The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-food World

by Michael Pollan

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Title	The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-food World
Author	Michael Pollan
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Your review	http://homepage.mac.com/shawjonathan/... This is about farming, in three categories: industrial, of which I read with a mixture of horror and curiosity; pastoral, which is not synonymous with 'organic', but tends to have the virtues claimed for it; and personal, in which the author creates a meal from things he has personally grown, hunted and killed, or foraged. I don't know that anyone could read this tremendously engaging book without changing the way they think about food. It's very heartening that it was a New York Times best seller. If you want a quick look at the central part of the book, which deals with 'intensively managed grazing' or clever grass farming, have a look at Michael Pollan's 2008 TED talk (at TED.com). The book integrates into its narrative any number of lively essays: on the ethics of meat-eating (in which Pollan engages with Peter Singer), the joys of hunting (ditto Ortega y Gasset), attempts at humane design in modern abattoirs (Temple Grandin), the US domestic and international politics of corn (in which he doesn't discuss the so-called Free Trade Agreements that leave the US free to subsidise its grossly inefficient corn agribusinesses while preventing other nations from continuing with similar protections, but he makes their absurd brutality abundantly clear), on just about anything you can think of that's related to his central question, 'What should we have for dinner?' Some of it is very funny. Some is inspiring. Some horrendous. All of it is engrossing.
Other authors 1
Publication	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (2007), Edition: New Ed, Paperback, 464 pages
Publication date	2007
ISBN	0747586837 / 9780747586838
LC classification 1	GT2850 .P65
Dewey 1	394.1/2 22
Subjects	Audiobooks Evolution Food habits Food preferences GT2850 .P65 2006
Primary language eng	English
Secondary language	(blank)
Original language
Date acquired	2007-12-22
Date started	2008-04-14
Date finished	2008-04-26
Summary 0	The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-food World by Michael Pollan (2007)
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BCID	XXX-
Number of copies	1
Citation	MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian, Wikipedia citation
Data source	amazon.co.uk