...Book Review of Omnivore’s Dilemma ENGL135 Advanced Composition DeVry University Book Review of Omnivore’s Dilemma The Omnivore’s Dilemma written by Michael Pollan has been written with an aim to address the confusion of every omnivore, or human being to address the need to decide what should be consumed when nature has such a huge variety and bounty to offer. The book starts with a fairly simple question aimed to make us think deeper about our evolved lifestyles and gastronomic tastes. The author asks his readers to answer a fairly simple question, which is “what should we have for dinner?” and goes on to show how complicated the answer can be. The book is divided into three sections: - Industrial/Corn, Pastoral/Grass. Personal/The Forest, each of which brings out interesting sights and happenings in the food chain. The first section which is the Industrial/Corn section describes how corn is the most important ingredient in the industrial food chain, while the second section on Pastoral/Grass section talks about organic farming. The final section on Personal/The Forest finds the author describing how to make a meal out of whatever he could hunt, grown or gathered by him only. This article presents a book review on the first section only. Michael Pollan shows us how difficult it is actually to choose what we eat given that nature has such a wide variety of bounty to offer. Yet if the American industry is scrutinized deeply, one basic ingredient seems to be the magical...
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...Isabelle Gaylor Mrs. Vermillion AP 11 English 02 November 2015 The Omnivore’s Dilemma Summary The Omnivore’s Dilemma was written by Michael Pollan, a journalist, who had no prior knowledge of where his food came from and how it was made. This book goes through each step and learning process Pollan went through on his journey of “food enlightenment”. In the first chapter, Pollan brings up a very true and slightly terrifying point almost right away. Everything we eat has something to do with corn. Chips made from corn flour, beef from corn fed steers, and even sodas are made sugary with corn syrup. There is virtually no escape from the circle of corn that makes up our diets. Corn is also made into fertilizer both by being mashed into the ground by wandering cattle and through the feces of chickens, cows, etc… In the third chapter, Pollan explores the heart of the industrial food chain. Bombs from World War II hold a large amount of ammonium nitrate. Ammonium nitrate also happens to be a great supplier of nitrogen which is used to grow plants. Although Hybrid corns eat up a lot of nitrogen, it is still way more than they can take. The excess nitrogen seeps into the ground and eventually becomes run-off, that causes major nitrogen pollution....
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...Have you ever thought about what's in your food or what food chain is the best for you and your body to maintain being healthy? In Michael Pollan’s book Omnivore’s Dilemma it covers four different food chains which consist of industrial, industrial organic,local sustainable,hunter/gatherer/gardened food the difference is that one is grown on a farm and the other is processed. Local Sustainable is better for the people in the United States because it is healthier for your body and no pesticides are used in the food. Local Sustainable has a lot less pollution than other food industries have. Pollan went to a farm and learned that local sustainable does not use pollution or pesticides For example in the text it says, “No fossil fuels or...
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...& processed foods, which is resulting in health problems. People are not realizing that there could be consequences for their actions. Quick decision making can have a long term effect on us. The lack of a balanced diet and an adequate amount of exercise has led to the crisis that we are facing around the country today. Michael Pollan addresses these problems in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, was written by the famous journalist, Michael Pollan in 2007. Pollan opens by addressing the simple question, what should we have for dinner? A simple question that use to be so straightforward has now become so complicated. The book is split into three parts dividing the food chain up based on the three principal food systems that continue to flourish today: industrial, organic, and the hunter-gatherer. The industrial section of the book discusses the process that corn goes through before the general public consumes it as a fast food 2 meal. The second section discusses alternatives to industrial food and farming, which is referred to as organic food and farming. Pollan states in the introduction, “ So the book’s pastoral section serves up the natural history of two very different “organic” meals: one whose ingredients came from my local Whole Foods supermarket (gathered there from as far away as Argentina), and the other tracing its origins to a single polyculture of grasses growing at Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia” (Pollan 8). The Omnivore’s Dilemma gives history...
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...As Michael pollan points out in the book,The Omnivore's Dilemma The path our food takes from farm to table is a big impact to the environment. Because of this companies and big corporations have to be considerate of the environment.Since many systems have been in place to feed us,the environment is in more danger then it has been in many years throughout history,many of these systems hurt,like the industrial meal,but some benefit. Out of Michael Pollan's four food chain,Industrial organic would be the most beneficial for the environment.Because organic farming rules do not allow chemicals ,not toxic runoff into rivers and oceans.This is a huge benefit ,that's why organic food is more preferable for the environment,thanks to its superior...
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...a fact about a certain food to make it seem healthy people will buy it. People will hesitate from just doing what is right like eating balanced will let someone pursued them into buying something that actually isn’t that healthy for them. This is how the question has become confusing. 2. Pollan means that nationwide we are obsessed with the fact of looking healthy instead of actually being healthy. I completely agree with this because people base what they buy off of what it is supposed to make them look like instead of just plane eating right and exercising. 3. Pollan thinks this because “it never would have happened in a culture in possession of deeply rooted tradition of food and eating”. We are more vulnerable because we are so ethnically and culturally different. We as Americans have no massive religious and cultural ties to food so it makes us more vulnerable to be persuaded into eating no necessarily healthy things. 4. The American Paradox is the people here that are unhealthy and are obsessed with the idea of being or becoming healthy. The French paradox is a healthy group of people that live and eat in ways that we look at as unhealthy. 5. An omnivore eats both other animals and plants. 6. The omnivore’s dilemma is that as omnivore’s we have such a huge selection of possible items of food, but we have to base possible items off of what is healthy or what could eventually kill us. A koala is an omnivore but it has less an issue finding food because it has a specific...
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...The Right vs. The Wrong Matt Kimball DeVry University THE RIGHT VS. THE WRONG The battle of determining what is right and what is wrong is one that we all face. The depth of that battle is one that varies across a wide array of topics, ranging from a moral dilemma that has consequences to a simple decision like what to wear that day. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan explores this battle as it relates to determining what is right and what is wrong for our dietary needs. Society has drastically changed over the years in the U.S. especially when it comes to our eating habits and the frequency in which we eat out at restaurants and fast food chains more regularly than ever before. The increased volume by which we eat out is not what has caused what many are calling an epidemic as it relates to our country’s obesity but rather it’s the decisions we make about what we eat when we eat out. The ability to eat out and still eat healthy is quite alive but it’s up to you. The act of eating out whether it be for a special occasion or simply because we can has become far more frequent than it ever was even ten or twenty years ago. In fact, at some point not too long ago, the notion that you were not sitting down at the dining room table and having dinner with the family was considered absurd. The evolution of our society and the need to always be on the go has drastically changed our way of thinking about what a “family dinner” means. In the 1950s a “family dinner”...
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...The Local Food Movement Benefits Farms, Food Production, Environment The Local Food Movement, 2010 Pallavi Gogoi is a writer for BusinessWeek Online. She frequently writes on retailing. Just as small family-run, sustainable farms were losing their ability to compete in the food marketplace, the local food movement stepped in with a growing consumer demand for locally grown, organic, fresh produce. In addition to supermarket giants following the trend toward locally grown food and devoting shelf space to such items, local foods are also finding their way into schools, office cafeterias, and even prisons. Although the trend toward organic foods has not waned, consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact caused when organic foods must travel to find their way to the local grocery store shelf. For this and other reasons, consumers are opting instead for locally grown counterparts, choosing to eat what is available in each season in their areas rather than purchasing food that must be shipped from other regions. Drive through the rolling foothills of the Appalachian range in southwestern Virginia and you'll come across Abingdon, one of the oldest towns west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. If it happens to be a Saturday morning, you might think there's a party going on—every week between 7 a.m. and noon, more than 1,000 people gather in the parking lot on Main Street, next to the police station. This is Abingdon's farmers' market. "For folks here, this is part of the Saturday...
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...a package is not marked organic or free range, you can assume that the meat comes from a factory farm or Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO). A CAFO functions as an industrial plant and its only purpose is to produce meat products as rapidly and as lucratively as they possibly can. A CAFO is an agricultural operation that congregates animals, feed, manure, urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area. The production methods used in these operations is the cause for measurable damages across a wide range of environmental, biological, and economic factors. (Institute of Science, Technology, and Public Policy, 2008) One of these factors is a public health one. The extensive use of antibiotics in livestock CAFO’s, especially for non-therapeutic uses such as growth promotion contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms that are more difficult to treat and are causing food-borne diseases in humans. It is important to identify and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics on these animals in order to prevent the creation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Some of the Difficulties For decades, antibiotics such as Tylosin and Monensin have been used for the treatment of diseases in animals and humans. The United States Food and Drug Administration approved in the 1950’s their use in animal feed as long as they are given “in low doses to help animals grow faster, produce more meat, and avoid illness.” (Food Market Institute, n.d.,...
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...Let’s Eat Jessica Haller DeVry University Let’s consider where hamburger comes from. Reading Pollen’s, The Omnivore Dilemma, it sparked an interest in me to not only follow the path of where the corn is grown and what it is used to create, but also what does corn feed that provides dinner on the table for us. One big contention in today’s day and age is how is the corn grown and used to feed the animals which sustain us. You see in the super markets all the time now, organic carrots, corn, potatoes, lettuce, grain fed hamburger. What does all of this mean? Taking a step back and looking where it originated, we see cattle herding. Herding cattle is as old as Time itself. As old as when the first cattle where domesticated over 50,000 years ago, and as old as the cattle drives done in the Old West. Now imagine living back in the days of the “Wild West”. Being part of a cattle drive and moving the cattle from the East coast and “Going West.” The cook or the “Boss man” of the cattle drive was the “man who owned the cattle they were herding -- but everyone also knew the cook was the man even the boss deferred to most often. The outfit's chuck wagon was a rough equivalent of a traveling general store, and the cook was not only the chief clerk of that store, he was usually the closest thing the cowboys had to a doctor, surgeon, dentist, tailor, and fussy maiden aunt.”(Old West, 2012) You being the “Boss man” have to feed the entire crew and making sure that you have enough...
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...Participant Media, River Road Entertainment and Magnolia Pictures Present A Magnolia Pictures Release FOOD, INC. A film by Robert Kenner 93 minutes, 35mm, 1.85 PRESS NOTES Distributor Contact: Matt Cowal Arianne Ayers Magnolia Pictures 49 W. 27th St., 7th Floor New York, NY 10001 (212) 924-6701 phone (212) 924-6742 fax publicity@magpictures.com Press Contact NY/Nat’l: Donna Daniels Public Relations Donna Daniels Lauren Schwartz Press Contact LA/Nat’l: mPRm Public Relations Alice Zou 5670 Wilshire Blvd., Ste 2500 Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.933.3399 ext. 4248 20 West 22nd Street, Suite 1410 New York, NY 10010 Ph: 347.254.7054 ddaniels@ddanielspr.net lschwartz@ddanielspr.net azou@mprm.com 49 west 27th street 7th floor new york, ny 10001 tel 212 924 6701 fax 212 924 6742 www.magpictures.com SYNOPSIS In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli--the harmful bacteria that causes illness for...
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...ecofeminist theories, but most are based on the belief that the patriarchal societies we live in create destruction in their need to dominate humans and nature. Ecofeminism is a belief that all struggles are connected, and are the cause of patriarchy playing “...god by manipulating, controlling and attempting to transcend nature” (Mcguire 4). This is why Ecofeminists are committed to challenging all hierarchies, oppressions, and dualistic thinking that empowers patriarchy, and deems “Otherness” as inferior. It is through this feminist theory I would like to analyze the destructive power of Monsanto, the largest agricultural corporation in the United States, has in the Unites States particularly in the farm industry, the effect they created in the food supply, and their effect as a global corporation. In order to analyze the impact of Monsanto, a feminist lens of intersectionality is needed to see how the genetically modified seeds created by Monsanto lead to their domination of the nature and humans. According to Kimberle Crenshaw, “...any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner” (58). Crenshaw argues that an experience is greater than a sum of two factors, and instead that the experience is unique due to these factors. In the case of Monsanto, I will analyze the unique effects this corporation has created in their quest to maximize their profits. Capitalism drives our patriarchal society to do what those in charge...
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...Forage for Thought: Mobilizing Codes in the Movement for Grass-fed Meat and Dairy Products Klaus Weber Northwestern University Kathryn L Heinze Northwestern University Michaela DeSoucey Northwestern University This study illuminates how new markets emerge and how social movements can effect cultural change through market creation. We suggest that social movements can fuel solutions to three challenges in creating new market segments: entrepreneurial production, the creation of collective producer identities, and the establishment of regular exchange between producers and consumers. We use qualitative data on the grassroots coalition movement that has spurred a market for grass-fed meat and dairy products in the United States since the early 1990s. Our analysis shows that the movement’s participants mobilized broad cultural codes and that these codes motivated producers to enter and persist in a nascent market, shaped their choices about production and exchange technologies, enabled a collective identity, and formed the basis of the products’ exchange value.• The creation of new markets is an important engine of economic and cultural change. But new markets do not emerge naturally; rather, they often arise from collective projects that mobilize the necessary economic, cultural, and socio-political resources (Fligstein, 1996; Swedberg, 2005). A growing body of research suggests that social movements can play a central role in fueling such projects (Carroll and Swaminathan...
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...(PART I) TRENDS ON NUTRITION : A Paradigm Shift INTRODUCTION The Hospitality Industry plays a vital role in the Nurtition of our society specifically the Food and Beverage Industry. It caters to all kinds of people, rich or poor, single or married, male or female, individual consumer or family, it has no limit. With the new life style of today’s world, where both parents are working, high demand of work hours and hectic schedules, people tend to divert in fastfood products than cooking at home. This resulted somehow to create health problems of the cumsumers since not everyone in the Food and Beverage Industry is concern about the food they are serving. However, most of them value profit first and unconcious over the health benefits of the food products. Nutrition is a language of healthy life, proper diet and wellness of everyone. The advocacy of “Health is Wealth” is in every corner of the world but sad to note that the number of malnutrition in the Philippines alone, is increasing. According to statistics, under Poverty, Children and Health (Inquirer.net)malnutrition increased from 2005 to 2008, the prevalence of underweight children aged 0-5 years increased from 24.6 percent to 26.2 percent, about 3.35 million children. Another problem that concerns nutrition, is the rampant obesity. Obesity is more of a life and death issue than simply looking “bad.” Obese people are much more higher to develop diabetes type 2 and if not given extra attention will also cause...
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