Advanced English Composition

OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA Advanced English Composition Pastoralism: Is Michael Pollan's dream a viable alternative for most Americans? The second section of Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma contains his most hopeful and also his most polemical writing. Pollan is a passionate defender of the farming system of Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm, which he portrays as an idyllic refuge from both industrial corn-based farming and also 'big organic' agriculture harnessed to corporate interests. People come far and wide to buy from Salatin.

Salatin raises chicken, beef, and pork in a sustainable, balanced environment. The food tastes better and is better for consumers. However, the question remains whether Pollan's vision of 'voting with your dollars' regarding local and truly organic food is economically feasible for most Americans. It is essential to explore Pollan's solution in greater depth to see if it is truly a workable solution for the problems outlined in his book.

This paper will suggest that although Pollan's ideas are sound in regards to the environment and health, activists who support his vision must address the 'elitism' that has tarred his vision of the future. According to Pollan, inexpensive food is a 'problem.' "The real problem is that subsidies keep the prices of some, largely mass-produced foods artificially low" (Worthen 2010).

Factory farming has made meat cheap enough for even the poor to eat on a regular basis, thanks to corn-finished beef cattle that are forced to eat grain before their stomachs are developed enough to tolerate it but who can be quickly brought to slaughter. "We've been conditioned by artificially cheap food to be shocked when a box of strawberries costs $3…Eight dollars for a dozen eggs sounds outrageous, but when you think that you can make a delicious meal from two eggs, that's $1.50.

It's really not that much when we think of how we waste money in our lives" (Worthen 2010). The idea that eight dollars for a carton of eggs is acceptable seems to fly in the face of the fact that many Americans are simply just scraping by. Pollan's vision assumes that Americans have disposable income that they are spending on what he considers frivolous luxuries like the latest smartphones and clothing, which they could better spend on food. However, for poor Americans who are in debt, such a notion seems laughable.

It is also not insignificant that Pollan's celebration of Polyface Farm is entitled 'pastoral.' As he waxes poetic about "the meadows dotted with contented animals" Pollan paints Salatin's relationship with the land as ideal, an extension both of Salatin's devout Christian beliefs of showing stewardship to the land as well as Salatin's knowledge of traditional forms of agriculture (Pollan 2006: 124). But for consumers living in highly urbanized environments, regular access to the farmer's market, much less a perfect farm like Salatin's, is not something that is practical for everyday shopping.

The goal of the American food system is to provide access to food for everyone, but small farms like Salatin's may simply not produce enough food or be able to distribute it widely enough to be a feasible solution to the omnivore's dilemma. The majority of America is not pastoral any more, and only a very small, often privileged section of the population can drive far and wide to purchase ethically-produced meat. A final problem is with simple, human desire, free will, and the finitude of time.

Even with the great personal incentive to simply lose weight, many Americans are unable to make dietary changes to realize this goal. In contrast to the more abstract idea of improving the environment, most Americans have a very real and pressing need to normalize their weight and want to do so for social as well as health-related reasons. However, they are still unable to do so.

Why does Pollan think that ethical pressures will result in changed consumption habits, such as a shying away from fast food, when doctors and other healthcare professionals have been so ineffective in encouraging people to change? Eating is a habit and old habits die hard. Particularly for the poor who do not have an extensive food budget to 'experiment' with new foods that they may not like, Pollan's model is unsuitable.

Pollan has attempted to counter his critics by protesting that eating in season should be cheaper than fast, processed foods. "A salad of grated root vegetables, for example, is a refreshing change from lettuce, and far more nutritious" (Worthen 2010). But once again, this presumes that the eater has the time to learn how to prepare tough root vegetables, when he or she may simply be grateful that his child eats cheap canned peas, even if.