The Omnivore's Dilemma Sparknotes

Michael Pollan of The Omnivore’s Dilemma was attempting to achieve writing this novel not from a journalist's perspective, but as a consumer, the first half of this novel can be perceived as investigative journalism, delivering well thought out investigations to the public, however, it is not until the third section of the book where one as a reader is able to connect to Pollan as a common individual rather than a journalist.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma Starts on a very strong foot with its introduction, “What should we have for dinner?” by this introduction, Pollan immediately is bringing his readers to action with his way of including everyone together- especially himself. It shows that Pollan does have some humility, some might not see it this

way, but this was his first sign of pathos. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma is about three principle food chains that sustain us today: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer” (7). Pollan’s novel centers on what he has deemed as our national eating disorder and a way to overcome it. Pollan finds his own way into his audience’s mind, or better yet, their stomachs, it’s hard to argue against Pollan’s claims on how America eats, and why obesity and type II diabetes have reached astronomical heights within the United States. It’ll definitely change the way you look at a Chicken McNugget, or even just vegetables! Pollan believes that Americans have lost the ability to answer a simple question such as, “What are we having for dinner?” to Pollan, Americans are too concerned with reliance on an outside source such as food scientists, or nutritionists and even an investigative journalist to tell them what is safe to eat. Interesting that this novel is written by a professional journalist. Pollan emphasizes that the American culture must have an eating disorder if it can change its eating habits with a snap of a finger, states that this “never would have happened in a culture in possession of deeply rooted traditions surrounding food and eating” (2). In Pollan’s research it turns out that corn exists in almost everything we eat. While reading, it’s astonishing to realize that our salmon and cows — which have not evolved with a taste for maize — are being fed corn. Which means, corn is in our dairy products such as milk, cheese, and even yogurt. It’s even in our meats, like hamburgers and the eggs from corn fed animals. And with processed foods, things are further complex. Scientists have discovered a way to transform corn into a virtual cornucopia. As such, corn has found its way into everything from soda, beer and Cheeze Whiz to canned fruit, gravy, and hot sauce. It’s also in non-edible products like toothpaste and disposable diapers and the cover of your magazines. Pollan also includes the logistics that even the supermarket itself its wallboard and fiberglass and adhesives, as well as other things — are all partially made from corn. It’s difficult to argue against his claims when the logos that’s delivered is incredible. Through out the book, it consists of him tracking his meals from the beef of a cow, to the breast of a chicken, and where his lettuce grows for his salads. All which have some sort of corn additives. He even shares McDonald's lunch with his family and surprise: the origin of this meal is a cornfield in Iowa. Indeed, one of the many jaw-droppers in the book is the prevalence of corn in the American diet; of the 45,000 items in a supermarket, more than a quarter contain corn. And it’s easy to assume that there is nothing wrong with corn, until you learn that scientists are manipulating the gene of the plant by using chemicals and fossil fuels; remember that we eat a large quantity of this every day our whole lives. Later, Pollan investigates the flaws in the world of "big organic", starting with Whole Foods, and this is where Pollan may lose his attention from his readers as well as the possibility of his credibility.
Michael Pollan’s intentions are clear and precise, but when a professional journalist makes strong claims, he should be sure to look in every aspect.

Despite claiming that he didn’t approach Whole Foods from a journalist point of view, it still hangs over his head that he didn’t cover all his tracks; consumer or not, it’s best to look before you leap. Pollan’s local Whole Foods Market is a place he claims to enjoy visiting almost as much as he does a local bookstore. Why wouldn’t he, both establishments contain stories: as Pollan reads the labels on his milk- each competing with each other to prove whose cows’ were raised in the most natural state, Pollan becomes curious as to how much truth there is behind the labels. Or how much of the labels’ content is clever vocabulary meant to stimulate his brain to imagine where he wants to believe where his food is coming from. Pollan, of course makes it clear that a highly distinguished brochure about where your beef is coming from is an “an imperfect substitute for direct observation of how a food is produced” (137). Pollan follows the information on the brochures to discover a much less honest Whole Foods. However, he didn’t put into the thought that Whole Foods is indeed an industrial chain. Some things are “organic” and some things, simply can’t be. Their consumers want all kinds of meats, vegetables, and fruits year round; they don’t want to wait until season for strawberries, they want them now. And hence, that means Whole

Foods has to appease their consumers, the people Pollan claims that he is trying to be throughout his novel. This is where his credibility may be lost, as well as his relation to his readers. Consumer or not, you need to back up all of your claims, and not doing so can make one look quite foolish. It’s possible that Pollan’s intentions turned into a passion, which sometimes can make a person somewhat biased in their claims, forgetting to cover their ground.
They say love is the strongest force in the universe, and that’s because it can be the most pleasurable feeling a being can experience, but it can also be the source of self-destruction, can passions be considered the same?

Pollan’s claims about approaching this topic from a consumer’s point of view seems unlikely by the first two sections of his book. Clearly, Pollan did become at least somewhat biased through the first part of his novel. The first section of the novel is heavily focused on logos, and Pollan delivers this beyond successfully. However, Pollan goes on to talk about how difficult it is to learn where our food comes from and how it’s made. Pollan takes it upon himself to investigate our food sources, through this Pollan delivers his agenda so incredibly well, that he makes it seem as easy as cake. He makes the effort to volunteer on different farms, from George Naylor, whom explained the farming conflict that is unknowingly happening in America, “Farmers facing lower prices have only one option if they want to be able to maintain their standard of living, pay their bills, and service their debt, and that is to produce more” (53). Pollan later in the book works on Joel Salatin’s farm, which is on the opposite side of the spectrum when it comes to farming. Salatin believes in fresh air, and sunshine and healthy eating for his animals. “When chickens get to live like chickens, they taste like chickens too” (271). He even purchases a steer that is raised on a CAFO

farm (concentrated Animal Feeding Operation). He follows the life of his steer, which starts out as a happy little cow, that ate grass, and lives by his mother’s side. However, at a certain age is removed from his mother and is forced to stand knee deep in his own feces and eat corn for the remaining of his life, which is not long. All of this is well conspired, Pollan does a brilliant job in convincing his reader to think about how the animals are treated. But in his section “Big Organic” of his novel Pollan repeatedly claims that he is approaching this topic from a consumer’s perspective, as if he were an average American Citizen. Pollan also makes sure he repeats this on his journal blogs, as well as when the CEO of Whole Foods decides to write a letter in response to Pollan’s novel. What Pollan fails to remember is that he has the tools to get the appeals he successfully delivers, which eventually leads to a biased point of view from Pollan. How easy is it for an average American citizen to obtain the information that Pollan does in his research to find out where his food comes from as a common consumer? The answer is not so much. Pollan forgets in his quest to approach this as a consumer that his credibility as a journalist overshadows that.
An average American would not gain not even half the access Pollan gets in order to learn more about their food. Purchasing a steer on a CAFO farm, being accepted as a worker on some of these farms, and being allowed certain information, or even gaining some sort of look on how the animals are treated. True, as a journalist he is denied access into certain things from these companies, but as an average citizen without the same credibility, no one would gain any access to any of this. Pollan also has a means of being able to pay for his travels, how well can an average citizen pay for all of this traveling? Not many can, the average American is of the middle class according to the Census Bureau, and most likely they don’t have the time, let alone the expenses to achieve this same goal. He expects the average citizen to be able to relate to his experiences, but really it’s a biased and unrealistic idea. Of course, that is not entirely a bad thing; for the most part, his audience is grateful for his journalistic point of view in the first half of his novel. Without it, how far would he really get? It appears that Pollan often forgets who he wants his audience to be. It’s almost like he tries to make up for his contradiction by stepping out of the journalist’s shoes into those of a hunter and gatherer. Pollan does try to make up for his scientifically written language in the first and second sections of his novel by suddenly switching up that language. He decides to crawl out of the comfort of his own skin and tries to gain a whole new experience in hunting and gather his own food. It is in this section that one can relate to Pollan as a simple being trying to survive and learn new things. He believes the exercise can teach him- and his readers “something about who we are beneath the crust of our civilized, practical, grown-up lives” (280). This section makes it easier to relate to the author and what his goals are for his investigations. While the rest of the novel is geared as a scientific book trying to give facts and studies on the subject matter, the rest of the book slows down and suddenly enters human-being-Michael-Pollan. It’s both comedic and interesting to read about the author attempting to fire a weapon for the first time. Of course his audience may not be able to take him up on his credibility with a gun as well as his foraging skills, but at least his readers are given a taste of who Michael Pollan really is, and what he’s out for with this book. Especially when we get to his opinion on the Animal Liberation written by Peter Singer. This is the best section in which his readers can truly relate to him, it’s the conclusion of the Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Singer’s argument, Pollan states, is simple: “If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use an- other for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans for the same purpose?” (307). To put it more simply, if it’s not acceptable to eat less intelligent humans- we assume that all humans are equal- then how is it that we can use intelligence as a reason to eat animals? Pollan goes on to say that he scribbles in the margins “but humans differ from animals in morally significant ways” (308). As Pollan continues to read Animal Liberation, he finds himself impressed by Singer and his colleagues and the fact that they are able to refute his arguments. He’s particularly enthralled by Singer’s claim that anyone who eats meat can’t really look at it in an unbiased perspective at whether or not the animals he’s eating are suffering. Pollan comes to the conclusion that temporarily he would take on being a vegetarian. It’s then Pollan learns that when one decides to give up meat, they’re choosing to give up many things aside. Pollan finds himself feeling isolated from social interactions and traditions that he loves; it’s in fact harder to eat dinner with friends, and he realizes that he can’t take part in holiday traditions, for example, his mother’s Passover beef brisket. He also comes to learn that by not eating meat, he’s going against his own biological and evolutionary desires, because contrary to what groups like PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) might argue, our cravings for meat are not just desires, but something much deeper in our evolutionary core. This would be the closest the readers ever where to the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.