The Omnivore's Dilemma

In the section, “Food Fads” the author discusses the absence of a national food culture in the United States. With the lack of customs and traditions, we “have few rules about what to eat, when to eat, and how to eat. We don’t have any strong food traditions to guide us, so we seek food advice from ‘experts’. This may be one of the reason we have so many diet fads in this country” (Pollan 92). The earliest example of these ‘experts’, was Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg ran a “sanitarium”, or a…

Industries that go hand-and-hand with animal agriculture are infecting our food culture and causing harm to the health of consumers and the Earth. The agribusiness has also caused a giant shift in our food culture. As Michael Pollan states in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals,” “So violent a change in a culture’s eating habits is surely the sign of a national eating disorder. Certainly it would never have happened in a culture in possession of deeply rooted traditions…

They could be genetically modified or more. Michael Pollan, the writer of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat, tells Michael’s travels to find out about the secrets of food. On the way, he sees horrible treatment of many animals and the mass production of corn. “At first I thought the cattle were standing or lying in…

Neophobia: the extreme avoidance of anything novel or unfamiliar. It can be applied to any situation or experience deemed “risky” by the individual. More specifically, food neophobia (FN) is a phenomenon typically seen in omnivores in which the individual is reluctant and even unwilling to consume novel foods on the basis that it could be potentially poisonous (Pliner & Salvy, 2006). Not to be confused with food “pickiness” or an eating disorder, FN is a personality trait in which the individual…

Michael Pollan explained the dilemma in his book explicitly. Michael Pollan gave a variety of examples, pictures, and reasons for us to understand the problem. He went through the whole organic process, including animal treatment, supermarkets, and the money problems. The good amount of strong points he put in each paragraph helps you understand the details better. The whole set up of the book is great for students you can easily find the dilemma. This shows that he broke down everything so you…

omnivores. That means we eat plants, meat, mushrooms--just about anything. But because we are omnivores we have very little built-in instinct that tells us which foods are good for us and which aren't. That's the dilemma--we can eat anything, but how do we know what to eat? The omnivore's dilemma has been around a long time” (Chevat). We have a thousand choices of food in our supermarkets, but we don't really know where our food comes from. Overall, organic foods are going to be more healthier…

It is terribly frightening to me that I am a corn person, not by choice but chance. Genetically, I wasn’t supposed to eat corn as a fundamental part of my everyday diet. Yet, I have been born in an era where every item I have eaten or intend to eat is pretty much derived from corn. Unless I choose to eat free-range chickens, grass fed beef, pretty much grow my own vegetables and bake my own goods, I am a corn person (we are “corn chips walking” as Pollen puts it) comprised of processed corn…

that has pervaded through every aspect of human life. But strangely enough, it is human beings who are responsible for such tragic environmental deteriorations. Human beings, through their peculiar habits and thoughtless actions have brought about dilemmas for themselves. It is the human actions which have put the environment and ecology in danger. But human beings have not taken any lessons from the environmental degradations as it seems because even today large corporations are contributing…

I feel as if I have many memorable experiences from Exploris. One of them is when I went to Hope Elementary. Whenever we went to Hope Elementary School, we were able to work with the little children to teach them the science they were supposed to learn during the year. The experience helped me to learn how to plan ahead. Another example is when I went on the Outward Bound trip. The trip helped me to start to break down the walls I’ve placed around my trust. It was important for me to trust my…

This is wrong. Machinery has overpowered the current state of agriculture, and in the case of the meat industry especially we have seen technology’s potential to harm rather than help. While already a vegetarian, reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma allowed me to reexamine and thus reinforce my rationale for those choices: I have been a vegetarian since birth, so often times that choice is a passive one. There is a surplus of healthy options available for me without much active effort…