 6y
TheBookHippie @thebluestocking no worries!!! I'm so glad it arrived safely !!! 6y
61 likes1 stack add5 comments
blurb
sprainedbrain
post image

I don‘t read a lot of nonfiction, and even less food-related books, so picking my favorite food book is super easy. 😃

I listened to the audiobook (read by Scott Brick) last year and was completely fascinated and fairly grossed out. This is important stuff about where our food really comes from in the US, and Pollan‘s efforts to make his own food are educational and interesting.

#24in48

119 likes4 stack adds
blurb
thebluestocking
post image

I‘m sneaking in time where I can! #24in48

55 likes1 stack add
review
xicanti
post image
Pickpick

This was fascinating, informative, and not at all what I expected. I approached it as food writing, when Pollan is at least as concerned with economics and agricultural science as he is with dining. His prose also veers far closer to academic than popular, which made this a slow read. Prepare yourself for long paragraphs, narrow margins, and a degree of narrative distance even when Pollan actively participates in food production.

30 likes1 stack add
blurb
xicanti
post image

Gonna try to finish THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA before I start another novel. Duffy has lent me his support.

Dolly 😀👏one of my all time favorites 6y
45 likes2 stack adds1 comment
blurb
xicanti
post image

Gonna read a bit more of THE OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA while my turkey chili cooks. Maybe I can get through five whole pages!

Because this book? Is really good, but SO SLOW. It's dense and scientific, and Pollan takes a distinctly academic stance on paragraph divisions so there's little white space on each page. It's taken me for fucking ever to hit Chapter 12.

blurb
Dolly
post image

1. Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan ( life changing for me)
2. Romance
3. A black 7 yr old formerly feral kitty named “Smirk”
4. Just over 6,100

#sundaysurvey @alisonrose

alisonrose Smirk!! Haha love it 😊 thanks for playing! 6y
44 likes1 comment
blurb
xicanti
post image

It feels a bit wrong to read THE OMNIVORE's DILEMMA over lunch, but this is the reading time I've got sooooo....

MemoirsForMe 😁😁😁 6y
39 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
Dolly
post image

1. Omnivores Dilemma -Pollan
2. Been to London, but I‘d love to see the English countryside

@kellyann28 #giveaway

kellyann28 Thanks for entering! ❤ 6y
Alismcg 1. The Book : Nonviolent Communication A Language of Life by Marshall Rosenberg 2. The Place : Israel 3. The tag : @kellyann28 6y
PomegranateMuse Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury 6y
PomegranateMuse @kellyann28 the Faroe Islands 🙌🏻 6y
40 likes4 comments
blurb
Vedrana88
post image

Something to feast on with my morning coffee: “Today it takes between 7-10 calories of #FossilFuels energy to delivery 1 calorie of food energy to an #American plate.” Even organic. Despite all our good intentions it‘s a struggle to make the right #foodchoices.

review
jessamyngrace
Pickpick

I loved this book. Warning, it's long, & a bit tedious at different points. But the amount of energy and research Pollan put in to writing this book is worthy of serious respect. He examines conventionally produced food, organic food (both Big Organic and local, slow food), and traditional hunter/gatherer foods. Pollan definitely provides a solid foundation from which we can continue to learn about and examine our food choices.

quote
jessamyngrace

So is an industrial organic food chain finally a contradiction in terms? It's hard to escape the conclusion that it is.... The inspiration for organic was to find a way to feed ourselves more in keeping with the logic of nature, to build a food system that looked more like an ecosystem that would draw it's fertility and energy from the sun. To feed ourselves otherwise was 'unsustainable.'

quote
jessamyngrace
post image

And yet, and yet... 😖 Pollan leaves no stone unturned in his examination and comparison between industrial organic and conventional farming.

Suet624 Good points. 7y
jessamyngrace @Suet624 Yes. 😕 I felt really uncomfortable reading this section. Now I'm reading about his time on Joel Salatin's farm and he's definitely speaking my language now. 7y
13 likes2 comments
quote
jessamyngrace
post image

Quoting Michael Pollan.

10 likes2 comments
quote
jessamyngrace
post image

Yep.

quote
jessamyngrace
post image

This feels...dirty...to me. And like they've completely missed the point.

Suet624 People seem to always be guided by $$$ 7y
jessamyngrace @Suet624 absolutely. It's really sad. 7y
8 likes2 comments
quote
jessamyngrace
post image

quote
jessamyngrace

In Howard's agronomy, science is mostly a tool for describing what works and explaining why it does. As it happens, in the years since Howard wrote, science has provided support for a great many of his unscientific claims: Plants grown in synthetically fertilized soils are less nourishing than ones grown in composted soils; such plants are more vulnerable to diseases and insect pests; polycultures are more productive and less prone to disease

jessamyngrace than monocultures; and that in fact the health of the soil, plant, animal, human, and even nation are, as Howard claimed, connected along lines we can now begin to draw with empirical confidence. We may not be prepared to act on this knowledge, but we know that civilizations that abuse their soil eventually collapse. 7y
8 likes1 comment
quote
jessamyngrace

The feedlot is a city built upon America's mountain of surplus corn--or rather, corn plus the various pharmaceuticals a ruminant must have if it is to tolerate corn. Yet, having started out from Mr. Naylor's farm, I understood that the corn on which this place runs is implicated in a whole other set of ecological relationships...the fossil fuel it takes to grow all that corn.

jessamyngrace So if the modern CAFO is a city built upon commodity corn, it is a city afloat on an invisible sea of petroleum. How this peculiar state of affairs came to seem sensible is a question I spent my day at Poky Feeders trying to answer. 7y
7 likes1 comment
quote
jessamyngrace

In fact, when animals live on farms the very idea of waste ceases to exist; what you have instead is a closed ecological loop..a solution. One of the most striking things animal feedlots do (to paraphrase Wendell Berry) is to take this elegant solution & neatly divide it into two new problems: a fertility problem on the farm (which must be remedied with chemical fertilizers) and a pollution problem on the feedlot (which is seldom remedied at all).

9 likes1 stack add
quote
jessamyngrace

The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds.... Eating puts us in touch with all that we share with the other animals, and all that sets us apart. It defines us.

Tadams4 Love this book! His Netflix piece is awesome! 7y
jessamyngrace @Tadams4 In Defense of Food?! I loved that documentary! And the book. Both so so good. 7y
13 likes2 comments
quote
jessamyngrace
post image

blurb
Dolly
post image

1 Model horses or a jewelry making kit
2 Omnivore‘s Dilemma
3 Been on the dark side long enough to look back wistfully on the gate to it
4 Literally within 1000‘ (and I don‘t live next to a hospital!)
5 👍

#friyayintro @jesshowbooks

blurb
Abailliekaras
post image

Tim Flannery‘s review is headed ‘We‘re Living on Corn!‘ . I haven‘t read this but I liked Michael Pollan‘s book about food rules - he‘s rigorous but sensible.
#🌽 #emojinov #nov📚📷

writerlibrarian That book so good but gave me nightmares . (edited) 7y
30 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
Becca.in.a.book
post image

Husband built me a bookshelf!!! ❤️❤️❤️😍😍😍

1 like1 stack add
review
sprainedbrain
post image
Pickpick

This book was published more than 10 years ago, but is still packed full of timely and relevant info about American industrial agriculture. I‘ve read a lot about this topic in the last 10-15 years, so this wasn‘t new information for me, but it‘s still very upsetting and icky.

Michael Pollan is brilliant, though... I would very much like to share a meal with him and pick his brain. Oh and the audio is read by Scott Brick 😍😍😍

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

MinDea I loved this book! 7y
SheReadsAndWrites Love his books ♥️ 7y
Dolly I'm inviting myself to that table too!😉☺️ 7y
Mdargusch I‘m afraid to read this. 7y
minkyb Great review. Totally agree! 7y
110 likes4 stack adds5 comments
blurb
sprainedbrain
post image

Currently listening...

and freaking out, as I knew I would. 😱

jpmcwisemorgan I like Pollan‘s other works. I haven‘t gotten to this one yet! 7y
Dolly Oh, this is my most life changing book! Honestly I haven't been the same since. 7y
hgrimes This one and “Cooked” are both really fascinating! 7y
See All 10 Comments
ApoptyGina69 I liked this one best! 7y
[DELETED] 57804897 If you like this, Marion Nestle also wrote some great books about what to eat. 7y
sprainedbrain @hgrimes I will check out Cooked. Loved this one! 7y
sprainedbrain @Ostaff1 I loved it, so I will check this one out too. Thanks! 7y
sprainedbrain @ApoptyGina69 it was so good! Couldn‘t stop listening to it. 7y
sprainedbrain @Dolly I can see why! Amazing book. 7y
sprainedbrain @jpmcwisemorgan This one is good! I will be checking out more by him. 7y
101 likes5 stack adds10 comments
blurb
Dolly
post image

My all time favorite book is on sale through BookBub today! Life changing, educational, the author is my hero.
I've recommended this more often than any other book. Ever!

LuLeeBelle BOUGHT! I've been wanting to read this one 7y
Dolly @LuLeeBelle Yay! I can't stop talking about it. My friends are probably sick of me but too polite to say it. It's changed my life and the way I eat. 7y
40 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
Jas16
post image

Congratulations @Booksandcooks ! Such a well deserved accomplishment! I will read a book in any format. I use my Kindle and iPad for reading a lot, especially for library books. So much easier! I listen to audiobooks while walking. If forced to choose though I still love physical books, especially hardcovers,the most. #6666giveaway
(Photo was taken today while having celebratory 4th of July drinks. I love San Francisco)

Megabooks Wow! I need to visit! 7y
Jas16 @Booksandcooks Yes you do! We can meet up and go book shopping! 7y
Megabooks Yes! My college friend who told me about Litsy lives there, so I have another excuse to visit! @Jas16 (edited) 7y
Leftcoastzen Miss Vesuvio ,aren't you going to tell Littens what's next door?😉 7y
50 likes4 comments
review
kellyoutwest
Pickpick

If we hadn't already bought a steer to grass raise on our homestead...I would have made my husband get one after tracking the stupidity of the corn commodies on this country.

blurb
writerlibrarian
post image

After the first part on industrial food processing (which totally made me paranoid and not want to eat at all for 2 days) despite the writing style, which flows and makes the reader understand the information, I continued to read but When milk is more expensive than pop, when you can have cheap meat but that meat kills you, this is where I can't read anymore. To save my sanity somehow. Most amazing book I DNF. #maybookflowers #fruits

35 likes2 stack adds
blurb
leslieisreading
post image

An extremely random assortment of books with #fruit on the cover. #maybookflowers