Tadfad Book Club
I just finished reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and highly recommend it. I’ve read a few of Pollan’s books and all are excellent. This, his latest work, explores the source and pathways of food in the U.S. As you might imagine, there are many more kinks and bends in the food chain from field to plate than expected. The main thrust of the book is tracing the role of corn. (Shout out to Sam Steinberg who referenced this back a few months)
After recently reading Fast Food Nation, I really appreciated Pollan’s thorough and unbiased look at food production. He makes a very convincing case that our current food system is unsustainable and rife with external costs. A chapter is devoted to examining the corn subsidy program that encourages farmers to overproduce corn each season, leading to lower corn prices and higher subsidy payments. This taxpayer funded subsidy, as well as water and utility subsidies in farm-dominated states shows how the $1.99 pound of beef ends up costing far more.
Beef? But I was talking about corn. Another dirty little secret: to facilitate unnaturally-fast growth rates and unnaturally high cattle density on feedlots, beef producers feed their cattle unnatural food–corn. Because the cow isn’t designed to digest corn, this results in very sick animals that must be pumped full of antibiotics and other drugs to keep them alive. By contrast, the sustainable farming practice of allowing cows to graze on grass leads to healthy animals and tasty meat.
Pollan researches organic foods, hunting, gathering, and industrial farming and presents his findings with the humor and insight of a veteran journalist. This isn’t a book report, and I don’t want to give away too much of the content, but this should go on your reading list today. It also makes a great gift.
Filed under Uncategorized : Comments (0) : Nov 9th, 2006 by tadfad
