Although Pollan condemns conventional agriculture, he also notes that even organically-labeled food is often grown in a manner that is not much better for the environment in terms of its carbon footprint -- the regulations upon what constitutes organic food can be quite lax, and some foods that use some pesticides that are grown locally and sold in farmer's markets might not be technically organic, but leave less of a

Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan: Socio-Economic Influences of Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian Diets Michael Pollan, in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, discussed the social, economic, and geographic/environmental factors that influenced humanity's diets, of which eating both plants and animals -- an omnivorous diet -- is the predominant diet in most of today's societies. However, in the midst of this omnivorous diet is an emerging group of

Pollan stresses the need to cook our own food and reassert the historical and cultural importance of food in our lives. Again this strengthens Pollan's rhetoric and continues the line of reasoning he began in Omnivore's Dilemma. So it's good to be encouraged by Pollan, who eulogises the pleasures of cooking, and to be reminded of some basic truths."When you cook at home, you seldom find yourself reaching for the

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

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

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