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    Summary and Analysis of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 1: Based on the Book by Michael Pollan
    Summary and Analysis of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 1: Based on the Book by Michael Pollan
    Summary and Analysis of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 1: Based on the Book by Michael Pollan
    Ebook64 pages44 minutes

    Summary and Analysis of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 1: Based on the Book by Michael Pollan

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    About this ebook

    So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of The Omnivore’s Dilemma tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Michael Pollan’s book.
     
    Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.
     
    This short summary and analysis of The Omnivore’s Dilemma includes:
    • Historical context
    • Chapter-by-chapter summaries
    • Profiles of the main characters
    • Detailed timeline of events
    • Important quotes
    • Fascinating trivia
    • Glossary of terms
    • Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work
    About The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan:
     
    In the perennial bestseller The Omnivore’s Dilemma, acclaimed journalist Michael Pollan not only reports back from the frontlines of America’s dysfunctional food industry, but gets down and dirty with the scrappy farmers and foragers who have decided to “opt out” of the industrial food chain.
     
    Informative, entertaining, and often alarming, The Omnivore’s Dilemma examines dietary trends, the origins of what we eat, and the impact of our food choices on the environment and our health, and sheds desperately needed light on the saying “you are what you eat.”
     
    The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of nonfiction.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateApr 25, 2017
    ISBN9781504044844
    Summary and Analysis of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals 1: Based on the Book by Michael Pollan
    Author

    Worth Books

    Worth Books’ smart summaries get straight to the point and provide essential tools to help you be an informed reader in a busy world, whether you’re browsing for new discoveries, managing your to-read list for work or school, or simply deepening your knowledge. Available for fiction and nonfiction titles, these are the book summaries that are worth your time.  

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      Book preview

      Summary and Analysis of The Omnivore's Dilemma - Worth Books

      Contents

      Context

      Overview

      Summary

      Cast of Characters

      Direct Quotes and Analysis

      Trivia

      What’s That Word?

      Critical Response

      About Michael Pollan

      For Your Information

      Bibliography

      Copyright

      Context

      First published in 2006, The Omnivore’s Dilemma followed a number of alarming and influential works that investigated the modern American food industry and its role in the national obesity epidemic. The books Fast Food Nation (2001) by Eric Schlosser and Food Politics (2002) by Marion Nestle, as well as the Academy Award–nominated documentary Super Size Me (2004), painted a disturbing picture of a country addicted to mass-produced, preservative-infused junk food whose connections to the natural environment were tenuous at best. These books and documentaries struck a chord with mainstream audiences and created a demand for clear, easy-to-follow information on where our food comes from and what we should and should not be eating. A vibrant health food market and related cookbooks and newsletters have existed in America since the 1960s, but interested consumers often had to sort through conflicting claims and confusing jargon.

      By combining rigorous research and entertaining narrative techniques, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and its successors, including Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (2007) by Barbara Kingsolver, Why We Get Fat (2010) by Gary Taubes, and Salt Sugar Fat (2013) by Michael Moss, raised interest in food, health, and nutrition to a whole new level, and led to changes in the fast food industry. At the dawn of the 21st century, many Americans have a better understanding of food choices and nutrition, and many communities have seen an increased availability of organic and sustainable foods in grocery stores.

      An award-winning food and environmental journalist and contributor to the New York Times Magazine and Harper’s Magazine, among other publications, Pollan wrote The Omnivore’s Dilemma soon after relocating from the East Coast to California, where he is a professor in UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. His previous books included Second Nature: A Gardener’s Education (1991) and The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World (2001). After the enormous success of The Omnivore’s Dilemma—one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 best books of the year, winner of the James Beard Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award—Pollan has become a leading authority on food-related issues. With Eric Schlosser, he narrated Robert Kenner’s Academy Award–nominated documentary Food, Inc. (2008). His recent books include New York Times–bestsellers In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto (2008), Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual (2009), and Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation (2013).

      Overview

      You are what you eat, the old saying goes. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan makes it his mission to figure out what modern Americans are. He visits a government-subsidized Iowa corn farm, a ruthlessly efficient cattle feedlot, his local Whole Foods, a small family farm, and the forests of Northern California to pull back the curtain on our conventional and alternative food systems.

      Pollan identifies three different food chains—the industrial, the pastoral, and the personal—and divides the book into sections following each one from beginning to end. The industrial section documents the dominant role of corn in the American diet and investigates how processed foods are manufactured and sold to consumers. The pastoral section digs into the growing organic food movement and differentiates between Big Organic and smaller, sustainable farms. The personal section explores hunting and gathering—the shortest, most transparent food chain between humans and plants and the

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