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Corn as a sweetener -- yes indeed, ketchup and to cook French fries -- all without providing the basic nutritional needs and taking more from the environment that is given back (pp. 109-19).
Today, my epiphany began with a Sunday morning ritual -- a trip to Starbucks for a Caramel Breve and pastry, while working on the Sunday crossword puzzle. It occurred to me that this would be an interesting test of the Pollan theory; trace the ingredients for a simple breakfast. First, the coffee plant certainly benefits from human consumption because of the vast amounts now used for the megagiant roasters. Second, Starbucks is one of those companies that puts the richest countries in contract with the poorest countries to mass produce the goods and services necessary. This $3.00 drink probably produced less than a percentage of a penny to the local farmer; then even less to the roaster. At the same time, purchasing the coffee keeps the kid employees at the kiosk, dozens of marketing and sales personnel at SB headquarters, a few peasant growers, their families, and the interesting bleed off of growing the bean to selling the product. Pollan would certainly see the interrelationship between the long history of coffee beans and the developed world; but in particular the "selling" of the Starbuck's experience, which has little to do with nutrition, and only marginally with coffee.
Anthony Bourdain, author and now mega-chef critic; tends to see American cuisine, even some of it made well, as a bit of fast-food hype;...
Although, Bourdain in his travels has eaten a number of foods very exotic and tied to cultures (cobra, ants, etc.). He seems to believe that people need to eat what they can find in nature; but that 21st century westerners cause a massive rape of the land by producing too much of one thing, not enough of the other, and still leave the world with a good percentage of people who are hungry (Buck, 2010).
Reflecting on Pollan's book clearly makes one think of going to the organic market; finding only sustainable farms; eating meat that is not factory raised. and, in the best of all possible worlds, that would be idea. However, with the need for food taking over most human ethical sense, we must decide if we are ready, from a public policy perspective, to change the way the First World works, or do we continue to be myopic and "hope a solution comes our way?" Perhaps if each of us works on the small choices they will have larger impact through synergy?
References
Buck, C. (November/December 2010). The Omnivore's Agenda: An Interview
With Anthony Bourdain. Cited in:
http://motherjones.com/environment/2010/09/interview-anthony-bourdain
Levine, Ketzel. (6/4/2001). Interview with Michael Pollan on a Plant's Eye View
http://www.npr.org
Moreover, vegetarianism is theoretically possible at McDonalds by eating the token salads on the menu. The token salads might still be in keeping with the tenets of agro-business but they do not contain meat products. Still, Pollan hints at how those salads support the same industries that sustain large-scale animal slaughtering. In Chapter Seven, Pollan focuses on the ethics and the feasibility of the fast food business model as well
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But the larger-scale solution of Whole Foods is not much better than industrialization -- organic farming has become corporatized and industrialized, and many farmers' free-range chickens are not part of an ecosystem like Salatin, but merely meet federally regulated requirements to have a few more inches to move than their commercially farmed brethren. 'Big Organic' pioneers like the CEO of Cascadian Farms drive Lexuses with ORANIC as their vanity
Omnivore Science is a neutral human pursuit. It is only the application of science that raises potential ethical questions. Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle perfectly exposes the ways science can be manipulated by the hands of its sponsors. Money determines the nature of research, its methodologies, its findings, and its applications. Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma raises similar ethical questions and concerns, focused not on the military but on the food