Book Review on Omnivore Dilemna Chapter 1-3
Running Head: The Book Review of Omnivore Dilemma on chapters 1-3
Pollan provides a base for the purpose of his noted dilemma by providing history, data and background information in three chapters titled “The Plant”, “The Farmer”, and finally “The Elevator”; providing a detailed argument that today’s food production is very un-natural in what was once a very natural process.
In chapter one “The Plant” Pollan begins laying the foundation for his argument that we as Americans are “walking corn”. He begins with a breakdown of our local grocery store, pointing out several faucets of corn product utilization in such creative uses as everything from the coating sprayed on cucumbers to make them appealing, to corn as binder used in toothpaste. He moves on to provide information related to the history of corn, its carbon count, and how it grows. Surprising to this reader Pollan notes corns intertwining relationship with man from the earliest first people; and that without man corn would be unable to reproduce as if left to “survival of the fittest”, a natural process, and corn may have well been extinct long ago.
Chapter two “The Farmer” Pollan meets with an Iowa native and lifelong farmer, George Naylor. The two spend their time planting corn on 160 acres of Naylor’s farm. In an eye opening interview seeded with history the two gentlemen chronicle the rise and fall of the diversified farms, such as Naylor’s grandfather’s farm, to the demands of the industrialized system and its hunger for corn. Once the farms planted several different crops and raised several types of animals. Pollan notes that at one time farms provided all food for the farmer’s family and four other families. In comparison the corn produced on Naylor’s farm. In chapter three “The Elevator” Pollan arrives with Naylor at the local grain elevator where he intends to follow a bushel of Naylor’s corn into the world of food production. He soon discovers that due to all corn from different
Pollan provides a base for the purpose of his noted dilemma by providing history, data and background information in three chapters titled “The Plant”, “The Farmer”, and finally “The Elevator”; providing a detailed argument that today’s food production is very un-natural in what was once a very natural process.
In chapter one “The Plant” Pollan begins laying the foundation for his argument that we as Americans are “walking corn”. He begins with a breakdown of our local grocery store, pointing out several faucets of corn product utilization in such creative uses as everything from the coating sprayed on cucumbers to make them appealing, to corn as binder used in toothpaste. He moves on to provide information related to the history of corn, its carbon count, and how it grows. Surprising to this reader Pollan notes corns intertwining relationship with man from the earliest first people; and that without man corn would be unable to reproduce as if left to “survival of the fittest”, a natural process, and corn may have well been extinct long ago.
Chapter two “The Farmer” Pollan meets with an Iowa native and lifelong farmer, George Naylor. The two spend their time planting corn on 160 acres of Naylor’s farm. In an eye opening interview seeded with history the two gentlemen chronicle the rise and fall of the diversified farms, such as Naylor’s grandfather’s farm, to the demands of the industrialized system and its hunger for corn. Once the farms planted several different crops and raised several types of animals. Pollan notes that at one time farms provided all food for the farmer’s family and four other families. In comparison the corn produced on Naylor’s farm. In chapter three “The Elevator” Pollan arrives with Naylor at the local grain elevator where he intends to follow a bushel of Naylor’s corn into the world of food production. He soon discovers that due to all corn from different