4 stars
A fantastic look into modern food industries told in three parts. Each represents a way of obtaining food by following a specific source. Corn represents the industrial food complex, touching on corn surplus, monocultures, subsidies, health effects, the co-evolution of plants and humans, and concentrated animal feeding operations. Next is the pastoral view, presented with grass as a response to the industrial food process. This section touches on big organic versus small-scale organics, full-circle processing cycles, and grass farming as an alternative way to produce food. Finally, there is the personal, housed in the forest. This section looks as obtaining one’s own food through foraging, hunting, and gardening.
This is a slightly lengthy book but I found the three sections helped organized everything going on. There is quite a bit packed into its pages including research, personal reflections, experience, and philosophical musings. Though it was published 15 years ago, much of the information is still sadly relevant today.
This is a great book for anyone interested in getting a deeper look at where food comes from. There are some hard truths to face in it, but it is a great step to being a more informed consumer. The book took quite a while for me to read because I found it was best digested in chunks with time to think about and reflect on each section.
For anyone interesting in this as a look at the ethics of vegetarianism and eating animals, I will warn there are some pretty gruesome details included. The sections on concentrated animal feeding operations can be difficult to read though Pollan was not permitted in the slaughterhouses so there is little information on that aspect. While on the grass farm, Pollan does partake in the slaughtering of chickens with some more gruesome descriptions. And the hunting section heavily details the shame and disgust one may feel in killing and cleaning an animal. It was this last section that was hardest for me, demonstrating the point of the book in consumers passing off the killing to the industry so they can eat without thinking. While these sections can be difficult, they bring up many important issues and the contrast between them highlights many aspects of the food chain that modern consumers tend to shy away from.
Well-written with a great balance of personal experience and research. This book explores eating from a variety of perspectives (health, philosophical, ethical, business, social) to make the reader more mindful of something they tend to take for granted. A great read for people interested in food and the ethics of eating.